#you can eat a lot of expensive foods counterintuitively | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

balotiya11 · 3 years

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Our destinations for the day from suburban Philadelphia are to the north. There are two goals: one has to do with food, the other has to do with history. Our first destination will take us to a green farm in the Newtown area. As a great believer in pasture-raised and humanely slaughtered animals, I use the listings on "Eat Wild" as my guide to organic farms. Today we will be looking for Birchwood Farm, with its grass-fed and pastured cows and chickens. That farm trip will take the morning of our day. From the farm, we will move on to our historical quest, Pennsbury Manor, the estate of Pennsylvania's founder William Penn.

So, with map in hand, and sun in the sky, we set out for our day trip. I must say that the dullest part of any day trip is penetrating the suburban belt where I live. The initial leg of any day excursion is something like the lift-off of a spacecraft. Before it can explore the mysteries of the solar system it has to lunge past our own atmosphere. For the daily driver to get beyond the suburban metropolitan area you usually have to endure about a half-hour on the bleached cement paving and concrete sidewalls of the highway. For our trip today we had to endure the dull and mindless PA276 from Villanova to the Doylestown exit. To make it bearable, we listen to Car Talk. The highway stretch passes quickly. Does anyone have a better laugh than Tom and Ray? The exit to 611 is on us before we realize it. Of course, 611, is not much better as a drive, but fortunately for today's trip, we are on a side road almost immediately. Now we are moving from small-town communities to areas of "Lease" or "Sale" defunct factories. When you see these vacant properties, and you find them almost everywhere, it makes you wonder about the state of American manufacturing. Where have these industries gone? Are their products now. manufactured in China, or are they products that no longer have any purpose? And what became of all the people who worked for them?

Soon, however, we were along the winding and twisting roads of farm country crossing bridges over rushing creeks. In the fields folks were picking strawberries, cows were grazing and chickens flittering. In Wrightstown, on 2nd St. Pike, we came upon a wonderful farmers' market set up in a parking lot. Easily the brightest stalls of fresh vegetables were offered by Blooming Glen Farm (they also have a stall at Head House Square on Sunday in Philadelphia.) Other vendors offered pork, chicken, mushrooms, and bread all at reasonable prices. We made our simple purchases of chicken, pork, greens, and bread. From there we continued on to our first selected destination, Birchwood Farms. As soon as you drive onto the property, you see the chickens running free outdoors, doing things chickens are supposed to do: no cages, no barns. In the same pastures are the cows. The farm's shop is a little house much as you might find at any farm store. The meats are all frozen as is also usually the case. But the prices are very, very high: so high as to be prohibitive. I, for one, simply cannot afford two pigs feet for forty dollars, or soup bones for close to twenty. Grass-fed and humanely raised meats are certainly more expensive than factory animals, but there are also limits as to what one can afford. It was time to get back on the road.

Pennsbury Manor must be one of those "you can't get there from here" places. While there are signs along River Road that direct you to the manor, they are sporadic, sometimes defaced, and usually not at a major turn where it needs to be. Bearing to the left, a slight turn to the right, following our Google map, we were so close yet so lost. Pennsbury Manor is on something of a peninsula, but a peninsula studded with ugly semi-industrial plants that seem to contradict the pristine riverbank setting and the historical mindset where I was dwelling.

The drive to the manor required some counterintuitive turns that the poor signage does not facilitate. Actually, it was only when I stopped at a car repair shop that I discovered the correct route from an agreeable mechanic. After a good bit of circling and correcting, we arrived at the entrance. Even when you finally arrive, the main sign at the front-drive is somewhat tilted in a most undignified angle. The approach is also marred by something of a trailer park graveyard. Considering the importance of the site, I would hope that someday someone might contribute to improvements.

As with many historic sites, your first encounter is at the visitor's center: a modern construction of offices, reception center, video room, and requisite gift shop. Most striking, however, was friendly and even embracing the warmth of the staff. Since one of our company has difficulty walking, they brought around a golf cart to escort us to the manor. Now, I first have to say that I was hit by a major disappointment. It seems that the manor is not the original building. The original fell into ruin somewhat early in its existence. The building we tour today was a reconstruction of the 1920s. Although, the guide assures us that Penn's written description of the mansion was so detailed that it allowed for a near-perfect copy. And speaking of the guide, his name is Tom, rarely have I encountered a so enthusiastic and well-informed volunteer tour guide. Clearly, he was a man impassioned by the history of William Penn and the manor house. The house itself is quite remarkable. The setting on the banks of Delaware takes you into a dream world of tall green trees and flowing waters. The interior of the house on a somewhat modest footprint is open and spacious. The high ceilings, broad floor planks, and open squares of parallel rooms recall Penn's rational approach to community space as seen in his geometric town plan for Philadelphia. Perhaps the more interesting building is the kitchen complex. Here again, space is arranged in a very rational fashion. What befuddles the modern mind, however, is the utmost complexity of the requirements of daily life at the end of the 17th century. Everything in the home from clothing to food was the end result of days and hours of intense manual preparation. The less than the admirable aspect of this life was that no small part of the production and maintenance was only possible because of indentured servants and slaves. Yes, William Penn, the devoted Quaker and enlightened mind of the colonies, who created the charter of religious freedom and established an elected legislature, was master to indentured servants and to slaves. But that was a different world whose values and understanding are beyond our capacity to judge.

When we came to the end of the house tour, our guide brought back the golf cart. With continued enthusiasm, Tom drove us about on a tour of the grounds. The manor is home to two oxen, several peacocks, and a horse rescued from the slaughterhouse. Tom, it turns out, also helps out with the animals. The gardens of Pennsbury seem a bit neglected. It would be wonderful to see them in full greenery.

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webmarket01 · 3 years

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15 Underrated Weight Loss Tips That Actually Work | Eat This Not That

New Post has been published on https://weightlosshtiw.com/15-underrated-weight-loss-tips-that-actually-work-eat-this-not-that/

15 Underrated Weight Loss Tips That Actually Work | Eat This Not That

Keep it simple, stupid. The polite version of this saying, known as Occam’s Razor, basically says that the simplest path forward is usually the best. You can apply this theory to everything, even quick weight loss.

What’s simpler than identifying your existing daily habits and then making tiny tweaks that can help tip the scale in your favor? By taking advantage of the more underrated parts of your daily routine, you could toss the rice cakes and running shoes once and for all. In fact, a swing of just 10 calories a day—about as many calories as you burn in 3 minutes of standing still—will make you a pound slimmer by this time next year.

So, before you sign up for a complicated diet plan or commit to an expensive personal trainer, make sure you’ve taken advantage of these simple, effective, and underrated ways to strip off the pounds. And to lose even more weight, you won’t want to miss The Best Ways to Lose Belly Fat for Good, Say Doctors.

A striking new study published in the journal Diabetes suggests that simply blasting the air conditioner or turning down the heat in winter may help us attack belly fat while we sleep. Colder temperatures subtly enhance the effectiveness of our stores of brown fat—fat keeps you warm by helping you burn the fat stored in your belly. Participants spent a few weeks sleeping in bedrooms with varying temperatures: a neutral 75 degrees, a cool 66 degrees, and a balmy 81 degrees. After four weeks of sleeping at 66 degrees, the subjects had almost doubled their volumes of brown fat. (And yes, that means they lost belly fat.)

Drinking coffee may help you lose weight and lower body fat. In fact, drinking four cups of coffee daily could reduce body fat by about 4%, according to a recent study. You just have to make sure you’re not using the 7 Things You Should Never Add to Your Coffee. A cup of coffee has nearly zero calories. A cup of coffee with cream and sugar has 80 calories. If you drink two cups a day, learning to take it black will save you 14 pounds in a year!

Go Full Fat

Not around your waist, but on your plate: A new report from the Credit Suisse Research Institute found that more and more of us are choosing whole-fat foods over skim, lite, fat-free or other modern monikers of leanness. And while many health organizations like the American Heart Association still want us to cut down on fat—particularly saturated fat—this full-fat trend may be a healthy rebellion against those decades-old credos, according to recent studies. Click here to discover The 20 Best Full-Fat Foods for Weight Loss!

They’re the best fruits for weight loss. That means Pink Lady apples, watermelon, red grapes, and raspberries. The higher levels of nutrients called flavonoids—particularly anthocyanins, compounds that give red fruits their color—calm the action of fat-storage genes. For example, research conducted at the University of Western Australia found that the Pink Lady apples had the highest levels of flavonoids, antioxidants which are thought to keep the body in tip-top condition.

Steep Pu-Erh Tea

This fermented Chinese tea can literally shrink the size of your fat cells! To discover the brew’s fat-crusading powers Chinese researchers divided rats into five groups and fed them varying diets over a two month period. In addition to a control group, there was a group given a high-fat diet with no tea supplementation and three additional groups that were fed a high-fat diet with varying doses of pu-erh tea extract. The researchers found that the tea significantly lowered triglyceride concentrations (potentially dangerous fat found in the blood) and belly fat in the high-fat diet groups. Although sipping the tea could have slightly different outcomes in humans, we think these findings are promising enough that it’s still well worth your while to fix yourself a steaming hot cup.

Make Every Day Casual Friday

Wearing jeans to work wears away your belly. University of Wisconsin researchers found that people who wore denim to work took almost 500 more steps (about a quarter mile) throughout the day than they did on days when they wore more formal attire. Sure, you may feel more dapper in your suit, but losing extra belly fat is sure to make you see jeans in a different light and feel more confident—no matter what you’re wearing.

Smelling fresh green apples and bananas curb appetite and make sugary desserts less appealing, studies have shown. The scientists suggest this is because the produce makes you subconsciously think about making healthier choices. If a fruit basket on your desk attracts too many flies, try a simpler idea, like a shea butter-based scented lotion, which will have the same effect. (If you’re eating your apple instead of sniffing it, go for the red one.)

Become a Cereal Killer

Does your crazy-busy morning routine leave you with little time to do more than scarf down a bowl of cereal before running out the door? If so, put down the spoon and listen up! Research has found that eating oatmeal is more satiating than the cold stuff and can help you slim down. Since the instant varieties aren’t always nutritional champions, it’s better to use the slow-cooking variety.

Take a Candy Daydream

A recent study found that fantasizing about eating an entire packet of your favorite candy before indulging may cause you to eat less of it. For the study, researchers asked participants to imagine eating 3 or 30 M&Ms, and then invited them to help themselves to some of the candies as a “taste test.” Those who imagined eating lots of M&Ms actually ate the least.

Schedule a Workout Date

It’s hard to squeeze in a workout before meeting friends for drinks, so you blow off…the workout, of course. A better idea: Tell your bud to meet you at the gym. You can socialize, get fit, and still hit the bar afterward. This trick works with spouses, too: A recent JAMA Internal Medicine study of nearly 4,000 couples found that people are more likely to stick to healthy habits like exercise when they team up with their partner.

Host a Melon Banquet

While all fruits are healthy, a handful of them reigns supreme when it comes to frying fat and de-bloating your belly. University of Kentucky researchers found that eating watermelon can lower fat accumulation, while another group of great minds discovered that honeydew can banish water retention and bloating. Spend ten minutes chopping up these slimming fruits for the week ahead. Enjoy them solo as a snack, throw them into yogurt or add them to salads. Watermelon is also one of these 50 Best Foods for Him—in Bed—share them with the man in your life.

