#shut up it's good especially with cereal milk instead of regular milk

[tenderwatches]

jayce: did i just watch you pour milk into sorbet and cover it in tajin viktor: yes. jayce: viktor: it's like a 'poor man's Dole Whip'. jayce: it's like a dead man's Dole Whip viktor: then, it suits

[turtle-steverogers]

she is very long so. enjoy😌

- Steve n Bucky going to the bodega down the street from their apartment. it’s open till like 4am and they go at all hours. sometimes they’ll go separately but they always go together when they go in between 12-4 am and no one who works there questions why

- they get a cat that they treat her like their child. it’s Alpine ofc😌 steve loves her so much but he knows it’s Bucky’s Cat and he’s fine with it

- you know how some siblings or partners or friends can communicate with their eyes and basically have telepathy? they totally have that and it annoys the shit out of every single person they meetjdksndks. someone will be talking to them and they will just make eye contact with each other bc it reminded them of an earlier convo they had or they both got annoyed by the other person or it reminds them of an inside joke or something and it just irritates EVERYONE. no one is able to intercept it and it’s just a thing that no matter what - even though they don’t mean to - you’ll feel a little left out when you’re with steveandbucky. it just comes with the gig. i like to imagine that depending on if it’s an au or not, its either really obvious or not. like in an au then yes it’s obvious they can have non verbal conversations, but if it’s not an au then it’s not entirely obvious bc they’re enhanced humans and they know how to hide their secret conversations. but everyone they talk to is essentially an enhanced human or has special abilities so it’s obvious to them and they catch them in the act LOL. if they’re interacting with regular people then it’s not very obvious though

- DATE NIGHT!!! yes they’re old yes they have date night. when they go out it’s usually to places in their neighborhood, but a lot of the time they like to stay in bc. they’re old men <3 steve is better at cooking and bucky is better at baking bc you can get creative with cooking and steve likes that more. he enjoys baking a lot too but he thinks bucky’s stuff tastes better. whenever they stay home though there’s ALWAYS a movie. always. they alternate choosing but there is always a movie to watch. bucky usually falls asleep nearing the end and steve plays with his hair😌 he rolls his eyes cause it happens every time but he actually likes when it happens bc he can braid strands of hair together

- pet names oh my god. so many pet names. every single one. mainly from bucky. steve uses them but maybe like two. he favors sweetie and buck and that’s it really. sometimes he uses hon. bucky though oh my god. every single pet name under the sun. so many variations of doll you wouldn’t believe - baby doll ofc, dolly, stevie doll. sweetheart. sweetness. blondie. pretty boy. hot stuff. stevie. baby. hon. honey. sunshine. angel. it’s just so many. and it’s like very sickening insane twisted etc but hot at the same time. most people are like jeez barnes do you ever shut up… but most of these people secretly think it’s a little hot theyre thinking damn where is that affection for me…. i need me a bucky barnes :| steve is the only smitten kitten outwardly even if he huffs and puffs sometimes but it’s obvious he enjoys it. like they are so annoyingjdkssn for real they aren’t a pda couple really but the petnames….. so many. so so so many it’s sickeningly sweet but bucky dgaf! steve is his sweetheart his dolly his baby his angel so he’s going to call him these things!

- steve knows his body is what is considered “perfect” but he still is insecure about it around most people and bucky knows this so when steve lounges at home in bucky’s boxer briefs and his own tee shirt or he kicks off his pants when he’s too hot at night in bed bucky is reminded of just how much steve loves him and feels comfortable around him which is something he always strives for - to make steve comfortable. not baby him because steve bitches at anyone that does that to him but to make him feel comfortable

- and on the subject of feeling comfortable i imagine that they always check in with one another but it’s very subconscious they hardly realize they do it. like steve will bitch at bucky to pick up his shoes from their doorway or to clean his hair from the shower drain but the next second he will ask him if his back still hurts from being kicked by sam and from where steve AND alpine scratched him (in very different ways)

- steve is the sweater husband and bucky is the sweatshirt husband. they trade off a lot but that’s just how their closets look

- steve takes a liking to crop tops 😌 but ONLY around the house bc again he’s really truly only comfortable around bucky. he wears em with boxer briefs or sweatpants but you can guarantee that the briefs and sweats usually just end up on the floor 9 out of 10 times

- hair ties everywhere. they can be found on the floor in the laundry in their bed in the couch on top of the fridge on their fire escape. they are literally everywhere. steve just picks them up and puts them in the bathroom but they always make their way back. he doesn’t say anything to bucky until he finds alpine chewing one and she ends up smacking herself in the face with the hairtie

- their fridge is always full with leftovers and food from sam or clint’s or whoever’s house or takeout. they always eat it all but they get and make a lot of food so the fridge is always full

- subconsciously bucky always has a hand on the back of steve’s neck. like it’s not ENTIRELY a possessive thing but he used to do it a lot when steve was small because it was easy and it was comfortable. for him and just for him and steve. it was like swinging an arm around steve’s shoulders or putting a hand on his shoulder. it was just natural and easy so he did it. a part of him back then prewar did it possessively too, but he always tampered that down bc steve wasn’t his. now he does it without shame

- steve really likes tofu and vegan meat, non dairy milk like almond and soy, and overall a lot of non dairy vegan foods, and a lot of fruits. he gets made fun of for a lot specifically about the vegan stuff but his reasoning is that there’s so much food accessible for people with allergies in the future that he wished existed a hundred years ago so he’s going to try it and stick with it if he likes it. people shut up after that

- he also tips a little more than he needs to everywhere he goes. everywhere. like it’s cool when steve rogers walks in to a restaurant bc he’s a superhero or whatever but its REALLY cool because he leaves a generous tip and that’s what really makes peoples day

- before they get legally married they are still very much married. like “i packed you lunch, meet me at the restaurant instead of me going to pick you up bc it’ll take longer, i got takeout let’s bitch together while we watch shitty reality tv, let’s bitch at EACH OTHER through the phone in public, let’s send each other ugly pictures of each other or funny texts while we’re right next to each other, i’m out with a group and you’re not there and i say multiple times ‘i miss steve/bucky’, let’s yell at each other from opposite ends of the apartment instead of getting up to see each other, steve i’m going to fuck you on the couch bc our room is too far, etc.” they are just very much married without the documents and legalities and it’s very obvious

okay all of these were ABSOLUTELY wonderful and im really going to restrain my urge to respond to each and every one but that might be futile

-okay YES they definitely go to that bodega at all hours, and usually it's for normal things when they go separately: milk, cereal, toilet paper. but when they go in the middle of the night, they almost always purchase some like odd assortment of candies and deli meat. also, they're always in their pajamas. like bucky's in plaid pj pants and a star wars sweatshirt, and steve is in like 5" shorts and a huge crewneck and they're both in slides and they definitely only speak russian to each other when they're in there after hours

-yes alpine! they also have a dog, that is more steve than bucky's!! his name is norman in my headcanon (and a couple of my fics) and he is best boy

-okay i need more of this in my general stucky life: steve and bucky being like,,, best friends as well as lovers and being so seamlessly close. like yeah, they definitely talk with their eyes, or just one glance, or half-sentences ("hey, did you ever get to--" "yup, on the way home. it was so--" "yeah, good. glad to hear") and they know exactly what the other is saying.

