Alligatorob's Diary

Hi Rob, I personally wouldn't worry too much about tinkering your calories just yet. Maybe your body is still just adjusting and recovering. Maybe you can have some weight target that could trigger a calorie reduction?
 
My mom made fresh yogurt (using fresh, whole milk from our neighbor´s cows) using nothing but glass jars and a blanket to cover. Pretty sure it´d sit on the counter for closer to 24 than 6 hours and it was so much better than any store-bought yogurt. Definitely no sugar needed and so creamy!
 
My mom made fresh yogurt (using fresh, whole milk from our neighbor´s cows) using nothing but glass jars and a blanket to cover. Pretty sure it´d sit on the counter for closer to 24 than 6 hours and it was so much better than any store-bought yogurt. Definitely no sugar needed and so creamy!
That is interesting, and it must have been good. I think that is the way yogurt was, and some places still is made traditionally. Probably for thousands of years. Temperature is the big difference in time, the bacteria do their work much faster in my incubator at about 40 C than your mother's did at room temperature. So her 24 hours would be about equivalent to my 6 or 8 hours. I started making kefir, and that was done at room temperature, more like your mother's. I have discovered that the same bacterial strains make yogurt as kefir, the only difference is incubation temperature, I guess kefir and yogurt are one in the same. I do like the higher temperature, it gets to a much thicker (and apparently sugar free) condition than I could get at room temperature. The natural strains in your mother's yogurt were no doubt different from mine, so they may have thickened more quickly. This morning's yogurt, kind of showing consistency. This is right out of the serving size jar it incubated in, the way I usually eat it. With a little stirring and it looks very creamy, tasted good:
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I might try making my own yoghurt. I hate all the plastic waste with store bought.
I hate all that waste too Cate, but then I wonder about the milk jugs i would have to buy to replace the yogurt...just more plastic again...
My mom made fresh yogurt (using fresh, whole milk from our neighbor´s cows) using nothing but glass jars and a blanket to cover
Lovely about your mom's yogurt from the neighbor's cow's milk--zero waste there!

i was going to buy the Instant Pot a while back and that has a yogurt setting on it so you wouldn't have to have a separate thing for it. Maybe i will consider that again one day. It would also save me buying so many canned beans!
 
It looks delicious Rob . I think about it too and maybe for Xmas . I’m loving the natural organic yoghurt I have discovered now . It has live cultures added to it .
 
It does look really good, Rob. I can buy milk & natural yoghurt in glass from a local organic dairy. It's very expensive though & I didn't much like it.
 
It was a good day, I ate well and feel good tonight. I did not do any exercise, felt the need to rest, so I did. Tonight I had some of my homemade peach wine, first time in a long time. I am a bit more relaxed about my weight, and think I will try to stay the course until I can start exercising for real again, shouldn't be too long.
I might try making my own yoghurt. I hate all the plastic waste with store bought.
I recommend it, and not having so much waste is one of the benefits. Saves a lot of money as well.
Hi Rob, I personally wouldn't worry too much about tinkering your calories just yet. Maybe your body is still just adjusting and recovering. Maybe you can have some weight target that could trigger a calorie reduction?
Thanks Lingwo, that is an appreciated comment and suggestion. I think I will choose 162, so long as I stay under it I will just wait out the limited exercise time and stay my course.
I hate all that waste too Cate, but then I wonder about the milk jugs i would have to buy to replace the yogurt...just more plastic again...
I figure I get more than 30 yogurt servings from a gallon of milk, I think the one plastic milk jug is a lot less than 30 yogurt cartons. But to be honest that is not the reason I do it, I like the homemade yogurt, both the taste and the idea of making my own.
It looks delicious Rob . I think about it too and maybe for Xmas . I’m loving the natural organic yoghurt I have discovered now . It has live cultures added to it .
It is good, your natural organic sounds good too. With the natural cultures it would be a great started inoculum if you ever decide to try and make some. I wasn't sure about it either, at first, but once I saw how easy it was I got hooked.
Looks very good Rob! Loving the photos.
Thanks, no more photos today but I am enjoying posting them. Life is a bit slower in recovery, gives me more time to take pictures.
I can buy milk & natural yoghurt in glass from a local organic dairy. It's very expensive though & I didn't much like it.
What didn't you like about it? The yogurt I make does not have much flavor, but I like what flavor it does have. Its easy to add things to.
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Don't feel real good this morning, could I be hungover after 2 glasses of my peach wine last night? Just ate breakfast, it didn't help, in fact I had a real urge to keep eating when I finished, but I didn't. I am also not happy about the weight, back up to 162, kind of my trigger for doing something. But I will wait another day before changing the diet much. I know things will get better...
 
Hi Rob it may well be fluid retention from the alcohol. Your calories are low. I don't know a lot about why you might be up though , it's a mystery to me at times . Can be up when you should be down and vice versa . I think you are adjusting to life in maintainance and also maybe your body is trying to find its true weight
 
Two glasses of wine would definitely give me a hangover these days - and our standard wine glasses are only 0.125 l :D Fingers crossed the scale will be more kind tomorrow: I really can´t imagine you gaining weight on your current calories.
 