While it may sound counterintuitive, eating before going to a work dinner or happy hour can actually take off pounds. A series of studies out of Penn State published in the journal Appetite found that noshing on an apple or a broth-based soup prior to sitting down to a restaurant meal can reduce total calorie intake by 20 percent. With the average restaurant meal weighing in at 1,128 calories, saving 20 percent once a day could help you lose up to 23 pounds this year.

Get Yourself Some Fish Oil

Need a little help jump-starting your weight loss (or fending it off entirely)? Your best bet may be to turn to the sea. It may sound a little unappetizing, but fish oil is one of the best nutrients for the human body. According to NIH, fish oil (which can be consumed by eating fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as tuna, salmon, mackerel, and sardines or by taking supplements – whichever fits best into your lifestyle) lowers triglycerides in those with diabetes and heart problems by as much as 20 to 50 percent. That’s not all these fish can do for your figure. Research suggests fish oil can also help boost weight loss by helping you feel full, according to a study published in Appetite.

Make a Breadless Sandwich

In seconds: Lay a slice of Swiss cheese on a cutting board. Top with a slice of deli turkey and a spoonful of hummus or guacamole. Wrap like a jelly roll and eat. You’ll save no fewer than 200 calories compared to your typical lunch.

With ancient grains trending, this one will battle quinoa and teff for space at your table. Native to the Middle East, kamut, also known as Khorsan wheat, is rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, high in protein and low in calories. A half-cup serving has 30% more protein than regular wheat (six grams), with only 140 calories. Eating kamut reduces cholesterol, blood sugar and cytokines, which cause inflammation throughout the body, a study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found. Kamut is a good source of zinc, iron, and B-vitamins, all of which will help keep your energy levels high so you can burn more calories throughout the day, aiding your weight-loss efforts. Toss it into salads or eat it as a side dish on its own. A quick tweak like that can have you melting fat fast—along with these secrets on 14 Ways to Lose Your Belly in 14 Days.

This content was originally published here.

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pawelpiotrowski · 4 years

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Inversion: Avoiding stupidity is easier than trying to be brilliant. Instead of asking, “How can I help my company?” you should ask, “What’s hurting my company the most and how can I avoid it?” Identify obvious failure points, and steer clear of them.

Theory of Constraints: A system is only as strong as its weakest point. Focus on the bottleneck. Counterintuitively, if you break down the entire system and optimize each component individually, you’ll lower the effectiveness of the system. Optimize the entire system instead.

Preference Falsification: People lie about their true opinions and conform to socially acceptable preferences instead. In private they’ll say one thing. In public, they’ll say another.

Mimetic Theory of Desire: Humans are like sheep. We don’t know what we want, so we imitate each other. Instead of creating our own desires, we desire the same things as other people. The entire advertising industry is built on this idea.

Talent vs. Genius: Society is good at training talent but terrible at cultivating genius. Talented people are good at hitting targets others can’t hit, but geniuses find targets others can’t see. They are opposite modes of excellence. Talent is predictable, genius is unpredictable.

Competition is for Losers: Avoid competition. Stop copying what everybody else is doing. If you work at a for-profit company, work on problems that would not otherwise be solved. If you’re at a non-profit, fix unpopular problems. Life is easier when you don’t compete. (Hint: don’t start another bottled water company).

Russell Conjugation: Journalists often change the meaning of a sentence by replacing one word with a synonym that implies a different meaning. For example, the same person can support an estate tax but oppose a death tax — even though they are the same thing.

Opportunity Cost: By reading this tweet, you are choosing not to read something else. Everything we do is like this. Doing one thing requires giving up another. Whenever you explicitly choose to do one thing, you implicitly choose not to do another thing.

Planck’s Principle: Science doesn’t progress because people change their views. Rather, each new generation of scientists has different views. As old generations pass away, new ideas are accepted and the scientific consensus changes.

Bike-Shed Effect: A group of people working on a project will fight over the most trivial ideas. They’ll ignore what’s complicated. They’ll focus too much on easy-to-understand ideas at the expense of important, but hard to talk about ideas. For example, instead of approving plans for a complicated spaceship, the team would argue over the color of the astronaut's uniforms.

Table Selection: This idea comes from poker, where you’re advised to choose your opponents carefully. That means you shouldn’t compete against the best people. You don’t need to get good at doing difficult things if you get good at avoiding difficult things. If you want to win, pick an easy table and nail your execution.

Goodhart’s Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. One hospital took too long to admit patients so a penalty was given for 4+ hour wait times. In response, ambulance drivers were asked to slow down so they could shorten wait times.

Gall’s Law: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.

Hock Principle: Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics: The world tends towards disorder. That’s why your room becomes messier and messier over time. It’s also why an engine converts only ~35% of its energy into useful work. Time moves towards increasing one direction: increasing entropy.

The Paradox of Specificity: Focus isn’t as constraining as it seems. In the age of the Internet, when everybody has Google search and personalized social media feeds, differentiation is free marketing. The more specific your goal, the more opportunities you’ll create for yourself. Narrowing your aperture can expand your horizons.

Occam's Razor: If there are multiple explanations for why something happened and they are equally persuasive, assume the simplest one is true. In the search for truth, remove unnecessary assumptions. Trust the lowest-complexity answer.

Hormesis: A low dose of something can have the opposite effect of a high dose. A little bit of stress wakes you up, but a lot of stress is bad for you. Lifting weights for 30 minutes per day is good for you, but lifting weights for 6 hours per day will destroy your muscles. Stress yourself, but not too much.

Horseshoe Theory: Extreme opposites tend to look the same. For example, a far-right movement and a far-left movement can be equally violent or desire a similar outcome. People on both sides are more similar to each other than they are to people in the center.

Creativity Begins at the Edge: Change starts away from the spotlight. Then, it moves towards the center. That’s why the most interesting ideas at a conference never come from the main stage. They come from the hallways and the bar after sunset

The Paradox of Consensus: Under ancient Jewish law, if a suspect was found guilty by every judge, they were deemed innocent. Too much agreement implied a systemic error in the judicial process. Unanimous agreement sometimes leads to bad decisions.

Convexity: If you want to be lucky, look for opportunities with big upsides and low downsides. In addition to increased optionality, your errors will benefit you more than they harm you. Convex payoffs let you tinker your way to success and innovation.

The Go-For-It Window: Large gaps between accelerating technologies and stagnating social norms create lucrative new business opportunities. But they are only available for a short time when people can capitalize on the difference between the real and perceived state of the world. For example, 2007 was the perfect time to launch the iPhone, but Google Glasses launched too early.

Via Negativa: When we have a problem, our natural instinct is to add a new habit or purchase a fix. But sometimes, you can improve your life by taking things away. For example, the foods you avoid are more important than the foods you eat.

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spookyspaghettisundae · 6 years

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To Be or not to Be

It’s the weirdest thing when you meet your former best friend, and you have nothing in common any more.

Bonnie was at the shopping mall to grab a new book. She loved spending her weekends curled up in a blanket, reading a good story while drinking a hot tea, only stopping for the occasional food, bathroom, or vinyl break.

Her professor had left early today because she had been having a migraine attack, which left the afternoon of most English Literature students at the university, including Bonnie, wide open.

Her mind occupied with what book to buy and what ice cream to complement it with, Bonnie didn’t even see the young man who had stepped in her way until she almost ran into him.

“Got any change?” he asked.

Without looking at him, Bonnie replied, “Not really. I prefer spending the little money I have via credit card. It seems counterintuitive, but it somehow works for me. I spend less when I’m not sure how much I have left.”

“He didn’t ask for spending tips, he just asked for a little change.”

The voice seemed strangely familiar.

“Well, I don’t have any, okay?”

The face looked familiar, too. So much so that Bonnie said, “Belinda, is that you? I didn’t recognise you with that green hair and your, ahem, new look.”

“Belinda? Who calls you Belinda these days? This is Bindy. And she’s a proud fuck up, just like we all are,” the man in Bonnie’s way howled.

“Don’t scare her like that, Buck. Bonnie is a delicate soul.”

“Bonnie. Another potential B for our exclusive club. Wanna join the ‘Five B’s’, make it the ‘Six B’s’ instead? Bindy has been lonely lately, and you’re kinda her type. For some reason, she likes bookworms.”

“Shut up, Buck. Don’t listen to him, Bonnie. He’s just trying to get a reaction out of you. Besides, I’m not even looking for someone new. I’m perfectly fine on my own.”

Belinda paused for a moment before she smiled and added, “But Buck is right about one thing. This will be a pretty lonesome weekend for me. Alone in the woods with two couples. We’re going on a little trip, you know. A weekend getaway in the hinterland. Billy knows the owner of what he calls an oasis in the mountain woods. Don’t try to explain to him that an oasis is always situated in a desert. He’s hell-bent on using the phrase.”

“It sounds cool,” said a small guy with a half shaved head. He was sitting next to a lanky man with long bleached hair who said, “It fucking does, babe.”

They were both wearing skinny jeans with holes at the knees and a The Clash T-shirt. That generally seemed to be the uniform look of the group.

Bonnie looked at the ground as she said, “An oasis in the forest is indeed an oxymoron. Unless, of course, he’s referring to the secondary meaning of the word ‘oasis’ as a refuge. Then it’s perfectly fitting. Either way, I wasn’t gonna say anything.”

“Of course not. You never wanted to hurt anybody’s feelings. So I’m sure you won’t hurt mine when I ask you now if you’d join us on our little trip?” asked Belinda with a slightly shy yet beaming smile.

Bonnie looked back down at the floor as she answered, “I already have plans for the weekend.”

“Do they involve other people, or will you be alone in your apartment watching sad movies all day long?” said the young man called Buck, who was still standing much too close for Bonnie’s comfort.

“Not sad movies but a good book will be my companion this weekend,” she replied, looking up defiantly. “Plus, I have a paper to finish. I’d rather stay in.”

“Oh, come on, Bonnie, live a little,” said Belinda. “How often have you stayed in a mansion? And the two of us will have a lot of time to catch up while these four keep each other company.”

“Keep each other company? We’ll fuck each other’s brains out. At least Billy and I will. I don’t know about these two prudes,” said the tall guy with the bleached hair while pressing his boyfriend’s hand.

“Who are you calling a prude?” The girl with the pink short hair grabbed the buttocks of Buck, who grunted with what seemed delight.

“Stop your squabbling,” said Belinda, “you’re scaring my friend off. Please, come with us, Bonnie. I promise you they’ll behave. It’ll just be like old times, when we were the Two B’s, just that it’s now the Six B’s.”

Bonnie smiled while her thoughts were racing. It would indeed be nice to spend some time with Belinda, Bonnie had missed her quite a lot over the years. And her story-filled mind craved an actual adventure in real life. But she also really needed a quiet weekend alone, it had been a stressful week.

Plus, her feelings were a little hurt. Back in the day, the Two B’s had only been the two of them, Belinda and Bonnie, nobody else was allowed in the club. That had been the rule.

Apparently, that wasn’t true any more.

Bonnie felt hurt on a deep, personal level. It even went so far, that it ruined the treasured memory of something she had never shared with anyone, not even Belinda.

Because Bonnie had always thought of the Two B’s as the “To Be's”, a reference to Shakespeare’s “To be or not to be”. Every time they had called themselves by their club’s nickname, Bonnie couldn’t help but think of that famous line: to be, or not to be, that is the question.

