Sunday, March 31, 2013

The Wonderful World of Disney!

Welcome to a Sunday blog! Hope you had a better day than I did. I spent 90% of my day working with oldest child on his outline for his Language Arts paper that was due last week. The boy does not know how to write! Sigh...and so, sadly, this weekend, he has spent working overtime on his schoolwork.

I had intended another round of Intermittent Fasting today. Made it until just after 2:00 PM, but the boy eating pizza and candy threw me over the edge. I had to get something to eat. Oh well. Not important.

Today being Easter, I decided to make a nice dinner. Therefore, we had Roasted Leg of Lamb, Garlic and Herb Mashed Cauliflower, and Carrot Cake. All of the recipes came from here. Everything tasted pretty good, including the cake! Mashed Cauliflower is never going to taste like mashed potatoes, but just accepting I was eating mashed cauliflower is okay, too!

My weight was at 226.0 lbs today. Yay! Not going to make the 220 lbs in 7 days, unfortunately. Oh well. I figure I will be a solid 223 by the time we head out to Disneyland. Hopefully, I will return at less than 226. It's going to take some effort, but right off the bat, I know there are several things I will not be eating or drinking.

I guess that's going to lead me into the topic for the week which is Disney. Today, I'm going to talk about my favorite restaurants and snack bars. Disneyland has some amazing food. Most of it is definitely not Paleo/Primal, but all of it is good. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water! Below are some of the rules I am making for myself while there.

First off, each dinner will contain some sort of salad and vegetable along with the protein. No starchy carbs after dinner time.

Second, no Sodas. Water and black coffee only.

Three, one indulgence a day. Be it a meal or a snack, there will be one indulgence a day!

Now, to the good stuff. What to eat while there? Oh man...the possibilities are endless!

One of my favorite things to eat there is the Corn dog and chips right on Main Street, USA.


The Little Red Wagon sells these amazing, hand dipped corn dogs. 


So good! This is going to be a tough one to pass up. We shall see how things are going!

Dinner one night will be here:


The Blue Bayou is a family favorite and probably the coolest restaurant in Disneyland. The food is always amazing, and the ambiance?


This is a picture looking at the restaurant from The Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Yep. The restaurant is inside the ride! Best seats are at the tables nearest the water. You really get the full experience as you sit back and enjoy your meal! Reservations are a must and the entire party must be there by the time your reservation is set, or they will pass you by.

Another family favorite are these delightful treats:


The Dole Whip and the Dole Whip Float. Pineapple Soft Serve and Pineapple Soft Serve with Pineapple Juice. I normally get just the Whip. It's a really good ice cream. Kick back, watch the Tiki Room show, and eat a dole whip? My idea of a good time at Disneyland.

Keeping it to Adventureland, another great place to eat is The Bengal Barbecue.


Small little stand right across from the world famous, Jungle Cruise. They serve skewers of meat and veggies. The sauce is probably loaded with sugar, but it's probably a better choice than most places we could eat!



Rancho Del Zocallo is Malia's favorite.


While the majority of this food is fried carbs, there are some citrus grilled options as well, so this is a possibility for at least one meal!

There are plenty of good places to eat. Anyone have a favorite? Post here or on my Facebook page!

Apparently, there is a gluten free menu available. I found a link that shows what's GF and where you can get it, I think that is probably the best I am going to get while there, other than common sense!

Calendar for the blog topics will be:

Monday: Tomorrowland and Main Street USA
Tuesday: Fantasyland and Toontown
Wednesday: Critter Country, Adventureland, Frontierland, and New Orleans Square
Thursday: Disney California Adventure, Part 1
Friday: Disney California Adventure, Part 2
Saturday: Characters
Sunday: Hotels and Downtown Disney

After that, I will not be doing a regular blog. Maybe a few updates from the park, so keep your eyes out for that!

Food Diary for Sunday the 31st of March:

Breakfast: Nothing

AM Snack: Nothing
                 
Lunch:  2 hard boiled eggs

PM Snack: 10 Macadamias
                  1 hunk of Pepperoni

Dinner:  Roast Leg of Lamb
             Herb Mashed Cauliflower
             Carrot Cake 

Water: About 70 oz

Sleep: about 5 hours of sleep

Exercise: Not much today

Thanks for reading! See ya later!





Saturday, March 30, 2013

Doctor What? (Title added on Sunday!)


Saturday blog written when it's supposed to be. Sorry to all my loyal readers who follow my every word with diligence for the missing post yesterday! Hopefully the double dose today makes up for it! 

