…And Bullet-Proof Suits

An image received from my son…  Similar tastes in action movies?  Another nut that hasn’t fallen far from the tree…   —  KMAB
.
On This Day In:
2018	What Do You Hear?
2017	I’ve Got A Pocket Protector
	Word Up!
2016	Better Value
2015	Any Port In A Storm
2014	Babies (II)
2013	Why The Young Stay In College Longer These Days
2012	Perceptions Of Worth
2011	Flavor
2010	Giants Win 1-0 !!

Advertisements

Read Full Post »

Mixing Business And Pleasure

Over the weekend, my cousin Tony (from Arizona) dropped in for a little business (on Monday) and a quick weekend visit with friends and family (us).  I hadn’t seen my cousin since 1971!  (That’s 48-odd years!! for you math challenged readers.)  Anyway, we went out to lunch and to support my brother-in-law who was playing in a “teachers” band at a charity event (and beer tasting).  He teaches music in one of the local school districts and he’s part of a orchestra of teachers from the various school districts in the Oakland, California area.
In the group photo you see (L to R): me, my wife (Hilary), my cousin (Tony), my mother (Carmen), my nephew (Kyle) and my sister (Carmen).
In this photo are: me, Hil and Kelly (a friend of my nephew).
The music was good and lively.  The beer and wine tasting was excellent.  (I was told…  I was driving.)  And, a great time was had by all.  I made my cousin promise not to wait another 48 years to visit us again and he promised he wouldn’t.
.
On This Day In:
2018	Intensity Doesn’t Make It Correct
	HF2: 1940’s Grapes
2017	Proof Sits In The Oval Office
2016	Tragic Determinism
2015	Maybe It Should Be Clearer
2014	Make It Your Strength
2013	Four Score
2012	The Ruler
2011	Forever
2010	Just Cuz
	How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?
	It’s Alive!! (3rd Pair Shoe Review)

Read Full Post »

Dave’s Not Here, Man!

The image above is a plaque in one of the pubs located in Liverpool, England – which my wife visited on her latest trip to spend time with her mum and family…
.
On This Day In:
2018	Intensity Doesn’t Make It Correct
	HF2: 1940’s Grapes
2017	Proof Sits In The Oval Office
2016	Tragic Determinism
2015	Maybe It Should Be Clearer
2014	Make It Your Strength
2013	Four Score
2012	The Ruler
2011	Forever
2010	Just Cuz
	How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?
	It’s Alive!! (3rd Pair Shoe Review)

Read Full Post »

Birthday Gifts For Our Daughter

Happy Birthday, Bec!
We hope we have given you enough love to make you courageous, enough education to make you wise, and enough strength to make you kind.
We love you always,
Mum and Dad
XXX 00 X
.
On This Day In:
2018	Seeking To Make A Difference
2017	Happy BD, Bec!
2016	BD Quotes
2015	Princess
2014	Optional
2013	Happy Birthday, Rebecca
2012	Be Not Old
	2012 National League Western Division Champions!!!
2011	What Kind Of Work Do You Do?
2010	Another Loser… And Come November

Read Full Post »