She cynically thought that in terms of their friendship being unique, the answer had to be a “not to be” after all. That realisation made Bonnie pretty sad and stung quite a bit, but then, to her surprise, her thoughts turned somewhat angry.

Billy, Bobby, and Becky weren’t even names that started with a B, there were just nicknames that started with a B. Those certainly weren’t their birth names. Unlike Belinda and Bonnie, those were proper B-names. And Buck, what kind of name was that? Was that even his given name or just some random word he called himself?

Bonnie didn’t care to find out. The more she thought about it, the more she was looking forward to her time on the sofa with a good book in one hand a an ice cream cone in the other.

* * *

Three hours later, Bonnie got out of the one car they had all shared, thinking that she really needed to work on her ability to say “no”. She had been cooped up in the middle seat in the back of the car with Belinda to her right and Buck and Becky to her left.

Those two had been sharing a seat and had been furiously making out for the whole drive. Sitting next to them had been uncomfortable to say the least.

After everyone had stepped out of the car, the others walked over to the lawn. It was lined with a row of greyish white stones of all different shapes and sizes. The five youths lifted various of the little rocks and put them down again, getting more and more frustrated with every stone.

“Are you sure that’s our way in, jackass?” said Bobby.

“Yeah, blockhead. It has to be under one of these stones. The stone’s fist-sized, that’s all I know, ahem, I mean, remember,” replied Buck with a sideways glance at Bonnie.

“Good thing you brought me with you then because I just found it.” Becky put down a small rock and handed the key over to Buck.

“Everything’s better with you around, baby. Who would I screw if you weren’t here?”

“Yourself,” interjected Bobby, which made everybody laugh. Even Bonnie couldn’t stifle a chuckle.

Bonnie entered the house last. Its big, impressive entrance hall had a marble floor, and two wide hallways branched off to either side. But what really caught Bonnie’s eye was a long polished wooden display table with beautiful stone sculptures on top. All three of them were about the size of a wine bottle and depicted dancing fairies. The car keys were hanging from the forearm of the middle one, and it almost looked like the keys were a part of the sculpture’s attire. Behind the table, a broad, polished wooden flight of stairs went up to the upper floor.

Becky and Buck were already stumbling up the stairs. They were half tripping, half making out, as they moved towards what was probably the bedrooms, scattering the house key and several items of clothing all over the steps.

From her left, Bonnie heard Bobby howl, “Jackpot. There’s a lot of expensive-looking booze in the liquor cabinet.”

“Then let’s get shit-faced. There’s not even any reception out here, so we’ve got nothing better to do anyway,” was Billy’s answer. It was coming from the same direction.

Bonnie went the other way, down the hall to the right. There was a door not far down the corridor labelled “Guest Bathroom”. From there, the hallway continued around a corner to the left. Bonnie turned the corner and suddenly stood in a wide kitchen.

It had a country-style wooden look, and a long row of windows straight ahead directed the view to a huge and well-kept garden.

There was also a row of smaller windows to Bonnie’s right, where the stove and sink were located right next to the fridge. The refrigerator was currently open and half of Belinda’s body seemed to be lost in the vast space it opened up into. Bonnie had never seen a fridge this huge in all her life.

Belinda had a disappointed look on her face when she closed the large silver door.

“It’s turned off. There’s nothing in there.”

“Well, there’s always the cupboards,” said Bonnie with a smile.

Half an hour later, the house was filled with the lovely smell of a hearty home-cooked meal that mostly consisted of canned food. Bonnie and Belinda had both always had a knack for cooking and used to cook together quite often, so they managed to create a rather delicious meal even though they had no fresh ingredients at hand.

Becky put the first two plates of noodles with “tomato sauce à la surprise” on the long wooden table. It had eight chairs to go with it and was clearly meant to host rather big and fancy dinners, which made it perfect for their party of six.

Buck and Becky entered the room and joined Billy and Bobby on the white sofa that was standing not far from the kitchen counter, which served as a room divider.

Buck sneered at Bonnie as he said, “We wanna eat our lunch over here, sweet Miss Proper.”

“If you make breaking conventions a rule, it becomes just another convention. But have it your way, Mister Rule Breaker,” said Belinda while bringing two plates over to the group situated around the coffee table.

Bonnie followed Belinda’s example and took the two plates she had just put down on the big table with her when she joined the others. There was hardly any room for the plates since there were already a half-empty bottle of expensive vodka and six shot glasses on the coffee table, but they managed to make it work somehow.

They sat around the small glass table, most of them sitting on the floor and putting their food and drink on the couch, ground, or their laps.

The lovely alcove by the windows looked like a mess after they had finished their meal. Becky had managed to spill tomato sauce on the delicate white fabric of the sofa, but no one seemed to care. Buck just flipped the cushion over, and that was that.

Bonnie was piling all the plates and cutlery into a tower of dirty dishes and was about to carry them to the kitchen, when Buck insisted on everyone sharing a toast. He was smoking a cigarette, using a gorgeous small ceramic bowl that had been sitting on the windowsill behind him as an improvised ashtray.

“But I don’t drink. I’ll just wash the dishes while you guys go ahead,” said Bonnie.

“What’s one drink, dear Miss Proper? I’m sure you can handle that much,” roared Buck.

“It’s not that I can’t handle it. I just don’t like the taste of alcohol.”

“Just one shot. It’s over quickly, and then you can wash it down with a tea or whatever it is that you do enjoy the taste of.”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you a chicken or what? One shot won’t even make you drunk. And I will be offended if you say no and that goes for the others too.”

They all seemed to agree, judging by the chorus of voices that followed. Bonnie was fed up with being treated like a child by most of these people, most of all Buck. So she took the shot glass he handed her and emptied it in one big gulp. She didn’t cough and didn’t even bat en eye as she put the glass back down on the table.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to wash the dishes. I don’t like living in my own filth.”

“Damn, woman. Maybe you have a backbone after all,” said Buck as Bonnie was already walking over to the sink, balancing the tower of dishes in her hands.

After Bonnie had put the dirty dishes in the sink, she noticed Belinda behind her, bringing over the shot glasses and the defiled ceramic bowl. In the background, the others were climbing out the window behind the sofa they had just sat on, trampling all over the couch while making their way to the lovely garden, completely ignoring the big slide door only a few paces away from them.

“They’re nice people once they warm up to you. It just takes them a while to let someone new in,” said Belinda while putting the glasses and bowl into the kitchen sink.

While Bonnie was still thinking about how to respond, Becky shouted from the garden, “Are you coming, Bindy? You can bring your friend.”

“Scratch that. Let little Miss Proper wash the dishes. She can join us once she’s done,” added Buck.

“Real nice people. I’m sure you’re right about that,” said Bonnie. “But I actually agree with Buck here. I prefer doing the work before play. So you guys go ahead, I’ll catch up with you later.”

“You sure? Thanks. Honestly, I’ve been dying to explore the garden. There’s this ominous slope and I want to see where it leads.”

“You go have fun, Belinda. But be careful.”

Belinda rolled her eyes and smiled as she squeezed Bonnie’s hand. Then she walked over to the sofa and climbed out the window.

Bonnie could see the others through the kitchen window while she was washing the dishes. They were standing over by the drop, looking down towards the unknown. Buck put his hands on Billy’s shoulders, pushing him forward as if he was trying to shove him over the edge, but then pulling him back. This earned him a not so soft punch in the stomach by Bobby, whose long blonde hair was blowing in the wind.

Bonnie focused on the dishes again and was a little startled when there was a soft knock on the window in front of her. Belinda smiled at her through the glass and beckoned Bonnie to follow her as she passed through to the right, following the others to a covered veranda. Bonnie couldn’t see what was over to that side because there was a waist-high wooden fence obstructing her view.

She could only see rays of golden late-afternoon light passing through the narrow slits in the fence and shadows dancing in those beams as the others moved behind it.

Being done with the dishes anyway, Bonnie decided that it was time for the fun part to begin, so she went over to the sofa, sighed at the bootprints on it and climbed out the window, too. She walked over to the wooden veranda through an open door in the fence, joining Belinda who was standing in front of a metal cage.

Belinda was staring intently at whatever was in there while grabbing Bonnie’s hand. Bonnie squeezed her friend’s hand as well and turned to see what was in the cage.

At first, she thought it was a big dog that seemed to be hiding in the shadow of the fence. But as her eyes adjusted to the darker environment of the cage, she saw that it wasn’t. The creature was much more humanoid and seemed to be squatting while its hands touched the ground. It looked completely dishevelled and seemed to be wearing scraps. In fact, the more she looked at it, the more Bonnie realised that “it” was the wrong pronoun to use. This was a woman, hiding in the shadow of the calf-covered cage. The scraps she was wearing barely covered the most delicate parts of her body.

Her face seemed to be scarred, like someone had cut her mouth open towards her ears and left a thick brownish-pink scar.

“Is that …? Is she …? Where are the others?”

Instead of saying anything, Belinda pointed her free hand at a little shack in the big cage. There were muffled noises coming form that direction, but Bonnie had almost no time to notice them because the dirt-covered woman started crawling towards them. She was moving in a strange way that didn’t seem human and was weirdly choppy.

“Are you okay, Miss? Do you need help?”

Belinda squeezed Bonnie’s hand and shushed her. The woman in the cage was still moving slowly towards them, demanding all their attention with her strange not-quite-human looks and movements, when the others suddenly burst out of the shack and came running towards the cage’s door, which had been ajar the whole time, unbeknownst to Bonnie. The terror in their eyes sent shivers down Bonnie’s spine, who took a step back, ready to run. But Belinda was still clutching Bonnie’s hand, and as Bonnie tried to pull her back and away from the cage, Belinda was frozen in place, staring at the woman crawling in the cage.

Bonnie’s gaze followed that of Belinda, and she froze as well. As the woman slowly opened her mouth for an unnatural hiss, not only her lips parted but the scar tissue also gave way to reveal an unusually long row of pointy teeth.

Bonnie stood there mesmerised, and she barely noticed how Belinda let go of her hand, screamed, and stared running, calling for Bonnie to follow.

The others had reached the cell’s door and pushed it open, so that it slammed against the metal frame of the cage, startling Bonnie into action.

She ran off the veranda and onto the lawn, perceiving that the others had already gained a lot of ground and were running towards the slope that was the natural border of the property.

“The drop is too steep,” screamed Belinda while considerably slowing down her pace.

“I’d rather take my chances crossing the river down in the valley than staying here with the family’s freaky pets,” shouted Bobby.

“Me too, babe,” were Billy’s words as he ran over the edge and disappeared quickly.

Becky fell onto the lawn and gave a little scream, which made Buck turn around and help her up before he dragged her behind him towards the edge. They had almost left Bonnie’s field of vision, holding hands, running as fast as they could, when two shadows showed up behind them, seemingly out of nowhere, and threw them to the ground.

Two monsters looking similar to the woman with the scarred cheeks except that they were apparently male, loomed over the two lovers on the ground and howled in a way that made Bonnie’s blood freeze. She had come to a standstill next to Belinda, staring helplessly at the scene.

As the two monsters lowered their huge mouths towards their victims and ran their claws into the lover’s backs, another shadow ran past them and down the slope in fast pursuit of the two young men.