-yes to the date nights!!! and when they stay in to watch movies, they make Tons of popcorn. and they Have to make separate batches, because steve will Only eat his with like half a bottle of that powdered white cheddar on his

-YES we share the same fucking headcanon for petnames on god

Steve: love you, buck:)

Bucky: love you, pumpkin

-Steve definitely has body dysmorphia, probably even post serum (I have lots of thoughts on this, that might be a different post) and yeah, Bucky definitely knows its Big that he feels comfortable enough to be exposed around him (and he's even more honored that steve lets him be intimate with him, because that's really hard for steve, too)

-yeah! and easy check ins like "ur stomach still bothering you from last night?" "oh, no it was just a little bug turns out" or like "my head hurts:(" "i have meds in my bag. you want?" "yeah, just two" or like subtly checking on injuries, yeah

-yeah the sweater versus sweatshirt tracks tbh i picture steve in a lot of crewnecks so yeah

-STEVE IN CROP TOPS STEVE IN CROP TOPS and i raise you they're often ones he's cropped himself and he's also painted on! or bleach painted!! and theyre so cool and bucky never wants to make a big deal out of it, but he's so proud of steve for expressing himself like that

-ALPINE SMACKING HERSELF ALKFJALSDKFJA also steve always has a hairtie on HIS wrist in case bucky forgets one for himself

-they also always have Steve Staple Foods cuz i headcanon steve as a picky eater (adhd!steve + serum enhancements, it's down to a formula) so they have a lot of Kraft mac and cheese and easy heat up meals and lunch meats around for when he's having bad food days

-OMG and steve absolutely MELTS i raise you, too, bucky will especially hold the back of his neck when he needs to get steve to Chill Out. so like if he sees him stressing he'll put his hand on the back of his neck and squeeze and literally feel the tension drain from him or like if steve is having a panic attack, he'll hold the back of his neck while they breathe together

-yes and also any time that steve is Choosing food for himself and feeling motivated to eat it, it's a win, so people learn to back off there, too

-yes! he tips generously, but never awkwardly or offensively. he's also super kind and patient to food service workers!

-this last point is so perfect i cant. like yeah, back to steve and bucky just being,,,, the best of friends. ugly selfies galore, shoving their feet in each other's face, flicking each others ears. and yes, all the fucking gossiping. on the phone gossip, venting, fun gossip from around work. they talk about it all. and it's so great for them

thank you again for stopping by! your thoughts are impeccable!

[spicysoftsweet]

He Wasn’t Man Enough - Hisoka x Reader

A/N: This is me being dramatic after a convo with @hisokapegger. I just wrote it off the cuff so hopefully it’s fine ahahahaha. Tl;dr You run into your ex Hisoka at a grocery store, of all places.

TWs: pregnancy, abortion

---

Today was one of the rare days where you were truly happy.

You’d woken up this morning with an atypical surge of energy, much more so than you had in the past few months after your third serial failed relationship. You couldn’t even say you were truly sad about the relationship failing, it was starting to be par for the course at this point. You attributed the slump you’d be in to something else - the feeling of being stagnant, wading in place that seemed to persist throughout the past year, maybe two. 

You’d decided you would give dating a rest. After your bitter breakup after a long tumultuous relationship with the magician (and likely psychopath) Hisoka, it almost seemed like he had laid a curse on you to fail relationship after relationship thereafter. Maybe it was because you had grown so exhausted in trying to turn him into something he wasn’t - you couldn’t turn a whore into a husband, after all - but you’d given up hope, and now your patience had grown thin with anyone you decided to be with. You’d lost the ability to compromise having tried so hard to find a middle ground with Hisoka which really meant losing ground on everything you wanted. Now if anyone stepped out of line for a split second, you dropped them. You had to admit some of the reasons for which you’d dropped people were small, but you’d be damned if you let another person make a fool out of you for years on end.

There was something freeing about refusing to settle. Choosing not to give a single fuck gave you an insurmountable amount of power. And now with the surge of energy today, the fact that you’d done some of your best work at your job, and your creativity was at an all-time high, you felt unshakable. 

Armed with that sense of self-worth, you parked your car into the lot of your neighborhood grocery store, planning to make a quick trip to replenish on milk, bread and eggs before you got home for the day. Humming quietly to yourself, you navigated the store throwing things idly into your hand-held shopping basket, hoping you would limit yourself to just a few things. You had a tendency to over-shop, especially when you were in a good mood. 

You weaved past a young child crying about sugary breakfast cereal, making sure to smile politely at the distressed mother before heading over to the produce section. And that’s when you saw him.

Hisoka.

It had been years.

Isn’t it funny that after a breakup you spend weeks dreading meeting your ex in public places? That you then start to rehearse running into them, deciding either to ignore them or say something so curt and so peaceful that they regret ever leaving you? That you expect that the longer you’ve spent without seeing them, the less likely your heart was to stir when looking into a face that used to portray fondness towards you?

For a moment, you forgot why you had come here in the first place.

Ah yes, apples. Hisoka was holding a red apple in his hand, checking its ripeness, but then he looked up and his golden eyes connected with yours and you almost expected the mischievous glint ever present in his regard. But instead, he looked almost surprised to see you. Maybe even rattled. That was an uncommon emotion for him.

To be fair, it was a bit shocking to see Hisoka at a grocery store as well. He’d never be so responsible the years you had dated to buy a nourishing food item on his own. He even had a shopping cart with him, and it looked a bit too full for one.

Your mouth open and shut. You weren’t sure if you should speak or not. To ignore or to speak politely? After all, it had been so long. You couldn’t let him believe his existence still had any affect on you. What if he tried to get back into your pants?

You were still standing still, and Hisoka’s gaze was still focused on you, but the surprise and the softness in his eyes and the very small way in which his lips down-turned was starting to unsettle you. Even more unsettling was the way he was dressed, almost as though he aimed to blend in with the millions of other shoppers, his skin still pale but not the almost sickly white of his face makeup, no star or teardrop to be seen, and his red hair no longer flaming towards the sky but down and neat. He almost looked like a regular person.

Suddenly, you were starting to feel ridiculous, just standing there with a sheepish look on your face. You decided you would politely say your regards and then continue on your way. 