Eating Later

“Delay, Don’t Deny”  (2017©)  —  book review
Today’s book is “Delay, Don’t Deny“, written by Gin Stephens.  The book was loaned to me by my sister while we were visiting for the Labor Day BBQ at her house.  The book is sub-titled: “Living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle“.   Basically, the book is a cheer-leading exercise for the “One-Meal-A-Day” (OMAD) intermittent fasting protocol which the author feels should be adopted not as a “diet”, but as a “lifestyle”.  In other words, once you start, you can’t go back.  The author’s claim goes beyond that.  She believes the benefits will be so obvious to you that you will choose to never go back (to your old eating habits / lifestyle).
The book is very short – only 155 pages.  It is written in a very friendly and easy to read style with short chapters and a few photos thrown in.  I would estimate a reader could speed through this book in a day (evening) if you were motivated to just sit still.  It took me a couple of days to get to it and then I read a couple of chapters a night before turning off the light.
In full disclosure:  I turned my sister on to Alternate Day Fasting, which is one form of intermittent fasting, so I am already a “true believer”.  I believe in fasting as a jump start to a healthier lifestyle and have done strict veggie broth fasts and veggie / fruit juice fasts of various duration’s over the last thirty-five years.  I have tried (and consider myself still on) an alternate day fasting protocol and it was working for a couple of weeks before “life” got in the way.  Besides my excuses, I feel the ADF or “modified ADF”  (MODF)- which is what I am / was trying – is a workable lifestyle for me.  Prior to reading this book, this (a MODF) is what I was planning to return to when I finish my current (12 completed days) veggie-juice / blended fast.  After reading this book, I think I will substitute the OMAD for the MADF.
So, what is a one-meal-a-day fasting lifestyle?  According to the author, you can eat anything you want and as much as you want, but only for / at one meal a day.  You have a window for eating each day.  The window may be as long as eight hours or as short as one hour.  The remaining hours in the day, you are fasting.  “Fasting” means water, black coffee or unflavored green or black tea.  No sweeteners.  No creamers.  The more common windows are: “8/16”, “6/18” and “4/20”.  This varies from the traditional alternate day fasting in that with OMAD, you do eat EVERY day.  In the ADF, you eat no more than 500 calories (female) or 700 calories (male) on your “fasting” days and you eat whatever you want (whatever you normally eat) on the alternate eating day.  An eating window is also recommended for both the ADF and the MADF.  In fact, many proponents suggest you water fast on occasion just to super-charge the process.  The water fast is also frequently added to the “5:2” version of the ADF.  In the 5:2, you eat within an eight hour window five days a week and then water fast for two days.  You can pick the two days and they don’t have to be consecutive days – just any two out of the seven day week.  The 5:2 is briefly mentioned in the book, but the author does not favor it.
The author does not discuss sleeping, but this is a critical part of the ADF protocol.  You are expected to get 7 to 8 hours of continuous sleep each day for the ADF protocol.  This is where I definitely have a problem with ADF.  I typically can only manage six hours and almost never get over seven.  This is mostly a bad “lifetime” habit of mine.  As it’s not mentioned in the book, I guess the author doesn’t feel it’s that critical for OMAD.
The strength of this book is its approachability, both in ease of reading and in terms of the protocol.  She says:  “Try it.  You’ll like it!”  In fact, she believes you’ll like it so much, you’ll feel comfortable dropping it for special occasions (vacations, holiday weekends, Christmas, etc.) and then you’ll recognize you are out of sync with your body and want to drop back into the protocol.
The book has a particularly useful section listing the author’s favorite books (15) about alternate day fasting and intermittent fasting.  The author says these books contain all the science which she has chosen not to include in her own book.  She writes a paragraph or so on why each book is recommended.  Many of the authors of these books I was already familiar with from watching their videos on YouTube.
Final recommendation:  Very highly recommended!!  I fully intend to give this protocol a go whenever I finally come off of my current blend fast.  I will be sure to include updates in future posts.
.
On This Day In:
2018	Here And Hope
2017	Choose
2016	All I Ever Wanted
2015	Compassionate Toward Yourself
2014	All And None
2013	Voices In The Dark
2012	Does Uncommonly Flexible = Flip-Flopping?
2011	A Modest Review Of A Modern Day Classic
	Encouragement Is The Path To Immortality

Read Full Post »