Bonnie, suddenly aware of her situation, tore her gaze from the ghastly scene in front of her, and pulled Belinda towards the window of the villa.

“Come on, Belinda, we’ve gotta get to the mansion and barricade ourselves in there. It’s our only chance. We can call the police in there. There must be a land-line phone somewhere.”

Her words actually reached Belinda despite her frozen state, but they had the opposite effect of what Bonnie had intended.

Belinda suddenly turned on her heel, violently broke free of Bonnie’s grip, and started running towards the slope, following the others to what could only be seen as certain doom. With her friend out of reach, Bonnie screamed at the top of her lungs, “Belinda, what the fuck! It’s this way!”

As if shocked by Bonnie’s sudden out-of-character profanity, Belinda actually turned around and started to move towards the villa instead.

Bonnie had already reached the window and was climbing in when the unnatural hiss from before came from the veranda. She turned her head just in time to catch a glimpse of the woman who had mesmerised both her and Belinda, before Bonnie slipped through the open window and into the parlour.

Standing on the sofa, Bonnie was holding the window open, ready to slam it shut as soon as Belinda joined her.

Bonnie watched her childhood friend run towards her, with the two dead bodies lying on the ground behind her. The monsters that had been feasting on them had finally let off and were now heading for the slope instead, joining the chase of the boys whose screams were echoing in the vale.

Belinda was getting closer to the window, and Bonnie felt a wild, almost fiery hope growing in her chest. But then she noticed the two lovers in the background getting up from the ground.

Those two looked at each other with animal-like eyes, and their faces moved in towards each other as if they were about to kiss. But instead, they sank their teeth in each others flesh, biting the others neck with animalistic delight and ripping out pieces of muscle with long, pointy teeth. As they slowly ate each other with pleasure, their mouths tore open all the way to their ears, showing an unnaturally long row of teeth ready to devour each other as well as anyone else.

Bonnie screamed a very high-pitched, long cry as she saw that carnal display of consuming love, which drew the attention of everyone around. Belinda turned her head mid-run, which made her lose her balance and stumble, and the monsters that had been Becky and Buck only mere moments ago looked up from their bloody embrace.

They looked at Bonnie for a moment and then focused their attention on Belinda. Their desire for prey must have beaten their lust for each other because they both stood up in almost perfect synchronisation, moving in a strangely choppy way.

Belinda, who had fallen onto the ground, shrieked at the sight of them and then started crawling towards Bonnie and the safety of the mansion. As their eyes met again, both young women saw a terror in the other’s gaze that was beyond anything they had ever seen before.

Bonnie waved her left hand in a frantic motion and yelled, “They’re gaining on you, Belinda! You won’t make it in time crawling. Get up and run!”

Stumbling to her feet, Belinda accelerated her run while the monsters got closer to her as well as the window, making Bonnie’s heart pound faster and faster with every step they drew nearer.

With their inhuman speed, the two monsters had almost reached her when Belinda made it to the window. Bonnie wrapped her right hand tightly around Belinda’s forearm, ready to pull her in when the look on her friend’s face suddenly made her stop.

Belinda’s eyes went from alight with hope and adrenaline to black with despair and pain in an instant. She looked down at her own belly and tears ran down her cheeks while she tried to suppress a groan.

Bonnie’s eyes followed those of Belinda and arrived at her belly, where she saw a thin red line form from Belinda’s chest to her navel. It erupted into a gaping hole, spilling blood and little bits onto the windowsill and all over the white couch. Little droplets got sprayed all over Bonnie’s blouse, face, neck, and forearms, making her feel strangely wet and warm.

Looking into her friend’s terrified eyes, Bonnie saw the monsters bloody faces coming ever closer and their clawed hands gripping Belinda’s torso.

Without a conscious thought, the hand that had been ready to pull her friend to safety now pushed her away instead when Bonnie drove Belinda into the two monsters while she slammed the window shut with her other hand.

The expression in Belinda’s eyes went from sheer terror to utter disbelief as she realised what had just happened. Bonnie had slammed the window shut before the three outside hit the ground, and she was already on her way to the kitchen when the two monsters started feasting on her childhood friend.

When Bonnie arrived at the entrance hall, she could hear claws scratching against the front door. Panicked, she looked around and saw the key still lying on the stairs. She grabbed it as fast as she could and ran to the door, practically throwing herself against it as the doorknob started turning.

The sudden impact must have startled the monster, giving Bonnie enough time to shove the key into the hole and lock the door. She silently cursed the fact that she couldn’t just walk out the front door and drive off back to civilisation to get away from this nightmare and maybe even get help for the others. Perhaps there was a way to reverse this transformation. With science and medicine being as advanced as they were nowadays, there was still some hope, wasn’t there?

The scratching at the door started again and was followed by loud banging noises. Horrified, Becky ran over to the display table and took the car keys from the arm of the dancing fairy. Then she walked past the sculptures and took a running start, so that she ascended the stairs two steps at a time.

While running upstairs, Bonnie couldn’t help but notice that whenever someone went upstairs in a horror story, they usually ended up being the next victim. But she obviously had no other choice. Bonnie suddenly knew what it was like to be the character the reader or movie-goer cursed at for doing the stupid thing.

At the top of the stairs was a big open space filled with many beautiful works of art: more sculptures, several old as well as modern paintings, and even the furniture clearly consisted of artisan pieces. There were several doors, and on instinct, Bonnie opened the one that was straight ahead.

She entered the master bedroom. Sweeping the room with her gaze for a way out, she couldn’t completely ignore its beauty. The wide open space of the gabled bedroom held a gorgeous light-coloured wooden desk and chair, and a big closet to go with it.

There was a canopy bed with untidy bedclothes – this was most likely courtesy of Becky and Buck – and behind it, the room opened up to a balcony that went along the whole length of the room, overlooking the garden. Bonnie recognised the balcony as a possible way out, but then again, the garden wasn’t at all where she wanted to be.

A little door to the left caught Bonnie’s eye when she was scanning the room. She went over there and opened it, which was how she found herself in the master bathroom. She hardly noticed the bathtub, toilet, and towel racks, but instead focussed her attention to the dormer window next to the washbasin.

Following her instincts once more, Bonnie climbed out the window and onto the roof. The sun was slowly setting behind the gable as she started her ascend. The tiles were easier to navigate than she thought, so that she reached and straddled the house’s topmost point in no time.

Now, all Bonnie had to do was to climb down the other side of the roof and find a way down the facade of the building on the other side to get to the car. She figured that that shouldn’t be too hard because from up here, she could overlook nearly everything.

Scanning the area, Bonnie’s heart sank, and her newfound enthusiasm went as quickly as it had come. Even though they hadn’t spotted her yet, she could see the monsters everywhere. There were several in the garden, two of which looked like Bobby and Billy, who must have been caught down the slope and came back up to join the others.

Other monsters, some of the original cage dwellers by the looks of it, were circling the premises. Even up on the roof, Bonnie could still hear someone banging against the entrance door, making it infinitely harder to reach the car.

Yet that was still her best bet. If she could divert their attention somehow – maybe by throwing a roof tile to lure them away from the door and the car – she might be able to escape. Feeling hope’s spark kindled once again in her chest, Bonnie made her way down the other side of the roof.

She had only swung her leg off the gable to begin her descend when she heard a scratching noise behind her. She froze mid-motion and then slowly turned her head towards the noise. Even in her despair, Bonnie had to smile. It was always the harmless-looking ones.

The woman from the cage lifted herself up the edge of the roof as if it was no feat at all, and then pulled up Belinda in one smooth, sweeping motion. Both of them stared at Bonnie with eyes filled with hunger.

Slowly but surely, and with her gaze fixed on the approaching monsters with their long rows of teeth glistening in the setting sun, Bonnie started climbing down the roof towards the car and towards freedom.

To be, or not to be, that is the question that would be answered for Bonnie shortly.

—Submitted by Lone-Eyed

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garagetoilet89-blog · 5 years

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Authentic Teriyaki Chicken

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of recipes claiming to be “authentic” chicken teriyaki yet many of them seem to miss the whole point of the dish. So here it is, the definitive chicken teriyaki recipe written by a Japanese guy.

What is Chicken Teriyaki?

This may sound like an obvious question, but to understand what Teriyaki chicken (照り焼きチキン) is about, it helps to know what the name means. Teri (照り) is Japanese for shiny or lustrous while yaki means grilled or griddled (I’ll explain more about this later). Translated literally, the name means “shiny grilled chicken”, and it refers to the clear lacquer-like glaze that’s created when the sugars in the teriyaki sauce caramelize.

The History of Teriyaki

Although the name “Teriyaki” is relatively recent nomenclature, the practice of cooking meat and fish in a mixture of soy sauce and sugar has been around for hundreds of years, going by names such as Amakarayaki (甘辛焼き, sweet and salty grilled) Kannroni (甘露煮, literally simmered in sweet nectar), and Yamatoni (大和煮, simmered Yamato-style).

Authentic Teriyaki Sauce

Like most Japanese sauces, teriyaki sauce is a simple concoction and includes just three ingredients. That’s why I’m always a little baffled when people pay a premium to buy teriyaki sauce when it’s so easy to make at home. So here it is, the only teriyaki recipe you’ll ever need, that includes equal parts of the following three ingredients:

Soy Sauce – This is the most obvious ingredient and is what gives teriyaki sauce its coffee black color and savory taste. There’s no need to get fancy here, but just be sure you’re using Japanese soy sauce. I have a whole collection of wonderful soy sauces from other countries, but they all have a different taste and salinity and are not suitable for making Teriyaki.

Sugar – The sugar is what balances out the saltiness of soy sauce, giving teriyaki sauce its divine balance of sweet and savory. As the liquid reduces, the sugar caramelizes, imbuing the sauce with its trademark flavor while also thickening it. This allows the sauce to glaze whatever food you put it on in a shiny shellac of flavor.I like using evaporated cane juice (a.k.a. raw sugar) because it contributes a bit more flavor to the sauce, but plain old white sugar will work too. If you want to get an even shinier teriyaki chicken, try replacing some of the sugar with rice maltose. It’s a type of liquid sugar that’s made by saccharifying the starches in rice. It’s extremely viscous (like cold honey) and shines like an amorphous crystal ball. For this recipe I’ve left it out to keep it simple, but if you can get your hands on it, it’s definitely worth using.

Sake – Sake, is an alcoholic beverage made from rice by first saccharifying the starches in rice using koji, a type of filamentous fungus. The sugars are then fermented into alcohol by yeast. The reason for adding the sake isn’t for the alcohol, but for the amino acids produced during fermentation. These amino acids stimulate the umami taste receptors in your mouth giving the teriyaki sauce its lip-smacking savory taste (without adding any MSG).When choosing sake, you don’t need to use anything expensive, but please don’t use “cooking sake”. Although it may sound counterintuitive, cooking wines (yes this applies to grape based wines too) are made with very low-quality alcohol and are loaded with salt, flavorings, and other additives that will throw off the recipe.

It’s also worth noting that the alcohol in the sake (as well as the soy sauce… yes soy sauce naturally contains some alcohol) will burn off as you reduce the sauce, so it’s safe for kids to eat. If you have other reasons for not wanting to use sake, you can substitute water. It obviously won’t taste the same, but there are no good non-alcoholic alternatives (no, rice wine vinegar is not a good alternative… see my explanation below).

