Larry and His Flask

Today the new album for Larry and His Flask 'All That We Know' came out. If you don't have it, you're missing out on an incredible piece of music.

I don't ordinarily endorse music like this, but it is an absolute masterpiece of several of my favorite genres of music expertly blended. Check it out on the widget to the left, you won't be disappointed.

Cheers,
Ben

Failures, Successes, and Revelations...

It has been a while since I've taken the time to get a post put up -- not that many are really keeping tabs, but I figure the time to write about my experiences are therapeutic in a way. It's been an insanely busy August.

Since San Diego, I've been on a guided Ocean Coho trip where we caught 11 Coho, (can't say enough awesome things about the guide either -- Greg Smith "Reel Buckaroo" Guide Service out of Hammond, OR -- Dude knows how to fish) I've travelled to Oklahoma for a family reunion, saw Jamie and Matt get hitched, went to 4 days of training for school, and still managed to find time in there to try to get a schedule established for the upcoming school year.

Its been a month of failures, of successes, and of revelations.

First big failure -- I've been so preoccupied with getting my workouts and diet under control this summer, I didn't take the time to get as much planning done for school this year. Doh. That will increase stress levels as the year goes on, potentially making it more difficult to keep at it.

I've had a lot of successes -- In the past couple weeks, I've reached the lowest weight I've been since 2004. I official weighed in yesterday at 303, I'm hoping to be below 300 by the first week of school, then 265 by January 1st. 265 will officially be the lightest I have been since high school. After that, who knows. I'd like to set my sights on 225, but that's like 12% body fat, so don't know. Speaking of body fat... Jamie and I did a body fat analysis yesterday, and I came in at 34% (which is still quite a lot) but down from 42% on the reading when I was at 325. I'm getting to the point that the workout are necessary, my body has begun to crave them, which is a great success in my book.

I'm currently working out at the YMCA with the Mobile Fit program. It's great, and I've been packing on muscle mass something fierce. I'm still not the strongest guy in the place, but I'm steadily increasing my lifts. I'm doing my resistance workouts Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights. In addition to that on Mondays and Wednesdays I'm swimming. I've been riding my bike to as many places as possible, so building more muscle everyday. I think that's the biggest explanation for the weight holding pretty steady for most of the month of August. I'm coming in at under 2500 calories most everyday, but the muscle I'm putting on is making up the difference in the weight dropping off -- it's still coming off. Just slower than I had hoped and expected.

I have lost 4 inches on both thigh measurements, 2 inches on both arms, 3 inches around my stomach, 4 inches off my waist, and 3 inches off my chest so far.

My blood pressure however is a still a little elevated at 137/87 -- still within the 'normal' range, but I'd like to see that come down a bit.

I have been pleased with the successes over the past few weeks, but there have also been some revelations about myself I didn't necessarily realize.

The first big revelation that I've had is this: I'm a junk-food-a-holic. I haven't completely fallen off the wagon so don't freak out, but I found this out while I was in Oklahoma, (where I gained 6 pounds in 5 days) that if there are sugary, fatty foods near me, regardless of my desire not to eat it. I will eat it. I have no will power. I liken it to being an alcoholic. When you're an alcoholic, the last place you should hang out is in a bar. It's the same with me -- I need to stay as far away from those kinds of foods as humanly possible... in order to be ultimately successful in this endeavor. On the plus side, (Get it?? Plus side... thats funny because I'm plus sized. ha ha, ok moving on) my willpower has gotten better since then. For the most part, I can tell myself no now. My body will argue with me, but I'm finding that I'm getting the final word in more often that not.

Another big revelation I've had is that I need to include some supplements into my diet. I have been doing some reading online regarding vitamin deficiencies and I'm convinced that I am Vitamin D deficient. In looking around for some good multivitamins, I've come across the GNC Mega Men's formula which is a good 2-3 times more solid than the Centrum/One-a-Day type multivitamins. With those I would need to supplement with various other vitamins, I think the GNC formula could be a true 'One a Day'.

Lastly, I've come to realize how important it is for me to have a specific schedule when doing things. I've been workign on getting my work schedule going, and 5:00am is the wake-up time. I'm putting in a half hour of walking before breakfast currently each weekday, taking Saturday and Sunday's off. I plan to continue that as the school year goes on as it is an excellent way to wake up without caffeine. Not to mention, gives me some time to bond with the dog. She's not so bad afterall. ;) I have a schedule made up that takes into consideration my wake up time, morning schedule, work hours, gym time, family and planning/work times. Included within that is an hour before bed to relax/de-stress and read before going to bed. One thing that I did not include, but will need to write in is a half hour to update the blog, and my diet program. For me, the schedule is essential. Can't get by without it.

I have also discovered (actually, I've known it all along) am a colossal time waster. Man can I waste time with the best of them. I hereby resolve -- its in writing, now I have to do it. To not spend as much time online. Not spend as much time on Facebook, and more time with my family, planning for work, or working on the business this year. Stupid interwebs are distracting. :)

Cheers folks, thanks for being there for me. :)

Bulk

Home Again!

Well, I'm home again.

San Diego was fun, it's a beautiful city, with a very vibrant nightlife, and plenty of shops, restaurants, and attractions. A quick recap of my week.