But as you took a single step forward, a young, petite and obviously pretty woman, seemingly materializing out of nowhere, came to join him by the stack of apples. Her arm linked to his, her face bright and her eyes full of affection, and with smiling lips, she whispered something to him that was unintelligible to you at this distance.

Hisoka’s eyes were still on you, and when his obvious partner turned to follow his gaze, there was an ever so slight curve on her belly, and maybe you could have lied to yourself and said it wasn’t a baby bump, but the way she protectively placed her hand on her abdomen and held his hand said otherwise.

Who is that staring? You imagined she asked, but you couldn’t read her lips; you were too busy shattering. 

You didn’t even feel your shopping basket drop to your feet, and didn’t hear the eggs breaking in the carton or the milk carton crashing and spurting a mess all over the floor, but instead turned on your heels and ran.

It was heaven’s mercy that you didn’t fall on the mess you made. You didn’t think you could tolerate looking more pitiful than you felt right now.

You ran to your car as thought it was a lifeline. There was a ticking time bomb inside of you, and you didn’t realize the tears were already falling.

It had been years.

Your fingers didn’t seem to work anymore, and you continued to fumble as you tried desperately to start your car and flee this cursed place.

It had been years.

This was an overreaction. People were allowed to move on. Now if only your hands would stop shaking enough so that you could stick your keys in the ignition and move on home yourself. 

Instead, a dry sob came out of your throat, and you gave up, tossing the keys onto the passenger seat of your car.

You’d spent years trying to turn Hisoka into someone who would settle down with you. Someone who could be reliable. Someone who wouldn’t disappear the moment you needed him.

He had told you, quite frankly, if you ever got pregnant to abort it.

But yet you could tell, from the way she trusted him fully by the way she moved around him, from the simple fact that he was in a fucking grocery store buying fucking fruit and pushing around a cart with supplies for two that he meant to stay with her.

Most damning of all was the apologetic look in his eye when he looked at you.

He’d lied.

He’d lied.

He’d lied.

He said he’d never change. The truth was, he’d never change for you.

[lemonsandstrawberries]

A (not) Special Day

fandom: Stony (Steve x Tony), MCU, imagine Avengers 2012

summary: Tony and Steve became a couple not so long ago and came a day, that started as every day in Steve's dating life with Tony Stark, but the more it progressed, the weirder it became, almost as if the universe was hiding something from him... Meaning, it is Tony's birthday and everyone knows except Steve.

length: 2 513

a/n:  yes, I posted yesterday already a happy birthday fic for Tony, but felt inspired and wrote another one. so, once again, Happy Birthday, Tony! Hope you will like the fic and as always, feedback, reblogs and likes are appreciated and needed!

——————–

A (not) Special Day

"Sooo... Any plans for today?"

Steve looked over his shoulder, hearing the question. It was a regular question but said in that sing a song way as if suggesting something and the way Clint had put his elbows on the table and leaned in, eyebrows raised expectantly just added to the mystery. And Steve had no clue what that was about.

"Uh. No, not really," Steve answered, cracking some eggs into a bowl and adding milk, not measuring it, just eyeballing. Pancakes for breakfast. That was his nearest plan.

"Wait... You didn't make any plans?"

"Why should I make any plans?" Steve asked back, adding melted butter into the mix, before leaving the bowl on the counter and taking flour from the cabinet, digging through boxes of cereals and pop tarts. There was not a single kid in the Avengers Tower, but the content of the cabinet told a different story.

"So, you don't know that-"

"Morning, handsome!"

Clint immediately zipped his mouth shut, when Tony waltzed into the kitchen. In black tank top, drawstrings pants, still ruffled from sleep. Tony Stark in his most natural state. Steve puffed out his cheek for a good morning kiss, and Tony pressed his lips into the soft skin, his stubble leaving a light scratch behind.

"Hi, babe. Clint, you were saying?" Steve turned his head to look at the archer, just in time to see the stumped expression on Clint's face, and Tony's gentle bewilderment. Something didn't add up.

"Uh, nothing," Clint said quickly, focusing on his bowl of multicolored cereals and small marshmallows. A perfectly balanced breakfast.

"You are making breakfast for me?" Tony turned to Steve, smiling brightly.

Steve felt suspicious for a second longer but decided to let the topic go, seeing that Tony didn't dwell on it either. Oh, well, probably it wasn't anything important.

"Actually, I am making it just for myself," Steve teased, adding flour into the mix of eggs and milk.

"Ouch, harsh," Tony narrowed his eyes, scoffing playfully. "Didn't know you were so selfish."

"That's not what you said last night," Steve pointed out with a smile, going on with the banter. Behind their backs, Clint made some gagging sound.

"And that's my cue to go," Clint said, taking his empty bowl and spoon, and put it into the dishwasher. Before he could walk out of the kitchen, his eyes lingered on Tony, and after some hesitation, he reached his hand in brunet's direction as if to pat him on the arm, but instead pulled him into a hug in the last second.

"Uhhh," Tony smiled awkwardly, hugging Clint back and patting his back, "thanks," he said. Clint moved away from the hug and nodded to Tony doing some thoughtful face, and walked out of the kitchen.

Okay, that definitely was suspicious.

"What was that about?" Steve asked when he and Tony were left alone.

"Jealous?" Tony asked, smiling happily. One look at Steve's face and it was clear that it wasn't jealousy, just a heck lot of confusion. "I don't know. Maybe he fell into a dumpster again and bashed his head?"

Steve thinned his lips, muttering a concerned 'hmph'. Seemed that the whole team needed another 'safety during world saving' kind of talk.

"Coming back to that breakfast... You are seriously not going to include me?"

Steve blinked, hearing the complaint. He looked at his boyfriend and saw Tony giving him an extra pleading look as if he didn't eat for days. Which for sure wasn't the case, because Steve made sure that Tony ate regularly, and on most of the days, Tony was pretty good of keeping track of his meals. Food was too good to skip.

"You mix, I fry?" Steve smiled, handing Tony a whisk. Teamwork at its finest.

Tony groaned in disappointment, finding the hour too early to be useful. But fine, he would comply. "I am adding chocolate chips though," Tony said, dipping the whisk in and carefully mixing before he would go faster and try not to splatter the batter everywhere.

"Fine with me," Steve took a step back, and sat at the table, just appreciating the view, because the faster Tony mixed, the more he wiggled his butt, something Tony wasn't aware of, but Steve knew and found very attractive.

***

"Steve, let's get hot-dogs!"