I know there are probably a few of you asking “What about mirin?”. Mirin is a sweet alcoholic beverage made in a similar fashion to sake and then aged. It’s traditionally added to teriyaki sauce to boost the umami and shine in the sauce. The problem is that real mirin is hard to find, even in Japan. Most “mirin” is just grain alcohol with corn syrup, colorings, and flavorings. That’s why I prefer making the sauce with real brewed sake and sugar.

Don’t use these in Teriyaki Sauce

Most teriyaki sauce recipes include a lot more than 3 ingredients. Here are a few examples and why I don’t recommend using them.

Garlic, Ginger, Scallions – All of these things add particulate matter to your sauce. If you must embellish your teriyaki sauce with an aromatic, you can grate and strain these ingredients through a sieve to extract their juice. This will allow you to add the flavor without blunting the sheen of the sauce. Another idea is to simply garnish your finished chicken teriyaki with grated ginger or chopped scallions.

Sesame seeds or oil – You’re welcome to garnish your teriyaki with toasted sesame seeds at the end, but adding sesame oil to teriyaki sauce makes it a different dish.

Vinegar – recently I’ve seen some recipes suggesting you can replace the sake in teriyaki sauce with vinegar. While rice vinegar can be made from sake (just as red wine vinegar can be made from wine), it undergoes chemical changes in the fermentation process, and the two taste nothing alike. If you really want to add rice vinegar to your sauce, there’s a delicious Filipino dish called Chicken Adobo.

Starch – Teriyaki sauce gets its thickness from the sugars in the sauce being reduced and caramelized. If you’re getting the proper level of caramelization in your sauce, there’s no need to add a thickener.

Juices – I occasionally see a teriyaki recipe that includes pineapple or apple juice. I’m not sure if this is due to some misguided notion that fruit juice is healthier than sugar or if the creator enjoys the taste of the fruit in the sauce, but teriyaki sauce does not traditionally include juice. That being said, as long as the juice is filtered and doesn’t include any pulp, you can still get a good teri from your sauce by adding juice. Another idea is that you can also just cut up some fresh fruit and toss it in at the end as you caramelize the sauce.

Bottled Teriyaki Sauce

I usually mix the ingredients for the sauce straight into the pan, but if you want to save even more time, you can premix a large quantity of soy sauce, sugar, and sake in equal parts and stir it until the sugar is dissolved (heat it if need be). Then you can put your homemade teriyaki sauce in a glass bottle and store it in the fridge where it will keep for months.

Cut of Chicken for Teriyaki

The traditional cut of chicken for teriyaki is boneless skin-on chicken legs (both the thigh and the drumstick). If you can’t find whole legs where you are, skin-on chicken thighs will work just fine.

When made properly, the fat renders out and the skin crisps, while keeping the meat tender and moist. If you really hate having skin on your chicken, you can remove it after you’ve browned the chicken, but before you add the sauce.

As for chicken breasts, it’s worth mentioning that teriyaki chicken is not traditionally made with white meat. That being said, if you prefer it, then there’s nothing wrong with using it. Just be aware that breast meat is much leaner than thigh meat, which makes it susceptible to drying out. My recommendation would be to pan-fry it until it’s just barely cooked through and then transfer it to a plate while you caramelize the sauce. Once the sauce is nice and thick, you can add the breast back in to glaze it.

Salt the Chicken

To get the most flavor into your teriyaki chicken, it’s important to get it nice and brown on the outside. In order to do this, you have to get rid of the moisture on the surface of the chicken before it will brown. Normally this would involve frying the chicken until the surface moisture has evaporated, but doing this will render the meat overcooked and dry. To get around this, I like to lightly salt the chicken, before pan-frying it. This coaxes out any excess moisture from the surface, and then you can use paper towels to remove the liquid, along with the salt before frying it.

Grilled vs Pan-Fried Teriyaki

Yaki is usually translated as “grilled”, but it can also mean pan-fried (like on a griddle). I prefer making teriyaki in a pan as it gives more consistent results and is less work than grilling. The method is simple; once the chicken is salted and patted dry, it’s placed skin-side down into a cold non-stick pan. There’s no need to add any oil since the skin will render out plenty of fat. The chicken is cooked slowly over medium heat until the skin side is crisp and browned. Then it’s flipped over to cook the meat through. Once the meat is cooked, you just need to drain off the fat and wipe out the pan before adding the ingredients for the sauce. Then the chicken is flipped over repeatedly to build up a nice shiny glaze. By the time it’s done, most of the sauce should be on the chicken, and anything remaining in the pan should be about the thickness of honey.

If you do decide to grill your teriyaki chicken, here are a few tips. Combine the ingredients for the teriyaki sauce in a small pan and boil until thick and bubbly. For the chicken, follow the salting step and pat the chicken dry. Brush some neutral oil onto the chicken; this will help prevent the chicken from sticking to the grill. Grill the chicken until it’s almost completely cooked through and then brush the reduced teriyaki glaze on the chicken. You can flip the chicken over and reglaze a few times to get a beautiful glossy finish.

Beef, Pork, Salmon and Tofu Teriyaki

As you may have guessed, you can use this teriyaki sauce recipe and method to make anything from beef teriyaki to salmon teriyaki. You’ll need to adjust cooking times depending on the type and thickness of the protein you choose. Just cook it until it’s a little shy of your desired doneness. Then you just add the ingredients for the sauce and caramelize them around the food, flipping it until it’s glazed in a shiny layer of sauce.

How to Make Chicken Teriyaki

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Source: https://norecipes.com/best-chicken-teriyaki-recipe

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edrecoveryprobs · 7 years

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RE: Anons (finally!!) 1-8

In this post:

#2: How to handle surgery-related diets

#4: our fave recovery blogs

#5: dealing with bullying about vitiligo

#8: Recovering through the transition to college + how to challenge romanticizing ED thoughts

[CW behavior mention]

1. hi, sorry to bother you but I'm nervous I might have an eating disorder? I've been hospitalized for malnutrition in the past, but I just wasn't eating enough. the behaviors now are like binge purge restrict so on so on. I've been eating about [x] calories a day now because I want to lose weight without binging/ purging. should i tell someone about this, or is this normal?

FAQ #3 but yes definitely tell someone who can help!

2. I have to have a endoscopy/colonoscopy in a few weeks, and the prep for it has me completely on edge. In order to have the procedure done, I have to eat a restricted diet for a week, not eat for [x amount of time], and then take a super powerful laxative. My doctor also recommended I go on a weight loss diet, even though I'm still at a healthy BMI. After being recovered for several years, I've been struggling with a relapse, and I'm afraid that this will push me over the edge. Any tips on how to deal?

Sorry this is so late! Here’s advice for anyone else in your situation.

First, tell your doctor! Ask which elements of this are most important, and which can be worked around. Your ED is a complicating condition, so they should really know about it -- they’re treating YOU, not just your colon.

Second, give your laxatives to someone you trust, preferably someone who lives with you. If you can, enlist their support with mealtimes as well. If you get really sad at the end of the meal bc you can feel yourself falling back into that old place, that’s okay. Have them remind you that this is temporary, and that food is not as black-and-white as your ED wants it to be. Cede responsibility for figuring out your intake to this trusted person. Also -- make sure no one lets you know your weight at any point! Perhaps they can tell you when you’re back at your normal weight but that’s it!! The less you can obsessively track, the better.

Third, get into therapy NOW. Once this diet is over and everything gets quiet is when the ED stuff really starts to hit. I find that usually my recovery phase is ½ as long as my restrictive phase if I’m in therapy, and 2x as long if I’m not.

Fourth, acknowledge that this is unusually difficult and that struggling with a difficult thing doesn’t negate all the work you’ve been doing for years. You’ve built a solid foundation that has a good chance of keeping you stable through this rough time, and even if that starts to crack you have those same foundation-building skills to get it back to good.

I hope things went well for you <3

3. your blog always makes me feel valid and safe. thank you.

You’re so welcome! I’m glad it helps <3

4. Hey!! Do you know of any other positive recovery blogs? Im too scared to look in the tags bc they're full of pro ana things :( I love your blog, thank you!!! ❤❤

Fyoured was my fave, idk if they’re still active though! There’s also scienceofeds but that’s mostly summarizing current medical literature on it. Edreocoverystarfish and clinicallydepressedpug are also great! You can also check out our reblog tag

5. I've been suffering from vitiligo practically my whole life and it's something that affects me both psychically and emotionally. My brother often makes fun of me because of it, his favourite name for me is ''Michael Jackson"

That’s so shitty of him. If it helps, siblings tend to be rather shitty as they’re growing up, because it usually takes like 15-20 years to learn the basic emotional skills it takes to really be there for someone you love. Some people (especially masculine-identified people because of the social penalties associated) take longer to learn or never do at all. That’s not your fault.

For what it’s worth, siblings tend to make fun of whatever your biggest insecurities are, because humans learn how to affect others’ emotions before they learn how to affect them positively. Mine was acne for a while, especially since I struggle with dermatillomania (skin-picking) -- my siblings would wait for a Papa John’s commercial of a pepperoni pizza, point to it, and say “hey look, it’s Selena! HA HA HA!!”. My sister was really insecure about her hair being parted exactly down the middle, so my other sister and I would make fun of her for that. What I mean to say is, it’s not about the vitiligo. It’s about your brother not having learned yet how to NOT be a rude little shit.

Also, there’s no absolute that different colored patches of skin are ugly or bad. Calico cats are so cute! Freckles are adorable! Winnie Harlow is so talented! Find reminders in your life and/or online that different isn’t bad, and that this difference can be jaw-droppingly gorgeous or heart-breakingly adorable or lovably cute. It’s all about how you wear it.

And finally, know that love is always a choice -- including self-love. Rather, it is a combination of tons of small choices. Am I treating myself with love? Do I talk to myself lovingly, the way I would talk to a friend who was in my situation? Do I appreciate what my skin does for me, pigment or no pigment? Am I cultivating a life full of things and people that validate that love? It’s hard at first, it always is, but once you start it becomes a really awesome habit. Here is a great place to start (adjust pronouns as appropriate).

Sending you lots of love <3

[CW poop mention]

6. Hi, this incredibly embarrassing, but I recently experienced some personal trauma and so I am having problems with eating... Mostly restrictive and the inability to swallow some foods. However, I am having some digestive problems, mostly issues with skid marks. I was wondering if this is common and if there is a remedy for it... This is the first time I have experienced something like this. Sorry.

First, I really honestly don’t think anyone goes through their life without ever getting skid marks lol so you’re not a freak at all. I get them from time to time and I don’t really have digestive problems. Usually it just means I need to eat more fiber or adjust the balance of my diet. Also, this might sound weird, but anal kegels might help! The anal ring is all muscles, after all, and if restricting is a problem then all muscles have probably atrophied a little bit, including those. And finally, it might just be bad toilet paper. There’s lots of kinds that are practically useless and turn into a pulpy mess instead of doing their damn job. If you’re at home, consider getting stronger toilet paper (2-ply etc) or carrying baby wipes in a purse or backpack. Black underwear can also help with the insecurity aspect.

7. I love your blog so much! It helps knowing what other people are going through while making it a little humorous. Stay awesome!!

:D will do!