Today was a "sleeping in" day. I think I made it until about 7:30 AM! As I said earlier, Malia and I stayed up and watched several episodes of Game of Thrones. Pretty good show. I still haven't read all the books. That is on my summer reading list. I bought the books a few years ago, but haven't even gotten half-way through the first book!

Planted strawberry bushes, tore out a dying tree, and hacked down the Russian Sage. All that before noon. After that is was a day of doing laundry. 

A lot of the laundry this week was my old t-shirts that didn't fit. I've been trying a few of them on for the past few weeks hoping that they would fit. No luck, until today! I ended up trying on all of my t-shirts, which if you know me, is a LOT of shirts. I was able to get back into all of them except for 9. There were about 6 shirts that I am "retiring" due to stains, outdated themes, or the like. I was pretty excited about that, since I have been hoping to get back into them by the time summer starts.

With the shirts fitting, I am now noticing I am really going to need pants and shorts soon! The pair of shorts I was wearing today used to be very snug. Now, without a belt they just fall off. Very good!

The weight was down to 225.6 today. Hopefully that will carry over to next week. Almost to to the 30 lbs lost mark. Maybe that will be tomorrow? Doubt it, but who knows?

So, today the new season of Doctor Who started today. I haven't watched it yet, but hope to get to it by tomorrow night! Tonight we get to see more of his new Companion, Clara. So, it's kind of cool that I end this week with this topic. I really didn't have this planned, it was just sort of fortuitous that these two events lined up, just like earlier in the week when I wrote about Rose on the day of her first appearance!

First up is Amelia Pond.


Young Amelia

This is the first version of Amelia that we meet. The Doctor happens to crash the TARDIS into her yard, and she comes out to find him. After feeding him a variety of foods, he runs out and tells her he will be right back.

The next time we meet Amelia Pond is when she looks like this:


Um...yeah.

Oops! Right back is a relative term to a Time Lord, I guess. Amy waited years for him to return and when he did, she joined him on many adventures. I really liked Amy as a Companion. I would say she was the best of all. Besides the fact that she is a redhead with a Scottish accent (redhead with an accent? Weak in the knees!), she is a really good actress. She brought a lot to the show.

Joining Amy as a Companion was her boyfriend/husband/ex-husband (various relationships over the run of the show), Rory Williams.


At first I wasn't sure how Rory would fit into the show, but they did some really cool stuff with him, including making him REALLY old. I liked Rory as well.

Appearing along side off and on was this lady:


River Song

River has a very complicated relationship with The Doctor. She is also a time traveler, and she and The Doctor are living their lives together, but not in the correct order. Sometimes he will run into her and she will know things about him that he doesn't. Other times, it's vice versa. Occasionally, their timelines will sync up correctly. It's a very fun and interesting dynamic. By the end of the season, we get the whole story and it puts a lot of things together. Plus, her connection to Rory and Amy is an integral part of the story as well!

Towards the end of last season, we meet Clara. 


Clara looks to be an interesting character. We first meet her as the lone survivor of a spaceliner crash in some future time, only to find out, she's not all that she seems. We then meet her as a nanny for some rich kids in Victorian England. At first, I thought, "Seriously? Can't we get a different actress?" Then it dawns on me..."Ah ha. She is going to play a continuing role!" Very cool! I can't wait to see how this one plays out over the next eight episodes! 

That's it for Doctor Who Week. Hopefully you enjoyed it! 

Food Diary for Saturday the 30th of March:

Breakfast: 2 Eggs, over easy, fried in butter
                3 slices of Bacon
                10 oz of coffee w/ KAL Pure Stevia Extract

AM Snack: 1 beef stick
                 
Lunch:  2 Salmon Patties
            Big Ol' Salad w/ blood orange and dark chocolate balsamic vinaigrette

PM Snack: 10 Macadamias
                  10 oz of Iced coffee w/KAL Pure Stevia Extract

Dinner:  Chicken and Broccolli Alfredo
             2 squares of Lindt 90% Cacao Bar

Water: About 70 oz

Sleep: about 6 hours of sleep

Exercise: Walked dog for 40 minutes

Alright everyone, I'm out! Have a great day!

Better late than never

Good morning! This is the Friday edition of What's the Matter with Bootblacking blog, coming to you on Saturday morning! Long story short. Marc's birthday party was on Friday Night and there were about 7 10-11 year old boys running all over the house, watching movies, being loud, eating pizza, being loud, eating ice cream, and just generally being loud. Not a conducive environment to writing, so Malia and I barricaded ourselves in our room and watched Game of Thrones until 1 AM (just One More Episode!) . I stayed awake through most of it. We are now 1 episode into season 2. Sadly, we don't have HBO, so we will have to wait to watch season 3 which premieres this weekend.