I personally wouldn't worry about the weight gain. Probably is water--I just did a google search (and so now i am an expert haha) that surgery can result in gain in water weight.
Hung over after 2 glasses of wine--definitely i would be!
Hope you're feeling better quickly :)
 
Hi, Rob. The yoghurt I bought was incredibly sour. I love Greek-style yoghurt & have found one that I really like & it does come in 1 kg tubs so I'll keep buying that for now.
I would think that your weight increase is water retention. Try cutting down on anything salty for a day & drink more water. Having surgery just after reaching goal weight has thrown things out of whack. You'll get back to where you want to be.
 
It was a good day, I ate well and feel good tonight. My only exercise today was last minute harvesting of things. They are forecasting a low of -5 C tonight, our first freeze will be a hard one, and the end of the harvest. Picked pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers and apples, did not get everything but got all we could. Problem now is what to do with it, we really don't need most of it. Had to invite some friends to pick apples and I think we still have some left... The pumpkins were from the adjacent field, same farmer as takes care of our peaches and gave us so many left over tomatoes a couple of weeks ago. Picture below of what I got, probably hundreds left in the field. Grandkids are coming Saturday for carving.
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Hi Rob it may well be fluid retention from the alcohol. Your calories are low. I don't know a lot about why you might be up though , it's a mystery to me at times . Can be up when you should be down and vice versa . I think you are adjusting to life in maintainance and also maybe your body is trying to find its true weight
Thanks Petal and I think you are probably right about the fluid retention, hope so anyway.
Two glasses of wine would definitely give me a hangover these days - and our standard wine glasses are only 0.125 l :D Fingers crossed the scale will be more kind tomorrow: I really can´t imagine you gaining weight on your current calories.
Thanks LaMa, and I guess now that I have given up 95+% of alcohol, and lost half my body weight I just don't have the tolerance I used to, a good thing. I believe you are probably right, I don't know how I could be gaining fat at my current calorie level, guess we'll see.
Hung over after 2 glasses of wine--definitely i would be!
Hope you're feeling better quickly
Thanks Liza, me too now I guess, its something new for me. I do feel better tonight!
Hi, Rob. The yoghurt I bought was incredibly sour. I love Greek-style yoghurt & have found one that I really like & it does come in 1 kg tubs so I'll keep buying that for now.
I would think that your weight increase is water retention. Try cutting down on anything salty for a day & drink more water. Having surgery just after reaching goal weight has thrown things out of whack. You'll get back to where you want to be.
My homemade yogurt can be a little sour when I let it incubate for 24 hours, but not very. Probably depends on the strains in the inoculum. I probably do take in too much sodium, mostly in diet drinks, but that's not really new, but maybe a little more. I am thinking of cutting back, but wanted to kick the gum habit first, that's about done.
 

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I really have no idea what you will do with your pumpkins and apples . The apples should store well enough for you . Oh my squash soup had apple in it . Maybe you could make pumpkin and apple soup !
 
Pumpkins store for months in a dry cellar, same as apples. Or you could batch-bake them and can them as puree.
 
I think I remember you talking about a soup kitchen not too far away. Batch cooking a huge soup & donating it might be very welcome or just donating some pumpkins.
 
It was a good day, I ate well and feel good tonight. Again my exercise was limited to some more harvesting and preparation of things to freeze. It froze last night, but not so hard as predicted. There were still good apples and I got some, and I picked the last of our peppers and tomatoes and have been boiling them down ever since, guess we will just need more freezer space.
I really have no idea what you will do with your pumpkins and apples . The apples should store well enough for you . Oh my squash soup had apple in it . Maybe you could make pumpkin and apple soup !
I have never cooked with pumpkin, the only thing I know of is pumpkin pie. These are all on the block to become jack-o-lanterns tomorrow at the hands of the grandkids. You are right the apples should keep, will see how long.
Pumpkins store for months in a dry cellar, same as apples. Or you could batch-bake them and can them as puree.
These pumpkins were grown for the decorative market, to be jack-o-lanterns, not sure how edible they are. We do have a good place to store the apples.
Is there anywhere you could donate them to?

The harvesting sounds like a really good workout!
We did give a lot of apples to a lady who works at the soup kitchen, I think some will go there. We sent some of our peaches with her and I know they did. It has been work, more than I expected.
I think I remember you talking about a soup kitchen not too far away. Batch cooking a huge soup & donating it might be very welcome or just donating some pumpkins.
Like I told Emily, I think some of the apples are headed there. I guess we don't really know how to make a pumpkin soup, and never heard of anyone doing that here. Don't know if our pumpkins are wrong, or if people just don't do that here.
 

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These pumpkins were grown for the decorative market, to be jack-o-lanterns, not sure how edible they are.
The smaller ones should be perfectly edible. Chop into slices and bake until sweet and soft. Don´t think the peel is edible but peeling after baking is a lt easier than before.
 
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