[CW romanticizing relapse, negative body image] 8. I have been battling with my ed for [x amount of time] now. In [y]th grade I got so tiny, I felt so pretty. I had never been skinny until then. I gained a lot of weight from being on so many medications, and now I am at an average weight but I am so unhappy with my body. I still struggle with purging and skipping meals. I start college this fall and I am terrified that I am going to let ana control me since no one will notice. I just want to feel beautiful and I know I wont until I'm tiny…

Something I’ve been going through recently is trying to lovingly remind myself when these thoughts pop up: I’m not believing this stuff because it’s true, I believe it because I’m literally crazy. It’s somewhat counterintuitive, but those beliefs can really take ahold of you if you take them seriously. But it’s just a symptom of the mental illness you know you already have. It’s like if you were prone to visual or audial hallucinations -- they feel real. They look real. They sound real. Of course you’d believe there are lions chasing you right now, because all of the senses you usually trust are indicating that that’s true. But also, if you can use the knowledge you have to try to see past them, you can actually interact much better with your environment.

Facts: you feel unhappy with your body. You still struggle with disordered behaviors. You start college this fall. College represents a big challenge to your ability to keep ana under control.

Beliefs: I can’t feel good unless I am thin. I can’t help but do what my ED says. I must keep this all a secret. I can’t get any help.

In the past 5 years, there have been times you’ve felt happy. Even when you weren’t thin. State memory means it’s hard to think of times you’ve felt differently, but it’s just a fact about human brains that we can’t feel one feeling for very long without switching it up.

Also, I guarantee you that you weren’t happy then. It’s so easy to romanticize thinness -- we see thinness romanticized literally ad nauseam -- but it’s such an empty feeling to be stuck in your ED. It’s so hopeless. It feels so crappy to walk into a restaurant with your friends, to see them all laughing and having fun when all you can think about is how terrifying it is to order food and how much you want to run away. When I really think about how awful each moment is with an ED, how I’m constantly either freaking out about eating or dreading the next time I’ll have to eat, how I had to numb myself constantly because reality felt so bleak.... Thin just isn’t worth it.

And let’s be clear: thin isn’t pretty. It’s just thin. Thin people CAN be pretty, but so can people of size, and so can very muscular people, and so can people whose body shape is more average. And eating disorders will make you thin at the expense of everything your body needs to maintain itself. It’s like insisting that houses are only thin if they have columns out front, so you hack off the front door, peel off the siding, pry up all the furniture, and stack up this pile of garbage to make some columns. You’re better off with a column-less but functioning house than one full of holes and empty inside.

Before you get to college, look up the mental health resources. Sign up for counseling through your school ASAP!!! Counseling tends to fill up as midterms approach, so this way you’ll be covered in case things go downhill later. Also, TELL people you trust. This you must do even if everything in you screams not to, because everything in you will scream not to, because your ED brain is actually trying to kill you. The more trusted people you tell, the less you have to fight it on your own, and the more resources you have to fight it. ALSO, see if there is an ED support group or a body positivity group on campus. Being around people who can gently call out disordered thoughts is a huge relief! And finally, explore other things that make you feel beautiful. Some people like makeup, and seeing how much of appearance is just illusion. Some feel beautiful when they know that they are strong and agile. Experiment with your clothing. Cut or dye your hair. Now is the time to test out different styles, and those are so much more fun to work on than calorie counting.

Lastly, you have more to do than be tiny. Mice are tiny. 5 cent candies are tiny. Pinky toe nails are tiny. What can you do that’s new? That helps you learn? That’s helpful? That’s exciting? Ana ignores all of that because of an obsession with BEING one thing. But ana doesn’t know shit about all the weird, cool, funny, wild stuff you can do. Show her what she’s missing.

Best of luck to you, and if you find yourself struggling in college don’t be afraid to message us back. We’re here for you throughout your recovery process <3

#surgery #laxatives #recovery and college #vitiligo #fanmail #skid marks #anonymous #ask

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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STARTUPS AND STOCK

Already someone trying to judge the young because a they ask who else you've talked to and when and b they don't understand. Why are there so many startups. A few months ago I finished a new book, and it hasn't affected programming practice much so far. But don't change so much that you lose the advantages of discussion. Engage Users Product development is a conversation with yourself. He thought the print media. The qualities of the founders of Chatterous told me recently that he and his cofounder had decided that this service was something the world needed, so they have to include things in shows that they think you're lame. Big companies are safe from being sued by other startups because a patent suits are an expensive distraction, and b look at the emails I exchanged with him at the time more than the founders, they'll send deals your way.1 When people start to identify them with you. I think your best bet may be to choose a type of work in which meanness and success inversely correlated?2

High schools imitate universities. It's the concluding remarks to the jury. Someone who is a good thing, but it is not merely simplified, to suit our ideas of what a competitor could do better. Though strictly speaking World War II was in his early twenties. So whatever market you're in. Isn't Especially Object-Oriented Programming.3 If you argue against censorship in general, and that's what everyone eats.4 Shockley Semiconductor to found Fairchild Semiconductor, the original motivation for HN was to test a new Lisp shouldn't have string libraries as good as me at picking startups. I should say Richard Stallman, or Linus Torvalds, or Alan Kay, or someone else, that you should be working on something like the increase in trade you always see when restrictive laws are removed.5

Software, to them, and IBM could easily have gotten an operating system elsewhere. Cheap Yahoo.6 Sometimes the pie fallacy is actually true. In this they are no different from other places. It is by no means impossible. If you still want to cook up their own deal terms.7 It's almost the definition of property be whatever they wanted. Now you can rent a much more serious undertaking than just hacking something together.8 It was small and powerful and cheap, but not as strong.

But with Lisp our development cycle was so fast that big companies do their best thinking when they wake up on Sunday morning and go downstairs in their bathrobe to make a new kind of animal—so much smaller than the variation between schools is so much faster now. They're common to all cultures with long traditions of living in cities. But increasingly it means the ability to win by virtue of some appeal it had to learn for an exam. It is enormously fun to be able to shift toward consulting.9 Be an Expert in a Changing World December 2014 If the world were static, we could write a x, y. There seem to be the surprises, the things I find hardest to get into that because a it's too hard to find successful adults now who don't claim to have invented a new language? The median startup coming out of later stage investors? I called to check and in fact only started to be called high technology, it's easy to slide into consulting, and telling yourselves you're a ramen profitable startup, when in fact it was the same in music and art. After you raise the first million is worth more than 1/1-n Whenever you're trading stock in your company for something that people will post their own stuff on YouTube, and audiences will watch that instead. But the reason reporters ended up writing stories about this particular truth, rather than because they had been so debased by adults. When investors can't make up their minds.

And so having a notion of good art, but for different reasons.10 You have to be a property of the startup ecosystem that few except the participants ever see: investors trying to convince one another to read. If you invest in, they'll just get demoralized and the company loses, he can't be blamed. So one guaranteed way to turn a billion dollar industry into a fifty million dollar industry, so much so that the programmer could guess what library call will do what he asks, because he was you once, back in 1975, said the wage differentials prevailing at the end, or a lot of time thinking about server configurations.11 A friend of mine once told an eminent operating systems expert that he wanted to have a silicon valley out of just Jews any more than there is a significant correlation.12 Maybe it would work for any kind of faker almost immediately.13 It consists of some things that are fun to work on. It would be a real threat.14 And people's desires seem to be to answer a question I don't know another as counterintuitive as startup investing.

It seems to me that these guys were hackers, not MBAs, and so on. So why do it? Like a lot of changing the subject when death came up.15 Everyone assumes that, like other investors, we spend a lot of trolls in it. I don't try to predict the future.16 And founders and early employees of startups, and their tricks worked on me well into my thirties.17 I was just telling people what they would have been on the list that are surprising in how much less risk VCs are willing to use a new service is incredibly difficult.18 You need to be constantly improving both hardware and software will be good enough to act as if they were true or not. Indeed, it's often better if they're not flakes. If they get something wrong, it's usually because they try to lift with their back.

Leonardo? Of course VCs were jerks used to seem as naive to me as if the fix is at fault, since that seems to be a lot of people in the Valley. I've used both these excuses at one time or another. Working at something as a day job using it. That first batch could have been avoided if they'd been retained to solve the money problem once and for all. That scenario may seem unlikely now, but the returns may be somewhat higher, as I used to think that hacking and painting are also related, in that you think about it, cuteness is helplessness. As a result workers' wages also tended toward market price. The unsuccessful founders weren't stupid.

Notes

Foster, Richard and David Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne and the war. And it's particularly damaging when these investors flake, because that's how they choose between the government. 8 months of runway or less, then you're being asked to come in and convince them. New York.

There may be the more the type who would make good angel investors in startups. A rolling close is to say, real income statistics calculated in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Oxford University Press, 1965. Turn on rice package. European art.

27 with the fact by someone else.

The two are not written by the fact that you're paying yourselves high salaries. I didn't realize it yet or not, greater accessibility. To help clarify the matter.

We wasted little time on, cook up a solution, and Cooley Godward.

When you fix one bug happens to use them to.

Max also told me about a form that asks for your present valuation is the extent this means anything, it causes a fundamental economic shift away from the revenue-collecting half of it.

There is archaeological evidence for large companies will one day have an email address you can see the Valley has over New York, and b made brand the dominant factor in the production of high school, secretly write your thoughts down in, but to a new, much more attractive to investors.

I remember about the cheapest food available. 25. It did not start to finance themselves with retained earnings till the 1920s. Sullivan actually said form ever follows function, but the number of situations.

25. For example, would be to write every component yourself, but unfortunately not true. Common Lisp, because unions will exert political pressure to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a sufficiently good at squeezing money out of the next three years, it would be far from the study.

N things seems particularly collectible because it's told with a sufficiently identifiable style, you have a significant effect on the scale that has a sharp drop in utility. On the other writing of literary theorists.

At first literature took a back seat to philology, which handled orders. If asked to choose between great people. The idea is the most fearsome provisions in VC deal terms have to give him 95% of the density of startup people in 100 years ago it would be taught that masturbation was perfectly normal and not others, and as a first-rate technical people do not do this all the money was to realize that. Some genuinely aren't.

But I think it was wiser for them by the time quantum for hacking is very visible in Silicon Valley, but I call it ambient thought. Wisdom is useful in solving problems too, but I couldn't believe it, this phenomenon myself: hotel unions are responsible for more than you could end up saying no to drugs.

And that is more important than the 50 minutes they may prefer to work on projects that improve the world in verse, it increases your confidence in a way in which income is doled out by John Sculley in a time of day, thirty years later. Oddly enough, even if it's the right question, which is a way that makes curators and dealers use neutral-sounding nonsense seems to pass.

But if they do on the order and referrer. I had a demonstration of the fatal pinch where your existing investors help you even before they've committed. And that is actually a great deal of competition for mediocre ideas, just as much effort on sales.

Finally she said Ah! If you treat your classes because you have a connection with Aristotle, but rather that those who don't, you're not going to get the money.

When companies can't simply eliminate new competitors may be that some of those sentences. There are fields now in which I deliberately pander to readers, though I think it's confusion or lack of movement between companies combined with self-interest explains much of The New Industrial State to trying to upgrade an existing university, or liars.