"Sure," Steve agreed, taking a stroll with Tony around the park, seeing the cart in the distance. It was a calm, sunny day, the air was crisp and Tony looked very elegant in navy blue coat paired with some slacks and sport shoes, giving it a casual look. Steve didn't look too shabby either, in a faux leather jacket in brown color, jeans, and a white shirt. Wherever they went, the superhusbands couple, as the press named them, was always attracting attention, but this day differed from others. Meaning, they attracted even more attention. Especially Tony. During their walk, Tony already heard a couple of 'yeah, Iron Man!' which made him smile and wave to whoever shouted it, and while it was sweet, Steve couldn't help to think that everyone around him knew something he didn't.

"Steve, what topping you want?"

"Oh," Steve blinked, too deep in his thoughts to notice that they reached the hot-dog cart, "um, mustard and ketchup, please," he said to the mustached man running the cart.

"Traditionalist," Tony complained about Steve's basic choice and started placing his order, enlisting almost every topping and sauce available.

"Please give him extra napkins. Or a bib," Steve said to the seller, and the guy laughed friendly, while Tony scoffed and playfully pushed at Steve's shoulder.

Maybe he was just being paranoid. People always talked about him and Tony and today was no different. Tony thanked for the hot-dogs and paid, and they resumed walking. Steve held his regular looking hot-dog, while Tony measured every bite, trying to get all the avocado, salsa and sliced jalapeños in his mouth, without getting it all over his clothes, while still holding hands with Steve and watching it, Steve felt somehow calm and happy. Being with Tony really made him happy.

"You seriously need a bib," Steve pointed out in good humor, biting his hot-dog and observing Tony struggle with his food and failed attempts to eat neatly.

***

"Babe..."

"Hm?"

"Don't you think it was kinda weird today?"

"What, why?" Tony leaned against Steve's bare chest, rubbing hand cream over his hands. All the work with heavy machinery and different machine oils and greases was drying his skin and Tony used to rub a ridiculous amount of moisturizing cream into his hands each time before going to sleep.

"I don't know," Steve frowned, lifting his arm so Tony could fit better into him. He pulled the covers over them and sunk into the bed, making himself more comfortable. Overall, it was a nice day, just something felt odd. "People kept staring at us."

"People always stare at us," Tony smiled patiently. That wasn't anything new, and Tony thought that Steve already got used to their public status.

"Yeah, but - it was different today," Steve thought out loud, stroking Tony's arm with his thumb. Usually, people flocked to them, trying to initiate small talk, ask for autographs. Today, it was only staring. As if everyone made some silent agreement to give them some privacy, while just observing. It was eerier than openly going crazy over them. "You even got donuts for free," Steve pointed out.

"Yeah," Tony laughed, sounding embarrassed. After they had eaten hot-dogs, Tony had a craving for something sweet and talked Steve into visiting his favorite donut place. He was a regular and usually his order was prepared even before he had placed it and today a smiley girl handed him a box, saying that it was on the house. Tony had a rule of not accepting free stuff, but the smiley girl, who turned out to be the manager, insisted. Begrudgingly, Tony had agreed, not to cause a scene, but had left a generous tip, which was more than enough to cover three boxes of donuts. "I kinda feel bad about it. But the donuts were good, right?"

"Yeah, they were," Steve agreed, not quite satisfied with the answer. The day was ending, and he still had more questions than answers.

"Alright, I see that's something is bothering you. And you know what is good for that?"

If Steve had hope for some explanations, he was quickly proven wrong, once Tony rolled on his side and put a leg over Steve's thighs, straddling him. Warm hands resting on his chest and Tony moved in closer, evoking some heat in lower parts of Steve's body.

If he couldn't get any answers, it was the best way to silence his brain.

Until Tony's overly moisturized hands slipped on his skin, and Tony instead of leaning in intimately, fell forward, headbonking their foreheads and temporarily blinding Steve with pain, while both screamed.

"Ow," Tony rolled down, massaging his forehead, "okay, that wasn't how I planned it," he admitted, hissing the words out.

Steve shook his head, getting the shocked feeling out of his system. He growled and threw himself over Tony, who squeaked in self-defense and started laughing, laughing some more until Steve kissed him quiet, planning to make his boyfriend loud again later.

And it was sweet again.

***

The mystery resolved itself the next day when a colorful cover of a magazine got in Steve's line of sight while he had been standing in a queue to the cash register in his regular supermarket. It was one of those gossiping magazines, ones Steve usually paid no mind, but the photo on the cover was of him and Tony and it was a recent one, snapped yesterday. The headline, written in bold letters, sounded absurd at first, but the more Steve focused on it, the more it made sense and he felt as if someone dumped a bucket of ice-cold water on him. He had grabbed the magazine, paid for the groceries, and hurried out, different feelings brewing in him and making his steps heavier.

Shock. Anger. Betrayal.

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

Tony's shoulders jumped when a colorful magazine fell on his lap, covering his tablet and interrupting his work time back in the Avengers Tower. He quickly scanned the covers, seeing himself and Steve, holding hands and walking down the sidewalk, chatting and smiling at each other, Tony holding a paper bag with the box of free donuts. It wasn't the worst picture, they both looked happy and in love, but it was when Tony saw the headline and understood the snappy tone.

'Tony Stark celebrating his birthday with Captain America on the streets of New York'.

Exclusive material. Of course.

Tony carefully lifted his eyes, meeting Steve's judging look. The way Steve crossed his arms below his chest and furrowed his eyebrows made him look intimidating but also pronounced his biceps and chest and the clenched teeth gave nice definition to his jawline. Unfairly attractive.

"I didn't think it was a big deal," Tony blurted out, feeling only minimally sorry. For him, birthday wasn't that grand. True, back in the days, he liked to throw big parties, but since he joined the Avengers, calm days were rare, and he was happy to spent his birthday calmly, just with Steve.

"Not a big -" Steve raised his voice, stopping himself on time, when Tony cocked his head to the side, sending his boyfriend a quizzical look. With a sigh, Steve closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I wish you had told me," Steve admitted, more mad at himself than at Tony. Definitely more mad at himself. How he could not know that it had been his boyfriend's birthday? He saw Tony's SHIELD file and his birth date was right there, in front of his nose, how he could skip it? He was supposed to have a photographic memory and even memorized Tony's social security number, which was the easiest combination of numbers in the world and it was a true puzzle how someone as intelligent as Tony couldn't remember the combination of nine digits.

"Baby, it's fine-"

"No, Tony it's - It was your first birthday since we started dating and we didn't even do anything special," Steve continued, frustration and embarrassment clear in his voice.

"Well, if that counts, I think yesterday was pretty great."

"You do?" Steve opened his eyes, seeing Tony smiling warmly at him.

"Yeah. We ate breakfast together, went for a walk, got hot-dogs and donuts, and had sex," Tony listed, counting on his fingers and showing five of them, "that hits every mark of great birthday in my notebook."