Friday means steak for dinner. I recently placed an order for a bunch of meat from grasslandbeef.com and as part of the order I ordered a dozen Delmonico steaks. This type of Delmonico steak appears to be a bone-in top loin steak. either way, it was super good. Grilled it up with sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper out on the grill to a lovely medium-medium rare. Super good!

Friday also means my 6th graders at school. This group is really cool, and there are several nerds in the class. One in particular has awesome parents who expose her to the same environment as I expose the boys, tons of cartoons, sci-fi and fantasy stuff. She is a major Whovian and we were both geeking out on the fact that the new season starts on Saturday night.

This leads me to The 11th Doctor, Matt Smith:


Bow ties are cool

When Matt made his first appearance as The Doctor, I was a bit stunned. He had this WAY over the top humor that was very different from David Tennant's take that I didn't know what to say. Watching him trying to figure out what kind of food he liked (fish fingers and custard, btw) while ransacking young Amelia Pond's kitchen was just hilarious. I became immediately attached to this Doctor. I rank him as second favorite doctor, only because David Tennant was so awesome.

I'm excited about tonight's premiere. The new series looks amazing. I can't wait to find out more about his new companion.

Weight was 228.6 lbs Friday morning. Frustrating, but it is what it is.


Food Diary for Friday the 29th of March:

Breakfast: 2 Eggs, over easy, fried in butter
                2 slices of Canadian Bacon
                10 oz of coffee w/ KAL Pure Stevia Extract

AM Snack: 10 green beans
                  1 beef stick
                 
Lunch:  Paleo Sloppy Joes served over the homemade Sweet Potato Chips

PM Snack: nothing

Dinner:  Delmonico Steak
            Big Ol' Salad w/ blood orange and dark chocolate balsamic vinigrattte
            5 squares of Endangered Species 88% Cacao
            10 macadamias 

Water: About 70 oz

Sleep: about 6 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around 

I'll be back tonight with another post. Have a great Saturday!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Funny that...

So, I did something cool and didn't realize it. I posted on Tuesday about Rose Tyler being the 9th Doctor's companion. Funny thing about that? March 26th was the day the series started again. With the first appearance of Rose Tyler. How cool is that?

Anyway...howdy, friends! So good of you to drop in and check out my little corner of the internet. And by little, I do mean little. I average less than 30 hits a day, but that's okay. I'm not trying to take the world by storm here. Just my quiet little voice talking about what interests me in a format that is more conducive to writing than either Facebook or Twitter.

Today I'll talk about the 10th Doctor's Companions.

We met these two already:


Rose and Jack

They play a pivotal role in the development of The (10th) Doctor as well as the 9th. I was really glad to see they carried on during 10's reign.

Rose eventually becomes trapped in another dimension and Jack left after being stranded on the satellite and later (re)forms Torchwood. Jack's final fate is actually REALLY cool and the setup is so subtle and drawn out, that you really have no idea what's about to happen until they hit you with it. I was blown away when they revealed who his future identity was!

During the time Rose and Jack were Companions of the Doctor's, Rose's ex/Boyfriend, Mickey, also did some travelling with them. He really felt left out in the dynamics and didn't stay very long. He later takes a role as an alternate dimension version of himself and does some really cool stuff!


Mickey Smith

After Rose, Jack and Mickey left, The Doctor found a new Companion:


Martha Jones

Martha was smart, charming, and funny. I liked her. Going off to be a part of UNIT and Torchwood after her time as a Companion was a cool thing. I think she made an excellent companion, and would like to have seen more of her. 


Next up was Donna Noble



Sigh...Donna. I really hated her from at the start. She was annoying. However, by the end of her time, she was quite the sympathetic character and I felt awful for her. All the stuff that happened to her, and she wasn't allowed to remember it? Sad. It made me look at her in a new light, that's for sure.

There were several other, minor companions, including the return of Sarah Jane Smith, during 10's run as The Doctor. Not really going to mention them, as I have no real memory of them at all.

Tomorrow I'll talk about the 11th man to play The Doctor.

The scale read 228.2 lbs today. Better than yesterday, but still not where I wanted to be. Drat!

Food Diary for Thursday the 28th of March:

Breakfast: 2 Eggs, over easy, fried in butter
                2 slices of Canadian Bacon
                10 oz of coffee w/ KAL Pure Stevia Extract

AM Snack: 5 green beans
                  10 pecans
                 
Lunch:  Leftover Salmon Patties (not bad the second day, actually!)
            Big Ol' Salad with Dark Chocolate and Blood Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette

PM Snack: 10 Macadamias

Dinner: Paleo Sloppy Joes (I cheated actually and used some store bought BBQ sauce, full of sugar and corn syrup, definitely NOT Paleo)
            Big Ol' Salad
            4 squares of Endangered Species 88% Cacao
             
Water: About 70 oz

Sleep: about 6 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around (Malia crashed early again tonight, so no bike again!)