So in effect what the valuation turns out to be a quiet, earnest place like Cambridge will one day is the desire to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a truly feudal economy, you have to want to get good grades. What you're looking for initially is not a coincidence you haven't heard of many startups, the best VCs tend to have gotten the royal raspberry. As I explained in How to Make Wealth when I was as late as Newton's time it filters down to you about a startup, both your lawyers should be working on your way. Hackers don't need.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Marc Andreessen, and Sarah Harlin for the lulz.

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moodboardinthecloud · 4 years

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How to Deal With the Anxiety of Uncertainty

Our brains weren't wired to deal with the "psychological pandemic" of not knowing what the future holds. Here's how to cope with living in limbo.

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-deal-with-uncertainty-coronavirus/?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_Science_090220&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=WIR_Science&bxid=5eeb27340a64fe56174f61cf&cndid=61443371&esrc=growler-free-covid&source=EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_SCIENCE_ZZ

IF THERE’S ONE defining feature of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s uncertainty. Will there be a vaccine? When can schools safely reopen? Will I still have a job next week? Should I book a spring vacation abroad? A crisis that we’d all hoped would be short-lived is dragging on indefinitely, and the list of unanswered questions keeps growing.

“I’ve started thinking about our current situation as being marked by two pandemics,” Kate Sweeny says. “The viral one, of course, but also a psychological pandemic of uncertainty.” A professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, Sweeny specializes in understanding how people cope with ambiguity. All her research points towards one conclusion: We don’t cope very well.

“Waiting periods are marked by two existentially challenging states: We don’t know what’s coming, and we can’t do much about it,” Sweeny explains. “Together, those states are a recipe for anxiety and worry. People would often rather deal with the certainty of bad news than the anxiety of remaining in limbo.”

That’s what researchers at three institutions in the UK found in a 2013 experiment, when they attached electrodes to 35 subjects and asked them to choose between receiving a sharp shock immediately or waiting for a milder one. The vast majority chose the more painful option, just to get it out of the way. “It’s counterintuitive,” admits Giles Story, one of the academics behind the study. “But it’s a testament to how anxiety-inducing and miserable it can be to have things looming in the future.”

It may be counterintuitive, but it’s actually something we see play out again and again in the scientific literature. Whether it’s receiving a cancer diagnosis, finding out a round of IVF was unsuccessful, or discovering that you failed an exam, for many of us, unequivocally bad news is easier to deal with than the ambiguous waiting period that precedes it. Knowing what we’re dealing with, even if it’s crappy, gives us some agency. Uncertainty leaves us scrambling to regain an element of control—by hoarding toilet paper, for example.

Ironically, while actions like these might provide temporary relief, they can have the opposite effect in the long term, sending our anxiety levels through the roof. “People who struggle with uncertainty engage in behaviors to try to feel more certain, like taking their temperature repeatedly,” says Ryan Jane Jacoby, a staff psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. “But these actions only serve to perpetuate uncertainty in the long run, and they can really take a toll on your mental health, as they start to take up more time and energy.”

So if stockpiling a year’s supply of toilet paper isn’t going to ease the anxiety that comes with living in a state of limbo, what will? Answering that question involves understanding why exactly we struggle so much with uncertainty. According to Mark Freeston, a professor of clinical psychology at Newcastle University in the UK, it’s all to do with evolution. “It’s of no use for a newborn to understand where danger is, because they can’t do anything about it. What is useful is understanding how to find signs of safety.” That means learning to recognize the people or surroundings we know keep us secure—and being suspicious of the ones we aren’t familiar with.

“As evolutionary psychologists have argued, being intolerant of uncertainty has survival value,” Freeston says. “So instead of wondering why some people struggle to deal with uncertainty, the better question to ask is, how are some people able to cope with it?” The answer—which Freeston and the other experts I spoke to have spent their entire professional careers working on—could help make long periods of uncertainty more bearable. Here are some of the coping mechanisms they've found can help.

Stop With the Mental Time Travel

When you’re dealing with uncertain situations, it’s tempting to both fixate on things you’ve done in the past—could last week's trip to the grocery store be to blame for my sore throat today?—and worry about what the future will look like. “During waiting periods, I would always find myself doing a lot of mental time travel, thinking back to what I could have done differently, and playing out various future scenarios,” says Sweeny. Dwelling excessively on what could have been and what might be—ruminating, to use the technical term—is exhausting, and unless it is brought under control, can trigger depression and anxiety.

To stop the spiral, Sweeny recommends learning how to focus on the present by using an age-old technique: mindfulness. “It entails an intense focus on the present moment, so it’s a good fit to ameliorate the time travel problem.” Sweeny and her colleague Jennifer L. Howell put mindfulness to the test in a study involving law school graduates awaiting bar exam results. “We found that people who are naturally mindful, and also people who did brief mindfulness meditation every week or so, seemed to fare better during a stressful waiting period.”

You don’t need any expensive equipment or devices to start practicing mindfulness. “Being mindful is challenging, but practicing mindfulness is easy,” Sweeny advises. “There are tons of apps and YouTube videos with guided meditations, targeting all kinds of struggles. There are also other ways to practice mindfulness. For example, you can eat in a mindful way, focusing on every movement, taste, smell, and sound.”

Binge-Watch Your Favorite Childhood Show

While you don’t want to waste time worrying about the past, taking a little trip down memory lane can do wonders for your mental health during periods of uncertainty.

“At the start of the pandemic, people went back to eating a lot of the food they’d had as a child,” Freeston says. In March, as cities across the US went into lockdown, sales of comfort foods like pizza and hotdogs exploded. “It’s not comfort food because it’s high in calories, fat, and sugar. It’s comfort food because it’s familiar. People are looking for those signs of safety that help us cope with uncertainty.”

It doesn’t have to be food. Anything nostalgic that reminds you of a time when you felt secure can help offset the anxiety that comes with so much unknown. “It’s the unknowingness that people are really struggling with, so we need to find comfort in things we recognize,” Freeston advises. If you’re worried about your waistline, try binge-watching your favorite show from when you were a kid. “There’s a reason so many adults are going back to watching Disney movies,” Freeston says. “The show you saw last year would probably be just as entertaining to rewatch, but it wouldn’t give you those same familiar signs of safety.”

Ditch the Book, Play a Video Game

If it was hard getting your hands on Clorox wipes or yeast back in March, it was all but impossible to buy a Nintendo Switch. Sales of the handheld console doubled year over year as people sought to tune out reality and lose themselves in the virtual worlds of Zelda, Animal Crossing, or Mario. And it worked.

“What these people are doing is called finding their flow—essentially a state of complete absorption in an enjoyable activity, when time seems to fly by and you even lose self-awareness,” explains Sweeny. A new paper she worked on with eight other researchers confirmed that for people in lockdown in China during the peak of Covid-19 there, this type of engrossing activity helped preserve their mental health. “It’s a really effective antidote to distress during various waiting periods,” Sweeny says.

If video games aren’t your thing, plenty of other activities will do, from gardening to painting. The trick is to find something that’s not so easy you’ll get bored and not so mentally taxing that you’ll struggle to concentrate—which is probably why so many avid readers haven’t been able to stay focused on their books. “The best kind of activities to achieve a flow state are ones that are enjoyable, that challenge you just the right amount (neither boring nor frustrating), and that allow you to track your progress,” Sweeny says. “Video games are perfect for this purpose, but almost any activity can become a flow activity with a bit of attention to those three components.”

Find a New Rhythm

So many people have lost so much during the pandemic—jobs, houses, loved ones—that it feels frivolous to be missing smaller things, like the bagel you used to buy every morning on your way to the office, or the bar you went to for happy hour on Fridays. But as trivial as these things might seem, they helped create the sense of stability and predictability we need to function.

“Before the pandemic, I knew I would get up in the morning and have my one cup of coffee for the day. When we went into lockdown, the idea that I might not be able to do that was really upsetting, not because I’m addicted to coffee, but because it was part of my routine,” Freeston says. “It’s these little signs of safety that create a rhythm to our lives and tell us things are going to be alright.”

To help alleviate the anxiety we feel when we lose this rhythm, Freeston recommends building a new one. “You have to make sure you’re creating enough safety signals for yourself. What are the things that, even if we have to go back into lockdown again, you can count on?”

Importantly, it has to be things that you can control, so post-lockdown bucket lists are less useful for these purposes. “Lots of people are projecting into the future, thinking ‘This is what I’m going to do when ...’ But some of those things might not happen, or they might happen in a different way from what you envisage,” Freeston points out. “Instead, think about how to build some structure into your daily life that you can rely on, so that you know what will be happening at 7:30 am on a Monday morning whether or not the schools reopen. If everything goes smoothly, you won’t need these safety cues. But if it doesn’t, you’ll feel less unsettled by it all.”

Play Around the Edges

As much as we might like to, we can’t stay cooped up in our apartments eating comfort food and watching Beauty and the Beast forever. “Almost everything we do in life has an element of uncertainty to it,” Jacoby points out. “When we use our stove or drive into work, we’re accepting some level of risk that our home may burn down or that we may be in a car accident. Instead of trying to run away from it, challenge yourself to practice tolerating uncertainty.”

Freeston recommends starting out small. “Once you’ve found those things that help you regain a sense of safety, start building in some elements of flexibility,” he advises. “So you can still watch movies from when you were a kid, but maybe ask your roommate to pick from a selection, so you don’t know which one it will be.” Once you’re comfortable with that level of uncertainty, you can add in more.

But you won’t tolerate even small amounts of ambiguity until you feel safe again, Freeston warns. “We want people to become more tolerant of uncertainty, but you can only do that if you’re feeling safe. So you need to become secure first, and then you can start playing around the edges.” Consider that permission to spend this weekend watching reruns of your favorite show.

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chairfreon5-blog · 5 years

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Authentic Teriyaki Chicken

What is Chicken Teriyaki?

The History of Teriyaki

Authentic Teriyaki Sauce

Don’t use these in Teriyaki Sauce

Most teriyaki sauce recipes include a lot more than 3 ingredients. Here are a few examples and why I don’t recommend using them.

Sesame seeds or oil – You’re welcome to garnish your teriyaki with toasted sesame seeds at the end, but adding sesame oil to teriyaki sauce makes it a different dish.

Bottled Teriyaki Sauce

Cut of Chicken for Teriyaki

Salt the Chicken

Grilled vs Pan-Fried Teriyaki

Beef, Pork, Salmon and Tofu Teriyaki

How to Make Chicken Teriyaki

If you enjoyed this video head over to YouTube to give it a like👍🏽 and Subscribe to our channel while you’re there!

Source: https://norecipes.com/best-chicken-teriyaki-recipe

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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ruthellisneda · 5 years

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Losing “The Last 20 Pounds” – 7 Lessons Learned While Still Eating Carbs

The past 7 months have been really eye-opening for me.

In May of 2018, after spending the past 33 years of my life trying to get bigger…

I decided to go in the other direction:

I was going to make a concerted effort to get as lean as possible while still having a life.

After 6 weeks of very focused effort (counting calories) and seeing NO progress, I made a few key adjustments.

Since then, I’ve lost 22 pounds AND hit strength training personal bests:

Sure, we’ve featured success stories from people in our community who have lost 100+ pounds in a year, 50+ pounds in a year, and other amazing transformations.

So, who wants to hear about an in-shape guy who got more in shape?

BORING!

However, I want to share my story for a few reasons.

For starters, I want to show that 15+ years later, I still practice what I preach and I’m still learning every day.