Steve's eyes softened. It was a relief to hear that Tony saw yesterday like that, but Steve still felt that they could do something better and more memorable. But as long as his boyfriend was happy...

"You just didn't tell me, because you didn't want me to have my revenge," Steve pointed out in humor, feeling relieved about his screw up and sat on the couch next to his boyfriend.

"Revenge?"

"For my birthday. You hired two girls in Captain America USO girl's costumes to follow me around and sing 'The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan' for the whole day."

Tony laughed, remembering that day well and how embarrassed Steve had tried to lose the girls, who were surprisingly fast on their high heels. They had even followed Steve to the bathroom, singing their hearts out in front of the closed door, something Tony had to pay extra for.

"They were two actresses in training and did a great job. I am sure that it boosted their CVs," Tony giggled, unbothered by Steve's unamused look. "Besides, what revenge? We were not dating back then!"

"Oh, so you think that I forgave you all the things you did to me just because we are dating now?" Steve asked, lips curling into a smile.

"I thought that since you started to find me pretty, I got a clean slate," Tony smiled, sounding smug.

"I found you pretty back then too. Pretty annoying!" Steve summed up before Tony could get too smug. There were no hurt feelings, just Tony bursting into laughter again. One of the prettiest sounds in Steve's opinion. "Hey," Steve took his boyfriend's hand, trying to get Tony's attention and end the laughing fit. "Can I at least wish you a happy birthday now?" he asked. It was delayed, but Steve really would like to do that.

"Sure," Tony smiled, eyes crinkling at the corners. To make it sweeter, Steve moved in closer and cupped Tony's chin, locking their lips in a delicate kiss. Sweet and simple and full of love.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," Steve whispered when the kiss ended, looking into Tony's brown eyes with all adoration he had for his man.

Tony smiled, eyes and nose scrunching with the movement, his face having that happy, soft glow that showed on Tony's face only during special moments. "Thank you," Tony said, going in for more kisses.

[melinoe-writes]

sincerely yours — chapter six

Summary: Eisley Tusie was no stranger to Saturday detentions, but there was just something about that one Saturday that changed her.

Word Count: 1.4K

Warnings: mature themes, foul language, mentions of abuse

"WHAT'S IN THERE?"

Everybody was back in their original seats — minus John, who had taken a chair to sit just behind Claire and Andrew — to prepare to eat. Claire glanced back at John as she took her lunch out of a shopping bag. "Guess," she said, "where's your lunch?"

"Eisley's wearing it," he replied with a smirk.

Claire looked away, murmuring, "You're nauseating."

Eisley chuckled to herself, pulling out the plastic baggie filled with chocolate chip cookies her mother had given her for lunch from her jacket pocket. From the other pocket, she pulled out another baggie with more cookies. She'd told her mother about John Bender and how he never had lunch, so her mother saw fit to give Eisley some extra so that the boy she didn't even know could eat. Eisley admired how her mother was so nice.

"Hey," Eisley said, getting up to sit at John's table. When he turned around to face her, she held out the extra bag of cookies, and his face was a mask of both surprise and confusion. "Take them," she said, "they're for you."

A small, barely-there smile appeared on his face as he reached out and took the baggie from her. It wasn't very noticeable, but it was noticeably genuine, "Thanks, sweets." She nodded at him with a smile. He turned back around to look at the popular kids. Before saying another word, he leaned forward, grabbed a Coke, and tossed it behind him to Allison, who caught it without even looking up from the Prince album she was examining. "What's that?" he asked Claire, watching her open her lunch.

"Sushi," she answered.

"Sushi?"

"Rice, uh, raw fish, and seaweed," Claire told him.

John paused, looking disgusted, "You won't accept a guy's tongue in your mouth and you're going to eat that?"

Exasperated, Claire asked, "Can I eat?"

"I don't know," Bender replied, still looking disgusted, "Give it a try."

Immediately following that interaction, John, Eisley, and Claire watched as Andrew pulled enough food to feed a small army from a large paper bag. He brought out a bag of potato chips, three sandwiches, a bag of cookies, a carton of milk, a banana, and an apple. "What's your problem?" Andrew asked, noticing the staring. The three of them looked away.

Eisley's attention was taken away when she noticed Allison. The girl had thrown her lunch meat from her sandwich onto the sculpture. To take the place of the meat, she poured on several pixie straws, sugar, and cereal before crushing it down and taking a bite. At that point, everybody had taken to watching her prepare her bizarre lunch, and when she looked up at everyone, they all looked away slowly.

Bender got up to sit next to Brian, hands folded neatly in front of him, "What're we having?"

"Uh, it's your standard, regular lunch, I guess," Brian answered timidly.

John reached into the bag and pulled out a thermos, setting it on the table, "Milk?"

"Soup."

Next, John pulled out a juice box and examined it. Brian reached towards the bag, but his hand was slapped away.

"That's apple juice," Brian informed.

"I can read," Bender snapped. "PB & J with the crusts cut off. Well, Brian, this is a very nutritious lunch, all the food groups are represented. Did your mom marry Mister Rogers?"

"Uh, no," Brian said, "Mister Johnson."

"Ah," Bender replied, standing once again. "Here's my impression of life at Big Bri's house."

Eisley shook her head, shooting an apologetic look at Brian. He only shrugged.

"Son!" Bender said, imitating Brian's dad. "Yeah, Dad?" This time, the voice sounded childlike. "How's your day, pal? Great, Dad, how's yours? Super! Say, son, how'd you like to go fishing this weekend? Great, Dad! But I've got homework to do! That's alright, son, you can do it in the boat! Gee! Dear, isn't our son swell?" Next, his voice heightened, imitating Brian's mother, "Yes, dear, isn't life swell?" John mimed the mother kissing the father and then the father kissing the mother before his false cheerful face turned into a scowl and he punched where the mother was supposed to be. Everybody that had previously been laughing wasn't anymore upon seeing the upset expression on Brian's face.

"Alright," Andrew said, "What about your family?"

"Oh, mine?" John asked, "That's real easy."

Eisley had a good idea of Bender's home life. He hadn't ever said anything about it to her, but she had seen the signs of an abusive household. The fact that John was going to open up about it now, in front of people he was trapped in detention with, made Eisley frown.

John got into position, pointing his finger forward to what she assumed was himself as he impersonated his father, "Stupid, worthless, no good, God damned, freeloading, son of a bitch, retarded, bigmouth, know-it-all, asshole, jerk!" In a higher voice, most likely his mother, he said, "You forgot ugly, lazy, and disrespectful." John swiped his hand back, as if to slap his invisible mother, "Shut up, bitch! Go fix me a turkey pot pie." As himself, Bender asked, "What about you, Dad? Fuck you. No, Dad, what about you? Fuck you!" He was getting louder with each exchange. "No, Dad, what about you? Fuck you!" With a yell, he punched the air that represented himself, and getting back into his own character, he jerked back as if he'd been hit. Eisley pursed her lips and looked away. She didn't know what to say, especially to John.