That's all for another exciting episode, tune in next time!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Allons-y!

Welcome to Wednesday! Another day in the books and one day closer to vacation! This year we are taking the 2nd oldest niece to Disneyland for her High School Graduation present. It's a bit early, but with summer being crazy and short for us and with her starting college in the fall, Spring Break made the most sense to us. So, another Disneyland trip coming up! I'm excited. Get to see Cars Land finally!

The next Disney trip will be a joint venture with friends to Disney World over Christmas of 2014. This will give us a chance to save up for it. Not so much the park, but the plane tickets! It's expensive for four people to fly to Orlando from here.

Today, we celebrate two birthdays, one for this guy:


Marc who is now 11.

And this guy:


My Dad, Bob, who would have been 66 years old today. He passed away 6 years ago.

Today is kind of a bittersweet day. When we decided to have Marc's birthday be today, we knew it was on Dad's birthday, but didn't think about the ramifications of that down the road. Now, every birthday, Marc remembers it's also Poppy's birthday, and that makes him sad. However, each year gets a little easier to deal with. I don't think he even mentioned it this year. 

Continuing on my discussion of Doctor Who:


David Tenant as The Doctor

David was the 10th man to play The Doctor and is my number one favorite Doctor. His humor, his general wackiness, and the crazy look he gets when he's about to do something totally off the wall make him a very compelling character. I liked him from the moment I saw him. By the end of his run, he was really playing the tortured soul really well. His almost maniacal portrayal as a desperate man made you believe he was really about to lose it all. When he "regenerated" I was saddened by his passing, but knew that the story arc really had no way of continuing with him. Having a new Doctor made sense.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about his Companions.

Weight was down to 228.2 today. Not much to say really. It's been 53 days now since I made the switch. I still feel really good. Cravings for sweets don't go away, I don't care what anyone says. I could eat an entire gallon of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream right now if it were sitting in front of me. I don't because I know it's not good for me, but I still want it. 

I actually did cheat yesterday and I forgot all about it! I stopped in at Big Horn Olive Oil to pick up another bottle of the Black Currant Balsamic Vinegar and walked out with that and a small bottle of Dark Chocolate Balsamic and Blood Orange Olive Oil as well. That is an awesome combo, by the way. I've had it 2 times since I got it yesterday, and it is really good. I'm sure it would be a good taste over ice cream, but I've had it on salad with fish both times and the combo is quite nice.

Anyway...the cheat came when I was leaving. On my way out, the lady at the store pressed two hand wrapped, chocolate truffles into my hand. They sat on the seat next to me for about 5 minutes before I opened one up and ate it. I did savor it and ate it slowly. Which was good, because it was some sort of Chile Chocolate, something in the Scoville range of a Jalapeno to a Cayenne. Enough to feel the heat, but not enough to be dangerous. The other was a Dark Chocolate truffle, not nearly as dark as what I've been eating, but darker than milk chocolate.

Tomorrow is another good day! I get to go be with the "cool" people! Ha!

Food Diary for Wednesday the 27th of March:

Breakfast: 2 Eggs, over easy, fried in butter
                2 slices of Canadian Bacon
                10 oz of coffee w/ KAL Pure Stevia Extract

AM Snack: 5 green beans
                  10 pecans
                 
Lunch:  Leftover Halibut from Monday
            Big Ol' Salad with Dark Chocolate and Blood Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette

PM Snack: 10 Macadamias
                  2 servings of uncured Pepperoni

Dinner: Salmon Patties (eh...not that great.)
            Big Ol' Salad with Dark Chocolate and Blood Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette
            4 squares of Lindt 90% Cacao
             
Water: About 70 oz

Sleep: about 6 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around 
              Abs Diet Original Wednesday workout

Have a great one! 

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A Rose by any other name...

So, how's by you? Good enough here, I suppose!

Today was an interesting day. Wasn't able to accomplish as much as I wanted, but I guess it will have to do. Hard to teach students who aren't there!

Day 3 of Doctor Who thoughts revolves around the 9th Doctor's Companions. We'll start with the obvious one for whom this post is titled.


Rose Tyler as played by Billie Piper

At first, I thought Rose was going to be a waste. Her acting seemed really forced to me. She didn't seem to have much chemistry with The Doctor and I wasn't sure what she was going to do. By the second season, I was really impressed with how much she had grown into the role and how much I had grown to like the character. She was funny, smart, brave, everything The Doctor's Companion should be.