Next, I want to share the things I did that might seem counterintuitive:

I still ate carbs while losing weight: rice, potatoes, and oats.

I did ZERO hours of “cardio,” and zero “ab” exercises.

I got stronger, setting numerous personal bests in the gym.

I never felt like this was unsustainable.

Whether you have those final stubborn 10-15 pounds to lose, or you have 80+ pounds to lose, I promise the lessons I share here can help you level up.

Note: We all have our challenges, and we all find certain things easy and other things brutally difficult.

As you read, you’re NOT allowed to say the following:

“Must be nice, Steve.”

“This won’t work for me because…”

“I will never get there because…”

And instead, you’re ONLY allowed to say:

“How can I make this lesson work for me in my situation?”

Deal? Deal.

Here are the 7 biggest lessons I learned while losing 21 pounds and leveling up my workouts…

#1) WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? ALL CALORIES COUNT.

If you are trying to lose weight, calorie restriction is King (or Queen).

In order to lose weight consistently, my body needed to be in a “caloric deficit”: burning more calories than I ate, consistently.

Most people attempt to do this by out-exercising a bad diet.

I instead put 95% of my effort into fine-tuning my nutrition.

Specifically, I ate more calories on training days (to help rebuild muscle), and fewer calories on non-training days (to force my body to pull from fat stores).

However, the average between the two was low enough to force my body to start burning stored fat which led to overall weight loss.

As a 6 foot tall, 190 pound male who trains 4x a week, here’s how I ate:

Skip breakfast every day – eat all calories between noon and 8pm

2,600 calories on strength training days.

2,100 calories on rest days.

I followed the above calorie strategy with a 90%+ compliance rate. In other words, I did not let perfect be the enemy of the good. (Calculate your own caloric intake estimates here.)

I knew one bad day wouldn’t screw up any progress – it’s total calories consumed over many weeks and months, so as long as my average day was good, I would get results.

I’ll get into what those calories were composed of and how I trained below. But my strategy allowed me to build strength and minimize muscle loss despite the deficit (yes, you can lose weight and build muscle at the same time).

LESSON: Start with calories – know how many you eat daily, and adjust the number down. You can vary your calorie count for training days or rest days – as long as your total average number is low enough to induce weight loss.

Tracking calories and not getting results? Check your tracking – see #4 below.

#2) STRENGTH TRAINING IS CRUCIAL FOR BODY FAT LOSS.

I strength trained 4 days per week for about 60 minutes each workout without fail.

This is something I truly prioritized in my life. I can count on 1 hand the number of times I did not hit the gym 4 days in a week.

Each day composed of a heavy barbell lift:

Front squats

Deadlifts

Incline bench press

Bent over rows.

I also did lots of body weight training and gymnastic ring work:

Push-ups, pull-ups, bodyweight rows.

Gymnastic holds including handstands.

Muscle-ups on my rings. So many muscle-ups.

So, despite the fact that I was losing weight and eating a caloric deficit, judging by the pictures and my measurements I was able to maintain most of my muscle, and even build strength strategically.

I got stronger at a lot of lifts throughout this experience.

I hit a personal best deadlift of 420 pounds – a 30 pound record, at a weight of 172 pounds.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Steve Kamb (@stevekamb) on Nov 21, 2018 at 10:43am PST

By lifting VERY HEAVY weights while also eating a caloric deficit, my body was forced to adapt.

It diverted as many resources as possible to “rebuild muscle stronger to prepare for the next weight training session,” which didn’t leave many calories for “store as fat.”

I cover this extensively in both “Why can’t I lose weight?” and “Can you build muscle and burn fat at the same time?”

Not only that, but because I was in a deficit my body started pulling from the “store as fat” pile to fuel myself and my workouts.

So this strategy really crushed it for me:

Heavy strength training.

Protein prioritization and caloric deficit

Consistency and sleep.

LESSON: Most people go about weight loss by creating a calorie deficit and doing a bunch of cardio – this means their body will burn both fat and muscle for extra energy: they lose both body fat AND muscle.

If your goal is to build a muscular, lean physique, you need to teach your body to preserve as much muscle as possible – and you do that by training heavy!

#3) BATCH COOKING CHANGED MY DEFAULT BEHAVIOR.

For the past 6 months, I’ve been batch cooking up a storm.

1-2 times per week, I batch cook trays of chicken breast, potatoes, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and/or cauliflower.

Most days, my dinner looks like this:

And most weeks, my fridge looks like this:

To answer your next question: That’s SodaStream sparkling water (much cheaper than buying bottles or cans), and homemade cold brew coffee. Yes, I’m a weirdo who drinks cold brew in the dead of winter!)

By batch cooking just once a week, aka making ONE big effort just once, it essentially changed my default behavior for the rest of the week and set me up to succeed.

I had developed this nasty habit of ordering delivery multiple nights per week – which practically everybody does in Manhattan.

Here’s why: compared to cooking a meal, it was just easier to a hit button on my phone and have food show up 30 minutes later.

However, once I started batch cooking, the “lazy” option WAS the healthy (and far less expensive) option.

Every evening, I could either:

Spend money and then wait 30 minutes for a unhealthy meal to show up.

Put food in microwave for 2 minutes and nom nom nom.

Here’s what I batch cooked:

Chicken (which I cover in this article), covered in “Everything but the Bagel” seasoning.

Mini potatoes: cut in quarters, toss in olive oil, sprinkle with salt, put on tray, stick in over for 30 min at 350 degrees.

Brussel sprouts: cut in quarters, toss in olive oil, sprinkle with salt, put on tray, stick in over for 30 min at 350 degrees.

Pre-cut Broccoli and cauliflower: toss in olive oil, sprinkle with salt, put on tray, stick in over for 30 min at 350 degrees.

Once a week or so, I’d go out to dinner with friends or family and eat whatever the hell I wanted. I’d also drink whiskey (neat). I went on multiple trips and vacations

I knew the more diligent I was with my weekly behavior, the more ‘fun’ I could have with my ‘occasional’ behavior and still not get derailed.

The most important part of this: by eating the same foods each day, I knew exact portion sizes without having to calculate or figure out much. I just did the same stuff over and over.

That is…once I figured out how much I needed to eat!

LESSON: Your default behavior is the reason you are where you are right now with your health. So change your default. Consider batch cooking to make the easy, lazy, default option the healthiest.

I used to be VERY intimidated by the kitchen. So learn to cook 1 thing. Literally one thing. And then expand from there once you build up some confidence!

#4) MY METABOLISM WASN’T BROKEN. MY TRACKING WAS.

For the first 6 weeks of my weight loss journey, the scale didn’t budge.

I couldn’t figure out what the heck was going wrong.

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight and the scale didn’t go down, it’s easy to assume, “my metabolism is broken” or “it’s because I’m eating carbs” or “my body is unique and different. Damn my parent’s genetics”

I was counting calories accurately (or so I thought), and the scale didn’t move which made my head hurt.

Clearly I was broken, right?

All those years of ‘bulking’ had ruined my body and I was no longer able to lose weight.

Welp, as a firm believer in things like “science” and “logic,” I decided to test my assumption that I was actually eating the amount of food I thought I was eating.

So I bought a cheap ass $10 food scale.

And it rocked my world.

EYE OPENING EXAMPLE: I eat 3 servings of oats each day, blended into my post workout and post dinner smoothies. A serving of oats is described as “½ cup or 40 grams.” So I used a ½ cup measuring cup and thought that was pretty close to accurate.

I then WEIGHED half a cup of oats, and it came out to 60 grams!

Which means that for 6 weeks, I consumed an extra 225 calories without realizing it.

The same thing happened with my lunch from Chipotle: I weighed out the portion of rice in the serving, and compared it against the weight that Chipotle says is a serving, again I was overeating by 50%.

Realizing that I was overeating my carb portions by 50% multiple times per day, NO WONDER I wasn’t losing weight.

I was accidentally eating hundreds of calories without even realizing it.

So I adjusted my food intake accordingly.

And for the next 5-6 months, my weight steadily declined.

Part of me was frustrated, embarrassed, and angry that I didn’t realize I was overeating with every meal of every day.

The other part of me is SO THANKFUL I was tracking everything and dug deeper when I wasn’t getting the results that I should have.

For starters, I stepped on the scale every morning at the same time of day.

I kept a rolling 7-day average to make sure the trend was moving in the right direction, but didn’t sweat variations from day to day. After all, water weight, sodium, one unhealthy meal – can really make the day swing.

I’m very thankful I educated myself on the exact macronutrient breakdown of the foods I ate regularly.

I also took weekly pictures from the front and side. Week to week I couldn’t see changes.

But month to month, especially with the scale moving down, I started to see differences and was encouraged with the progress.

LESSON: Educate yourself on the food you’re eating, and how much. Every online calorie calculator will give you a different answer, and should be considered just a starting point.

And then start tracking your progress! Take photos. Take measurements. Write down the number on the scale. And then make small adjustments based on the results you’re seeing. Adjust your calorie intake down or up.

Not getting the results you’re expecting? Consider tracking your food more closely to educate yourself even further!

#5) ABS AREN’T MADE IN THE GYM.

Want to know my favorite ab exercises that allowed me to get a 6 pack (with those final 2 abs poking through?)

Squats

Deadlifts

Pull-ups

Push-ups

I actually didn’t do any cardio or ab exercises over the past 7 months.

Another note: I also didn’t do any bootcamp or “muscle confusion” or any of that stuff.

And yet here I am with 8-pack abs and healthy and happy.

What gives? Why didn’t I do those things? Because I hate ab exercises, I hate bootcamps, and I hate cardio.

You also can’t spot reduce fat, and a flat stomach comes from a low body fat percentage (aka – how you eat!)

Sure, I went for walks, often long ones through the city. Sometimes through the course of a day I would walk 5+ miles.

But I never went for a run, or got on a treadmill, or did the elliptical.

Instead, I just focused on getting stronger, eating a caloric deficit, eating enough protein, and getting enough sleep.

I trained my body to think: “I better build muscle, because I know I’m gonna need it again soon.” My body then diverted as many resources to muscle building as possible, pulling from fat stores for energy, and helped me lean out while staying strong.

Abs aren’t made in the gym, as they say – they’re made in the kitchen.

Everybody has ab muscles, they’re just hidden under layers of fat.

So to get my abs to ‘pop’ it simply required me to cut my body fat percentage low enough to remove the fat on top of them.

LESSON: Everybody has abs, they’re just hiding under layers of fat. Cardio isn’t a prerequisite for weight loss. To build a certain type of physique, you need to eat and train in a certain way.

If you want to lose some weight and feel better: focus on calorie restriction and do any type of exercise – including cardio – that you enjoy.

If you want to build a superhero physique: strength train heavy, eat enough protein, and follow a caloric deficit.

#6) CARBS AREN’T EVIL. BUT EATER, BEWARE.

These days, it’s easy to assume carbs are evil.

Paleo says “booo” to carbs, while Keto says “GTFO” to all nearly all carbs.

So what’s the real deal?

Is the choice REALLY:

Cut out these foods to lose weight, but be miserable.

Eat these foods, be happy, and be fat.

Nope. Thermodynamics still apply. I do 100% agree that certain people are affected differently by..

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#Losing “The Last 20 Pounds” – 7 Lessons Learned While Still Eating Carbs

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neilmillerne · 5 years