"Is that for real?" Brian asked quietly.

Angrily, John responded, "You want to come over sometime?"

"That's bullshit," Andrew said, "It's all part of your image. I don't believe a word of it."

A quick flash of emotion crossed John's face, but it was gone before Eisley could identify it, "You don't believe me?"

"No."

"No?"

Irritated, Andrew said, "Did I stutter?"

John walked over to Andrew, pulling up his sleeve and revealing a circular shaped burn. The sight of it as he passed her made Eisley's breath catch in her throat. "Do you believe this?" John asked Andrew, holding the scar up to his face. "Huh? It's about the size of a cigar. Do I stutter?" Andrew looked away. "You see," John continued, "this is what you get in my house when you spill paint in the garage." John yanked his sleeve back down and began backing up. "See, I don't think that I need to sit here with you fucking dildos anymore."

Bender kept walking until he got to a map table, and with a loud shout, he pushed all the contents of the table onto the floor. He climbed up on the table and then up to the second floor balcony and sat down, his feet dangling.

Turning away from Bender, Eisley pulled a cookie from her baggie and threw it as hard as she could at Andrew's head, making him whip his face around to look at her. "Shut the fuck up, Clark," she said. She couldn't remember the last time she had been so angry. It had certainly been a while. "Nobody asked for your fucking input, so just shut the fuck up." She got to her feet so fast, so aggressively, that the chair fell out from behind her. "Insensitive prick," she mumbled angrily as she stormed away to sit with John.

When she finally got up to the balcony, she silently sat beside John. He didn't look at her and she didn't look at him. Eisley figured that he didn't want to talk about what had just taken place, and she wasn't going to force him to talk to her. Instead, she held out the baggie of cookies to him, offering. With a sigh and a tired smile, he took one with one hand and pulled her body to his side with his free arm, holding her against him in almost a protective way.

They stayed like that for a little while. No words, there wasn't any need for words, not when what they wanted to say was better expressed in the silence. Nobody came to check up on them, and they didn't care. They ate their cookies and enjoyed each other's company.

[timclymer]

How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat – Secrets For the Regular Person – Part 2 of a 4 Part Weekly Series

Part 2 – Changing the Way You Eat and the Foods to Avoid to Get Rid Of Stomach Fat

Changing the Way You Eat

Back in Part 1 of my 4 part series I gave an overview of Stomach Fat, Why We Have It, and What We Have to do to Get Rid of Stomach Fat. In Part 2 of this series I will shift the focus to nutrition and how changing the way you eat will help you get rid of stomach fat, lose weight, and lower body fat.

According to who you talk to, nutrition probably accounts for 70-90% of a lifestyle change designed to lose weight. That’s right; I said lifestyle change, not diet. Diets have let us down for years, starting with how the USDA designed the food pyramids. The USDA let us down back in the early 80’s. They changed the food pyramid to focus on more carbohydrates and less fat. The USDA drove us to start eating more carbs by making the base of the pyramid (the biggest portion of the suggested diet) heavy in starches, grains, and other carbs. They didn’t educate the average American on the dangers of a diet rich in refined carbohydrates like regular pasta, white bread, and baked potatoes. This was a great disservice to the American public, based on what we know now.

The other thing that has really hindered us is all of the diets out there, especially low fat diets. The tendency is for us to follow a diet for a few weeks, or months, lose some weight, and then go back to unhealthy habits and gain all the weight back, or even more than what we lost. How is anyone ever going to stick to a lifestyle like that and keep themselves at a health weight?

So what is the solution? The easiest solution is to make a resolution to ourselves to eat healthy (90% of the time) for the rest of our lives. In my next section I am going to outline an easy eating plan to help do just that. But before I do that, let’s do some math.

Counting Calories

Counting calories on a daily basis isn’t necessarily part of my plan to get rid of stomach fat, but it is a good idea to have a basic understanding of daily caloric needs so we can put some kind of a plan in place, so let’s do it. There are many different formulas out there and you can do your own research to find one that works for you, but here is a simple formula to determine your basic daily caloric needs to work from:

* You need to know that 3500 calories = 1 pound

Let’s use an example of a woman that weighs 160 lbs. and whose goal weight is 130 lbs.

Multiply your goal weight by 10: 130×10 = 1300

Add 20 percent if you are sedentary (sit at a desk, etc.), add 50 percent if you are moderately active (outside sales, walk up and down stairs, etc.), and add 70 percent if you are active all day. For our example our woman is sedentary so, 1300 x 1.20 = 1560

Add the number of calories you burn during your workouts. For our example, our woman is not doing any exercise, so any additional calories burned during exercise is a bonus. We’ll cover calories burned during exercise in Part 3 of the 4 Part Series on How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat for the Regular Person.

Reduce this total by 15 percent for steady weight loss. So in our example, our woman needs about 1560 to maintain her weight, and since she doesn’t exercise, she needs to eat about 1326 calories a day for steady weight loss. If you are more active and exercising, then you need to eat more calories or your bodies metabolism will slow down too much.

Now one of the biggest fears we have in trying to lose weight is being in a constant state of hunger because we feel we have to starve ourselves. That is just not a healthy way to live and it isn’t part of this plan. Another part of our plan to change the way you eat is to eat smaller portions more often. In fact, we need to eat 4-6 times a day. I prefer 6 times a day, but it all depends on your goals and your lifestyle.

So in our example, our woman should try to eat 4-5 times a day dividing 1326 calories among those meals, so that would be approximately 330 calories a meal. It could be broken down like this:

Breakfast – 400 calories Snack – 100-200 calories Lunch – 300 calories Afternoon Snack – 100-200 calories Dinner – 400 calories

In this example we would eat 1300-1500 calories and would eat 5 times a day. I will go over what we should eat later in the article. Now let’s look at what we shouldn’t eat so we can finally get rid of stomach fat.

Another easy calculation is to figure out how many calories you are eating on a daily basis with a diet log and then subtract 15%. You have to be true to yourself and count every single thing that goes in your mouth for 3 or 4 days (a week is optimal).

Foods to Avoid

I’ll be any one of you reading this could help me write this section. We all know what foods we should not be eating. We should not eat foods high in sugar. We should not eat foods high in saturated fat. We should not eat fast food. We should avoid liquid calories. We know this. We still do it. You know what? It’s OK. Just do it in moderation. I am not going to tell you to cut these foods out of your diet completely, but to get rid of stomach fat; you must eat these types of foods and drinks in moderation. If you are at a birthday party with your kids, go ahead and have some cake, with the key word being “some”. Don’t scarf down 2 pieces; instead have half of 1 piece or just a bite or two. You’ll satisfy your sweet tooth and save a ton of calories over time. If you are out to eat, go ahead and have a French fry or two, or a slice of pizza. Just don’t over do it, and limit these little “cheats” to once a week. More on that later too.