Along the way, they picked up this guy:


Adam Mitchell as played by Bruno Langley

I wouldn't call him a true "companion" for The Doctor. He was around for 2 episodes and dumped back in his home time by The Doctor with basically a "Lose my number." kind of goodbye. Apparently, the plan was for him to show the opposite of what a true companion should be. For that, he did a good job.

The third and final Companion for the 9th Doctor was:


Captain Jack Harkness played by John Barrowman

I liked Jack almost immediately, and as his character developed, I began to like him even more. He was a crazy, fun counterpoint to The Doctor. I have yet to watch the show he starred in, Torchwood, but I've got it saved on the Netflix queue. I'll have to start watching that one after I finish catching up with Warehouse 13 and Farscape (I've tried countless times to get into this show. I've heard it gets better as the series progresses, but I have trouble making it out of the first season.).

Tomorrow, I'll talk about my favorite Doctor, number 10.

Today we took Marc out for his birthday dinner even though his birthday isn't until tomorrow. Wednesdays are such crazy days, that there is no way we would get a birthday dinner in. His choice of restaurants was Olive Garden. Sigh...

I spent some time researching options for meals. I could have the salmon with veggies, the mixed skewers with veggies, or the steak with veggies. However, none of these sounded right. I then read something about getting the Chicken Alfredo served over broccoli. So, that's what I went with. Not sure if it was Paleo/Primal or not, but it was so good, I don't care. I know I can make it Primal at home, so this may be something I start adding to the rotation of meals. So good!

Weight was up again today, 228.6 lbs. The trend is still down, so all good. I just wish it would keep going down, instead of the peaks and valleys! Here is a picture of what has been going on. Some of the early information is outdated, so ignore the  numbers before 02/05. I didn't change the settings for my starting weight from 251 to 254 and it wouldn't let me go back and retroactively change the starting weight. Of course, my highest weight was 260, so that's not even listed. Why would I list my heaviest weight when I wasn't trying to lose? 


This chart fills me with all sorts of happy.

I think I'm going to post a photo expo of my weight next week. Should be interesting. I also think I will add this graph every couple of weeks to make it visual!

Food Diary for Tuesday the 26th of March:

Breakfast: 2 Eggs, over easy, fried in butter
                2 slices of Canadian Bacon
                10 oz of coffee w/ KAL Pure Stevia Extract

AM Snack: 5 green beans
                  5 macadamias
                 
Lunch:  Leftover Pork Pot Roast from last week
            Roasted Radishes

PM Snack: 10 Macadamias
                  1 square of Endangered Species 88% Cacao
                  2 servings of uncured Pepperoni

Dinner: Chicken Alfredo over Broccoli instead of Pasta
           Garden Dinner Salad
           2 squares of Lindt 90% Cacao
             
Water: About 70 oz

Sleep: about 6 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around (Didn't get to the bike before Malia went to sleep, drat!)

Until next time, be good to yourself!




Monday, March 25, 2013

Number 9...number 9...


Hello and welcome back! I hope you had a great day!

Today was a Monday. Not too bad, not too good. A Monday like many other Mondays. Nothing major to report. Went to work in my jammies again. Got lots of fresh air and sunshine as the kids did their School Site Survey. It was kind of hard to get going today, but I pulled through in the end.

Last year I rediscovered Doctor Who thanks to Netflix. I was looking for something new to watch, and a few of my friends had said Doctor Who was worth it, so I picked it up with the newest run on BBC America which started in 2005. This series starts out with the 9th man to play The Doctor, Christopher Eccleston.


My first impression of him was, ehh. I thought his delivery was a bit cheesy, as were the special effects. As his time as The Doctor went on, I began to enjoy his work somewhat more. I really like how he interacted with his companions. I like that his look was very simple: black leather jacket, black shirt, and jeans. His was a style I could wear and get away with! Great hairdo as well! By the time he "died" though, I was ready for him to go, and his leaving really made sense. 

I've read, that he never really liked being The Doctor. I think maybe that showed in his work, which was why it was harder for me to like what he was doing. Either way, the show took a turn for the better when the 10th Doctor showed up.

Tomorrow I'll talk about The Doctor's Companions, Rose and Jack.

The weigh in today. 228.2 lbs. Whatever. Less than 230, so that's good. I guess it's conceivable I make 220 by the 8th of April, but that's still 14 days away to lose between 6-8 lbs. Average of .5 a day? Maybe. We shall see!