Day 11: 49ers Win

The end of day eleven and the morning of day twelve…
Morning weight: 355lbs.  (on Day 12)
I am down / down “1/18”.  As in, 1lb down from yesterday and 18lbs down from my fasting start weight: 373lbs  (the morning of Day 1).
After walking Shiva, I went up to my brother’s (Sean) house to visit and to watch the San Francisco (actually the San Jose) Forty-Niners play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
I went up in the morning so we could have some time to kick it before the game started.  We did that for about an hour and then spent most of another hour reviewing the movies and TV shoes my brother has been binge-ing on.  He has kidney failure and goes to dialysis four times a week.  Most of the remaining time he is recovering from the dialysis and watching the tube.  He says half the time he is sleeping and the tube is watching him.  He is really starting to get into foreign entertainment (Asian, Middle-Eastern, Indian and some European).  We were joined by my sister’s husband (Art) for the game itself.  The Niners won and it was a satisfying victory keyed more by the defense (two interceptions for touchdowns) than by the offense.  Still, a win is a win.
After the game and drive home, I relaxed for a minute and then went for an evening swim (7:10pm-8:10pm), so I did get a little bookend exercise for the day.
I stopped drinking three hours before bed and, again, did not have to get up during the night.  I’ll give it a few more days, but it certainly seems like that’s going to end up being a key to losing weight (a restful sleep).  For some reason my FitBit gave me an extra two hours of sleep – including an extra hour of “deep sleep”, which started before I even went to bed.  I guess it just can’t tell when you stop moving and your heart slows and when you are actually asleep.
As of this morning, I consider myself to be losing actual weight now.  As I’ve frequently mentioned, the best estimates are that you (we / I) have between 7 and 15 pounds of stomach content at any given time.  This is food “in processing” along the pipeline from mouth to bum.  When juicing, most of this gets eliminated after the first few (4) days.  This explains the rapid weight loss during the first few days of a juice fast.  It also explains the rapid weight gain when you come off the fast and begin to refill the stomach content.  From my reading, the 7 to 15 pound range is the best estimate for average adults and not reflective of obese or morbid obesity.  I assume morbidly obese folks will have even larger stomachs than average adults and therefor would start off with more stomach content and more weigh to shed.  I don’t know if this is a fact or just my opinion, but assuming it’s valid, this means that at 18 to 20 pounds loss I am probably finally stating to get to my non-content weight loss.  I am certainly hoping that is true, anyway.
I’m now more than halfway through week two and proceeding day to day…  And, so it goes…
.
On This Day In:
2018	Worry (x2)
2017	Still Working
	Gold In The Morning Sun
2016	Power Inside
2015	Sometimes I Feel Small
2014	It Slipped Away
2013	Corollary
2012	Working Retired
2011	The Web Is Not Authoritative! (Really?)

Read Full Post »

Day 7: Week 1 – Mathematics

The end of day seven and the start of day eight…  Today is now the start of week 2 of juice / blend fasting.
Morning weight: 361lbs.  (on Day 8)
I am down / down “1/12”.  As in, 1lb down from yesterday and 12lbs down from my fasting start weight: 373lbs (the morning of Day 1).
End of Week 1: 361lbs
As I am typing this, I am past noon on Day 1 of Week 2 (Day 8).  After walking the dog, Hil and I had a brief chat about the fast.  She is supportive, but not enthusiastic about my fasting as she believes dieting and losing weight is about personal discipline, portion size, and not eating foods you like (except VERY rarely).  And DISCIPLINE.  Did I mention she believes in discipline?  She, therefore, is not a big fan of fasting because:  “What’s next?”  You come off the fast and you gain it all back…  I asked her how she felt about my continuing the juice fast.  She replied by asking how I felt.  I said good.  She said, well then go for another week.  So, it’s decided: I’ll go day to day and “try” to make it another full week.   (Did you see how I made that “modest” change?  LoL.)
The good thing about committing to a week is you have a set goal with an end day / date.  The bad thing, of course, is that if you are a “goal setting / objective” person, you feel like a failure if you don’t hit the goal.  Since today was my original goal (“finish the jump start and move on to MADF”), I am reluctant to arbitrarily double my goal and now be only half done (half way through two weeks).  Hence the day to day goal…  Hopefully, this will also help me try to stay in the moment (or in the day).  Yesterday is done and I was successful.  How am I doing today?
The following is a TEDx video I’ve watched multiple times over the last two years.  It deals with the chemical mathematics of burning fat tissue.  Enjoy…
“The Mathematics of Weight Loss“
Presented by: Ruben Meerman
.
On This Day In:
2018	Hey, #45: Are We Sick Of Winning, Yet?
	Day 40: Wrists
2017	Heart Vision
2016	A Labor Day / Pre-Election Hope
	Trust Me, Too
2015	Without Hope
	Things Known And Unknown
2014	A Wall Too High, A Bridge Too Far
2013	Glory = Danger
	Chicago Magic
	Feelin’ It
2012	How Did We Get Here?
2011	Labor Day Weekend Mishmash
	More, More, More

Read Full Post »