So let’s address these foods and drinks to avoid in a little more detail.

Sugar – let me say this, sugar is the enemy. Food or drink high in sugar will sabotage your healthy eating plan faster than anything else. Look at your food labels and try to stay away from anything over 10 grams of sugar per serving.

High Fructose Corn Syrup- another ingredient that will kill your chances of losing weight. Your body doesn’t even recognize the calories and in fact your body shuts off its natural appetite control switches, so you can eat and eat far more than what your body would be able to handle. In fact, HFCS is sort of like setting up a direct line into your stomach to produce fat. HFCS is in cereal, ketchup, soda, flavored waters, marinades, etc. I’ve even seen it as the first or second ingredient on supposedly healthy WHOLE WHEAT BREAD! It’s everywhere. Avoid it all costs. If it is listed as one of the first 4 or 5 ingredients on the label, think twice about eating or drinking that item.

Trans Fats and Saturated Fats- thankfully the government finally cracked down on the food companies to remove trans fat and put it in the labeling. They are tough to digest and increase the amount of bad cholesterol in your blood. Since trans fat is synthetic and doesn’t exist naturally, your body has a tough time processing it. It not only raises bad cholesterol (LDL), but it lowers good cholesterol (HDL). This is awful. Check labels for these words and avoid at all costs: hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated. The higher on the label, the more they have. Here some common foods with hidden trans fat: soups, biscuits, fries, Oreos, spreads, frozen foods (chicken pot pie and waffles), most fast food, and movie popcorn. Keep away from these foods at all costs. Saturated fat is also bad for your heart and cholesterol levels. Saturated fat shows up in fatty cuts of red meat and in whole-milk dairy products. Saturated fat basically goes right from your stomach, to your stomach. How do you like that? It doesn’t have far to go at all to make you fat, so eat fatty meats sparingly and drink low fat or fat free milk. We’ll talk about good fats when I discuss my easy to remember nutrition plan below.

Sugar Filled Drinks- if we really want to drop pounds and shed calories in a hurry, we need to get rid of sugary drinks. Sodas, Fruit Juices, Flavored Teas, Flavored Milk, Flavored Coffees, and Smoothies from a store. Some of us get up to 25% of our daily calorie intake from sugary drinks without even processing this in our mind as bad for us. Did you know that a can of Sunkist Orange Soda has 190 calories and 52 grams of sugar per 12 oz. can? Did you know that a Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo’d Power Smoothie has 1170 calories and 169 grams of sugar? These numbers are shocking. Imagine our woman in the example above is trying to lose weight by eating around 1300-1500 calories a day and she drinks a Jamba Juice Power Smoothie thinking the “power” in the title is healthy. She just drank almost her entire day’s worth of calories in 10 minutes! Let’s say we are drinking a coffee loaded with cream and sugar, an 8 oz. glass of OJ in morning, a couple of regular sodas a day, and maybe a beer or two for dinner, then guess what, that is about 500-600 liquid calories a day. Just by switching to water or mineral water, we would lose a pound a week without changing anything else. Think about that for a moment. Just by switching to water, sugar less green tea or diet soda, we could lose a pound a week. Pretty incredible.

High Glycemic Foods- these are starchy foods like regular potatoes, white rice, regular pasta, pretzels, plain bagels, white bread, or any other food made with enriched flour. These foods are almost like eating sugar because they are converting almost directly into fat (guess what the USDA had us eating all those years at the bottom of the food pyramid. No wonder we got fat!)

You can do some research on the internet at sites like calorieking.com to learn how many calories your favorite foods have. Remember, I am not going to recommend counting calories on a daily basis, but you should really get an idea of how much sugar, fat, and calories your favorite foods and drinks have. We have covered the bad stuff, so now let’s move onto to my easy to remember and easy to follow eating plan. Part 3 of my series, How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat: Secrets for the Regular Person will cover the foods you must eat to get rid of stomach fat. See my resource box for more details.

Source by Brett Basinski

from Home Solutions Forev https://homesolutionsforev.com/how-to-get-rid-of-stomach-fat-secrets-for-the-regular-person-part-2-of-a-4-part-weekly-series/ via Home Solutions on WordPress from Home Solutions FOREV https://homesolutionsforev.tumblr.com/post/187404716035 via Tim Clymer on Wordpress

[homesolutionsforev]

How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat – Secrets For the Regular Person – Part 2 of a 4 Part Weekly Series

Part 2 – Changing the Way You Eat and the Foods to Avoid to Get Rid Of Stomach Fat

Changing the Way You Eat

Back in Part 1 of my 4 part series I gave an overview of Stomach Fat, Why We Have It, and What We Have to do to Get Rid of Stomach Fat. In Part 2 of this series I will shift the focus to nutrition and how changing the way you eat will help you get rid of stomach fat, lose weight, and lower body fat.

According to who you talk to, nutrition probably accounts for 70-90% of a lifestyle change designed to lose weight. That’s right; I said lifestyle change, not diet. Diets have let us down for years, starting with how the USDA designed the food pyramids. The USDA let us down back in the early 80’s. They changed the food pyramid to focus on more carbohydrates and less fat. The USDA drove us to start eating more carbs by making the base of the pyramid (the biggest portion of the suggested diet) heavy in starches, grains, and other carbs. They didn’t educate the average American on the dangers of a diet rich in refined carbohydrates like regular pasta, white bread, and baked potatoes. This was a great disservice to the American public, based on what we know now.

The other thing that has really hindered us is all of the diets out there, especially low fat diets. The tendency is for us to follow a diet for a few weeks, or months, lose some weight, and then go back to unhealthy habits and gain all the weight back, or even more than what we lost. How is anyone ever going to stick to a lifestyle like that and keep themselves at a health weight?

So what is the solution? The easiest solution is to make a resolution to ourselves to eat healthy (90% of the time) for the rest of our lives. In my next section I am going to outline an easy eating plan to help do just that. But before I do that, let’s do some math.

Counting Calories

Counting calories on a daily basis isn’t necessarily part of my plan to get rid of stomach fat, but it is a good idea to have a basic understanding of daily caloric needs so we can put some kind of a plan in place, so let’s do it. There are many different formulas out there and you can do your own research to find one that works for you, but here is a simple formula to determine your basic daily caloric needs to work from:

* You need to know that 3500 calories = 1 pound

Let’s use an example of a woman that weighs 160 lbs. and whose goal weight is 130 lbs.