Food Diary for Monday the 24th of March:

Breakfast: 2 Eggs, over easy, fried in butter
                2 slices of Canadian Bacon
                10 oz of coffee w/ KAL Pure Stevia Extract

AM Snack: 5 green beans
                 
Lunch:  Chicken Stir Fry w/ onions, broccoli, zucchini, celery, yellow and red bell peppers
            Cauliflower "Fried Rice" style

PM Snack: 10 Macadamias
                  1 square of Endangered Species 88% Cacao
                  2 servings of uncured Pepperoni

Dinner: Halibut in Butter Sauce
            Roasted Radishes
            Big Ol' Salad
           2 squares of Lindt 90% Cacao
             
Water: About 70 oz

Sleep: about 6 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around
              Abs Diet Original Monday Routine

That's it for today. Off to go pump iron! See you soon!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Who?


Hey all! Thanks for coming back. Today, I thought I'd start my week long look at another thing I like. At the recommendation of Malia, I will be talking about one of my TV favorites, Doctor Who.

To me, like many Americans who grew up in the late 70's and early 80's, Doctor Who was this guy: 


The fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker

Since I was a youngster, I don't really remember much about the Doctor Who series from this time. I just remember his cool scarf. Tom Baker, was, as far as I knew, THE Doctor. I didn't know there were others before him, and as I grew older, I didn't realize there was a new one, and apparently 3 more. I didn't become aware of Doctor Who again until the 9th doctor. It was never a real favorite show of mine as a kid. I liked Dukes of Hazard way more. Don't judge me! 

I don't really remember much about his main Companion from this time period either: 


Sarah Jane Smith

He had a couple others, but none that I remember, except this little guy:


K-9

The schedule, since I know you are dying to know, will be this:
     Monday: 9th Doctor
     Tuesday: 9th Doctor's Companions
     Wednesday: 10th Doctor
     Thursday: 10 Doctor's Companions
     Friday: 11th Doctor
     Saturday: 11th Doctor's Companions

So, weight loss seems to be back on track. The scale read 226.6 this morning. Funny how as soon as I stopped worrying about it, it started dropping again. Guess I just need to stop worrying! 

As you can see from the food diary, I didn't make the fasting day today. I don't think I ate enough yesterday to sustain myself through the day today. My stomach started out grumbling, and I held off until about 1:30 or so and had lunch. Not a big deal. I'll try again next weekend. The goal for this week is to get back on the exercise routine. Weights tomorrow, Wednesday, and Friday. Bike on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Food Diary for Sunday the 24th of March:

Breakfast: Nothing

AM Snack: Nothing
                 
Lunch:  1 serving of Meatloaf
             Big Ol' Salad w/ Balsamic and Olive Oil

PM Snack: 10 Macadamias
                  2 square of Endangered Species 88% Cacao

Dinner: Chicken Stir Fry w/ onions, broccoli, zucchini, celery, yellow and red bell peppers
            Cauliflower "Fried Rice" style
           2 squares of Lindt 90% Cacao
             
Water: About 70 oz

Sleep: about 7 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around
              A little gardening

With that, I leave you! Have a great day!

Saturday, March 23, 2013

There and Back Again


Welcome back! Hopefully your day went well. Mine was good. Out early running errands and then finished my last official duty as Cubmaster of Pack 46. As I said today, I am leaving the Pack better than when I took over, and that is a good thing. Hopefully the leadership remains strong and the growth continues for years to come.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to have a goofy send off race with Clint, but I still got to race my car. Here is a picture of the finished work. I'd like to say I did it all myself, but in all honesty, it's a kit. I just painted it. Still, it's cool enough.


Yep. I made a Batmobile. Pretty sweet! I got beat by several cars, including another Batmobile and even a Superman car. Not the worst Pinewood derby I've ever been to, though.

Today's title is another obvious Hobbit reference. There and back again describes lots of things in my life. I've been to many places both figuratively and literally and always come back, but as Gandalf says, never the same. Today, I'm thankful for all the roads I've taken that have made me the person I am.

Speaking of today, it's time for the daily weigh in. 227.8 lbs. No idea. I don't even know what to say. I weighed myself 3 different times and that was the number that came up each time. After a week of low 230's, I don't even know how to respond. We shall see what tomorrow brings. Tomorrow has been the usual fasting day. I think I'll give it a go again.

Food Diary for Saturday the 23rd of March:

Breakfast: Nothing except a cup of coffee with the new sweetener. Powerful stuff that. Less than an 8th of a teaspoon does the trick. I was out early and thought I would grab something when I got home. Didn't get home until lunch time.

AM Snack: Nothing
                 
Lunch:  1 serving of Meatloaf
             Big Ol' Salad

PM Snack: 10 Macadamias
                  1 square of Endangered Species 88% Cacao

Dinner: Leftover Steak
            Big Ol' Salad w/ Balsamic and Olive Oil
             
Water: About 50 oz

Sleep: about 5 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around

Until next time! 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Eagles

Tonight the family gathered around the TV to watch The Hobbit. Malia , Marc, and I fell asleep several times. Malia finally gave up and went to bed. Only Noah and I ended up watching through to the end. At the point when the eagles come to save the good guys from certain death, Noah asks the age old question. "Why didn't the eagles just fly them to The Lonely Mountain?"

It seems to be the way Tolkien liked to get his characters out of a serious jam. The eagles save Gandalf from Sarumon. The eagles get Sam and Frodo off Mount Doom. Why not just have the eagles do everything and get it over with? The obvious answer is that it would make the stories much less interesting. Bilbo never would have gotten the ring had they flown straight to the mountain. The Company would never had needed rescuing, thus causing a fairly good chunk of the story to be lost. Sam and Frodo never would have had the ring to take to Mount Doom in the first place. It does seem like he wrote himself into a corner and used the eagles as a convenient escape hatch a lot, though.

Today was a decent day. Work went well and fast! That's always a plus. Went to a TGIF with some work colleagues. Ate some raw fish. Eh...not a favorite, that's for sure. Had a decent steak for dinner. Got to watch (most of) The Hobbit again. All in all a good day.

Currently I am in the process of painting my Pinewood Derby car for tomorrow's big race. I officially hand over the reigns of Cubmaster to Clint tomorrow. He and I will do something goofy and race our cars for honor and glory or something. I'll post pictures of the car tomorrow.

Today I decided I needed to stop stressing over my weight, as hard as that is. Got on the scale and I was up again. 231.6 lbs. Sigh. It's difficult to stay positive, but I'm still over 20 pounds lighter than I was a few months ago, so that's a good thing. My goals are shot though. 170 by Christmas is still a possibility, but 220 by April 8 is most unlikely at this point, and 200 by June 11 is getting harder to attain at this point. Oh well. The goal are just that, goals. Not deadlines or drop dead dates. I will reach the targets eventually. No point worrying about it. Just keep doing what I'm doing and make the best of it.

I spent much less time exercising this week. I'd been pushing myself pretty hard and needed the break. My body was sore all the time. Given it a few days rest. Next week, I'll get back on that horse.


Food Diary for Friday the 22nd of March:

Breakfast: 2 eggs, fried in organic butter
                2 pieces of (hormone free, nitrate and nitrite free, organic) Canadian Bacon 
                10 oz of Black Coffee

AM Snack: 10 Green Beans
                   10 Macadamias
                 
Lunch:  1 serving of Everyday Meatloaf (really good, btw!)
            Big Ol' Salad

PM Snack: Pepper Seared Ahi (4 slices) 
                  3 Dark Chocolate Honey Peppermint candies (really good!)

Dinner:  T-Bone Steak
             Pan Fried Brussels Sprouts
             1 square of Endangered Species 88% Cacao 

Water: About 60 oz

Sleep: about 6 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around


 With that, I leave you for the night. Take care!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Never Laugh at Live Dragons

So, earlier this week, I commented how I had dropped to under 230 lbs and was on my way to 220 in the next few weeks. Well, apparently my body took that as a challenge. Since Sunday my weight has gone back up to 231.2 lbs. Sigh...Very frustrating for me. So, apparently I had to learn my lesson, just like Bilbo. Never laugh at a live dragon! Sorry, body.

I looked over my diet of late and realized I've been eating too many nuts, including cashews, which are too good and I eat way too many of! Plus, the Pepperoni I've been eating contains sugar. So, I dropped the cashews in favor of a small handful of macadamias and skipped the old pepperoni in favor of uncured pepperoni. Much better list of ingredients.

I was feeling pretty down for most of the day. I try not to get too high or too low about my weight loss, but today, I was having none of it. Not losing weight is one thing, but gaining is a completely different thing. I'm really bummed that the scale has been going up this week. I'm not giving up, but wallowing in self pity? I'm never above that!

Speaking of someone who could wallow in self pity. Good old Bilbo. Whether it's this guy,



this guy,


or even this guy,



self pity was a way of life for him for a time. Though, at the end of his journey he came out much stronger. So, maybe that is my fate as well? Let's hope so!

Either way, tomorrow is a new day and I will rise and face it just like I have for the past month and a half.


Food Diary for Thursday the 21st of March:

Breakfast: 2 eggs, fried in organic butter
                2 pieces of (hormone free, nitrate and nitrite free, organic) Canadian Bacon 
                10 oz of Black Coffee

AM Snack: 10 Green Beans
                   10 Macadamias
                 
Lunch:  1 serving of Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breast
            Big Ol' Salad w/ Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

PM Snack: nothing

Dinner: Zucchini Pizza Boat (Slice a zucchini in half, scoop out the seeds, flilled with pizza toppings. I used  sauce, pork sausage, and the uncured pepperoni) 
             1 square of Endangered Species 88% Cacao 

Water: About 60 oz

Sleep: about 8 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around

"Farewell!" they cried, 'wherever you fare, till your eyries receive you at the journey's end!"