Multiply your goal weight by 10: 130×10 = 1300

Add 20 percent if you are sedentary (sit at a desk, etc.), add 50 percent if you are moderately active (outside sales, walk up and down stairs, etc.), and add 70 percent if you are active all day. For our example our woman is sedentary so, 1300 x 1.20 = 1560

Add the number of calories you burn during your workouts. For our example, our woman is not doing any exercise, so any additional calories burned during exercise is a bonus. We’ll cover calories burned during exercise in Part 3 of the 4 Part Series on How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat for the Regular Person.

Reduce this total by 15 percent for steady weight loss. So in our example, our woman needs about 1560 to maintain her weight, and since she doesn’t exercise, she needs to eat about 1326 calories a day for steady weight loss. If you are more active and exercising, then you need to eat more calories or your bodies metabolism will slow down too much.

Now one of the biggest fears we have in trying to lose weight is being in a constant state of hunger because we feel we have to starve ourselves. That is just not a healthy way to live and it isn’t part of this plan. Another part of our plan to change the way you eat is to eat smaller portions more often. In fact, we need to eat 4-6 times a day. I prefer 6 times a day, but it all depends on your goals and your lifestyle.

So in our example, our woman should try to eat 4-5 times a day dividing 1326 calories among those meals, so that would be approximately 330 calories a meal. It could be broken down like this:

Breakfast – 400 calories Snack – 100-200 calories Lunch – 300 calories Afternoon Snack – 100-200 calories Dinner – 400 calories

In this example we would eat 1300-1500 calories and would eat 5 times a day. I will go over what we should eat later in the article. Now let’s look at what we shouldn’t eat so we can finally get rid of stomach fat.

Another easy calculation is to figure out how many calories you are eating on a daily basis with a diet log and then subtract 15%. You have to be true to yourself and count every single thing that goes in your mouth for 3 or 4 days (a week is optimal).

Foods to Avoid

I’ll be any one of you reading this could help me write this section. We all know what foods we should not be eating. We should not eat foods high in sugar. We should not eat foods high in saturated fat. We should not eat fast food. We should avoid liquid calories. We know this. We still do it. You know what? It’s OK. Just do it in moderation. I am not going to tell you to cut these foods out of your diet completely, but to get rid of stomach fat; you must eat these types of foods and drinks in moderation. If you are at a birthday party with your kids, go ahead and have some cake, with the key word being “some”. Don’t scarf down 2 pieces; instead have half of 1 piece or just a bite or two. You’ll satisfy your sweet tooth and save a ton of calories over time. If you are out to eat, go ahead and have a French fry or two, or a slice of pizza. Just don’t over do it, and limit these little “cheats” to once a week. More on that later too.

So let’s address these foods and drinks to avoid in a little more detail.

Sugar – let me say this, sugar is the enemy. Food or drink high in sugar will sabotage your healthy eating plan faster than anything else. Look at your food labels and try to stay away from anything over 10 grams of sugar per serving.

High Fructose Corn Syrup- another ingredient that will kill your chances of losing weight. Your body doesn’t even recognize the calories and in fact your body shuts off its natural appetite control switches, so you can eat and eat far more than what your body would be able to handle. In fact, HFCS is sort of like setting up a direct line into your stomach to produce fat. HFCS is in cereal, ketchup, soda, flavored waters, marinades, etc. I’ve even seen it as the first or second ingredient on supposedly healthy WHOLE WHEAT BREAD! It’s everywhere. Avoid it all costs. If it is listed as one of the first 4 or 5 ingredients on the label, think twice about eating or drinking that item.

Trans Fats and Saturated Fats- thankfully the government finally cracked down on the food companies to remove trans fat and put it in the labeling. They are tough to digest and increase the amount of bad cholesterol in your blood. Since trans fat is synthetic and doesn’t exist naturally, your body has a tough time processing it. It not only raises bad cholesterol (LDL), but it lowers good cholesterol (HDL). This is awful. Check labels for these words and avoid at all costs: hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated. The higher on the label, the more they have. Here some common foods with hidden trans fat: soups, biscuits, fries, Oreos, spreads, frozen foods (chicken pot pie and waffles), most fast food, and movie popcorn. Keep away from these foods at all costs. Saturated fat is also bad for your heart and cholesterol levels. Saturated fat shows up in fatty cuts of red meat and in whole-milk dairy products. Saturated fat basically goes right from your stomach, to your stomach. How do you like that? It doesn’t have far to go at all to make you fat, so eat fatty meats sparingly and drink low fat or fat free milk. We’ll talk about good fats when I discuss my easy to remember nutrition plan below.

Sugar Filled Drinks- if we really want to drop pounds and shed calories in a hurry, we need to get rid of sugary drinks. Sodas, Fruit Juices, Flavored Teas, Flavored Milk, Flavored Coffees, and Smoothies from a store. Some of us get up to 25% of our daily calorie intake from sugary drinks without even processing this in our mind as bad for us. Did you know that a can of Sunkist Orange Soda has 190 calories and 52 grams of sugar per 12 oz. can? Did you know that a Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo’d Power Smoothie has 1170 calories and 169 grams of sugar? These numbers are shocking. Imagine our woman in the example above is trying to lose weight by eating around 1300-1500 calories a day and she drinks a Jamba Juice Power Smoothie thinking the “power” in the title is healthy. She just drank almost her entire day’s worth of calories in 10 minutes! Let’s say we are drinking a coffee loaded with cream and sugar, an 8 oz. glass of OJ in morning, a couple of regular sodas a day, and maybe a beer or two for dinner, then guess what, that is about 500-600 liquid calories a day. Just by switching to water or mineral water, we would lose a pound a week without changing anything else. Think about that for a moment. Just by switching to water, sugar less green tea or diet soda, we could lose a pound a week. Pretty incredible.

High Glycemic Foods- these are starchy foods like regular potatoes, white rice, regular pasta, pretzels, plain bagels, white bread, or any other food made with enriched flour. These foods are almost like eating sugar because they are converting almost directly into fat (guess what the USDA had us eating all those years at the bottom of the food pyramid. No wonder we got fat!)

You can do some research on the internet at sites like calorieking.com to learn how many calories your favorite foods have. Remember, I am not going to recommend counting calories on a daily basis, but you should really get an idea of how much sugar, fat, and calories your favorite foods and drinks have. We have covered the bad stuff, so now let’s move onto to my easy to remember and easy to follow eating plan. Part 3 of my series, How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat: Secrets for the Regular Person will cover the foods you must eat to get rid of stomach fat. See my resource box for more details.

Source by Brett Basinski

from Home Solutions Forev https://homesolutionsforev.com/how-to-get-rid-of-stomach-fat-secrets-for-the-regular-person-part-2-of-a-4-part-weekly-series/ via Home Solutions on WordPress