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The most awkward Wednesday

Well, maybe not the most awkward, but it's a Hobbit quote and it's Wednesday, so there ya go. I actually did have an awkward moment today. Some of my students were making faces at someone I couldn't see, standing outside my "room." I reminded them, to turn around and pay attention to me and not the people in the hallway. Turns out it was the mom of one of the children. D'oh!

Oh well, Lets turn to The Hobbit then. Actually, let's look at the Dwarves: Kili, Fili, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Ori, Dori, Nori, Oin, Gloin, and Thorin. (YES! Got them all the first time without looking!)


Cheat sheet for those who need it.

I thought the dwarves were pretty good. I especially liked Bofur. He was kind of cool in his own way. Thorin is just one bad mamajama, but, along with Kili and Fili, a little too handsome for what I had always pictured. The hair and beard styles were great, especially Nori's!

Besides the awkward moment, today was a pretty good day. I'm pretty sore from the exercising and lack of sleep from the last few nights, so I am taking tonight off to let my body heal up. Going to bed as soon as I finish here and hope to sleep straight through 'til morning!

So, without further ado:

Food Diary for Wednesday the 20th of March:

Breakfast: 2 eggs, fried in organic butter
                2 pieces of (hormone free, nitrate and nitrite free, organic) Canadian Bacon 
                2 oz of Black Coffee (not a black coffee fan at all! Can't wait for the new sweetener!)

AM Snack: 10 Green Beans
                   10 Macadamias
                 
Lunch:  1 serving of Everyday Paleo Pot Roast Soup

PM Snack: 14 pieces of Pepperoni

Dinner: Everyday Paleo Meatloaf (Really good meatloaf recipe!) 
             1 square of the Lindt 90% Cacao Bar
             1 square of Endangered Species 88% Cacao 

Water: About 60 oz

Sleep: about 5 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around

Until next time, remember: The road goes ever on and on!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The World is Ahead!

Good morning (or evening or afternoon)!  


All of them at once, I suppose.

Gandalf. No other wizard has held up to him, not even Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbldore. I've got to say, as powerful as Gandalf the White is, I much preferred Gandalf the Grey. He was much more fun! I love how he would disappear and then reappear at just the right moments. That idea of the man who arrived precisely when he was needed showed just how cool he was.

Today was a hectic day at work. Lots of things to do and then filling out paperwork to get ready for my evaluation and staff meetings. On top of that, the grading period ends on Friday, so I need to have have all of my work graded and entered by Friday afternoon so my teachers will have the grades they need. Lots to do, but it's almost over!

Looking at my calendar, I only have 8 more weeks of instruction time with my students. I don't see them the second week of April (Spring Break), the last day of April and the first week of May (CRTs), and the first week of June. One classes final day with me is on May 20th! Yikes! I am going to try to see them on the 3rd of June if possible, though. We shall see.

Anyway, good times as always!

Weight was the same as yesterday so nothing new to report there. 230.2 lbs. I figure tomorrow will be a drop again. Maybe 229.8 if my luck holds true. I was hoping to be 228 today, but no go.

Besides the lack of sleep lately, I've been feeling really good. I feel like I can do anything I put my mind to! I don't have the afternoon blahs anymore. I don't struggle to make it until bedtime, even when the children (personal and professional) drive me to the edge.

Food Diary for Monday the 18th of March:

Breakfast: 2 eggs poached (Blech! Won't do that again. I wasn't pleased with the outcome at all.)
                2 pieces of Canadian Bacon
                10 oz of Black Coffee (New Stevia Sweetener should be here by the end of the week.)

AM Snack: 10 Green Beans
                 
Lunch:  10 oz of Rib Eye Steak
            Big Ol' Salad with Balsamic and Olive Oil

PM Snack: 15 Cashews
                  6 Macadamias
                  14 pieces of Pepperoni

Dinner:  1 serving of Everday Paleo Pot Roast (Malia said it made a better soup as there was so much liquid leftover and it was REALLY flavorful! I just made a new soup recipe!)
             Big Ol' Salad 
             1 square of the Lindt 90% Cacao Bar
             1 square of Endangered Species 88% Cacao 

Water: About 60 oz

Sleep: about 6 hours of sleep

Exercise: Normal walking around

That's all for now! May the hair on your toes never fall out!