Monday -- Got up at 5:00, hit the fitness center and worked out for about an hour, had breakfast at the hotel (paid 8.00 for a little fresh fruit and an herbal tea. After breakfast, walked to the store (about 3 miles) stocked up on fresh fruits, vegetables, and a couple of box salads for lunches. End result -- $50.00, but didn't have to buy breakfast or lunch for the rest of the week -- had dinner at the welcome reception.

Tuesday -- Woke up at 5:00, worked out, did breakfast, had morning sessions, Salad for lunch, did the afternoon sessions, and had almost 1500 calories left over for the day, so went to Kansas City barbecue and had some beef brisket. Yum! We went down to Seaport Village, and wandered around a bit where I met Murrugun the Mystic. (www.murrugun.com) we headed for Gaslamp and walked around a bit, all in all, fun night.

Wednesday -- Woke up at 5:00, worked out and had breakfast in my room. Did the morning sessions, went to the AVID luncheon for lunch and had a chicken dish, went to the afternoon sessions, then dinner on my own before the Padres game. Found a neat little Irish Pub, and had some fish and chips and a Guinness. Mmm... Guinness. Padres THRASHED the Dodgers 6-1, awesome game.

Thursday -- Did not wake up at 5:00... in fact, due to an alarm snafu, woke up at 9:30. ACK!!! Turns out I turned on some soothign music on the alarm to go to bed, and then set the alarm. Hit the off button to turn off the soothing music and it cancelled the alarm. Awesome... After the afternoon sessions we headed to Old Town and had some delicious mexican food. I had steak fajitas. After dinner, we headed to Gaslamp to go to the Shout House where we stayed until about 11:30 listening to some incredible live piano music.

Friday -- Woke up at 5:00 got all my stuff packed. I had some bagel and lox for breakfast as I was out of food in my room. For lunch, I had some Sushi at the airport, and then Izzy's for dinner when I got home with the family. Looking forward to some normalcy in my diet. Waiting to see as of Monday whether the choices I made were enough to keep the weight about the same. I'm betting I gained a couple of pounds, but we'll see. The workouts were pretty intense, and aside from dinner -- it was apples, bananas, salads, raw nuts, etc... I guess you never really know.

As of Tuesday this last week, the raw diet is over, and its all about real foods from this point on. I can't say I'm wheat and dairy free anymore, nor can I say I haven't had any refined sugars, but I have still not taken in any caffeine, and haven't had soda in almost a month. That will for sure remain as time goes on, and I'm avoiding refined sugars, wheat and dairy as much as possible.

It's good to be home.

Whirlwind couple of days...

Sorry about the lack of posts for those of you that are actually reading this. :)

Friday evening, our kitchen sink backed up something fierce and I spent most of the evening leading up to Sabbath fighting with that -- to no avail.

Saturday, we went down to Eugene for services, and were treated to a wonderful late lunch/dinner by the Harmon family with all sorts of delicious vegetables, and pasta salads, etc..

I decided for sake of keeping things up on the go in San Diego (where I am now) I would cut the raw requirement as of the Sabbath this past week, and instead focus on healthy/primarily vegetarian/real foods for the duration of this week. I had a salad bowl at Chipotle's today on the way up to the airport, which filled me up! I've been working on snacking the rest of today. Eating healthy is tough to do in an airport, but I found some good stuff in Portland (dried bananas and cherries mixed with no additives) and then some cashews in Los Angeles. I'm not too hungry tonight. I really need to drink some more water. That's what I've been lacking today.

Excited to tool around San Diego tomorrow -- it looks like the first day meetings are for teams only, and since my team is not coming down until next week, it looks like I've got a day off. We'll find out officially tomorrow, but whatever will I do?? :) Whatever I do, it needs to be off the trolley line -- cabs suck.

I'm heading for Petco Park Wednesday night to watch the Padres take on the Dodgers. Other than that, I have nothing else planned... I want to make it to the Shout House one night this week, and I'd like to have dinner at Croce's at some point. That will just about blow my whole day's food budget though. lol

If I go easy the first couple days, that will open up my budget a little more towards the end. If my hotel has a complimentary shuttle to the airport, that will also help a bunch. I'm about to go find those things out.

Not sure how many updates I will keep you posted on, but I'm already starting to think a little bit different about my food choices. That didn't used to happen. I think that is a good thing.

P.S. The sink is still plugged up. If anyone in Salem has any other good ideas... we'd prefer not to call the 'rooter'

Going to keep this super short as I've already posted a near full post today. But today was another of the same kind of days. I haven't been eating a whole lot for breakfast, and in doing some reading, it sounds like a lot of raw folks don't. Their body is still detoxing from overnight, and they tend to find they're not super hungry in the morning.

I've been making sure to get up and get water going as soon as possible, and I've been drinking an herbal tea in the mornings (Cinnamon Apple Spice). Today for breakfast (about 9:00 am) I had a plum, and then about 1/2 to 1 hour later, I had a banana and some almonds. That carried me through until lunch. I made sushi for lunch (see the picture above) where I took the mock tuna salad, a.k.a. Crab Delight on From SAD to RAW, wrapped it in some Nori pieces, and then poured about a tablespoon of Soy Vay (which is surprisingly organic) to slightly flavor it. VERY GOOD!!!

I also had some of the Flax Seed crackers in Guacamole today, and some more Mexican Lettuce Wraps.

I made some more Larabars today, added water like the recipe suggested to help hold it together. Never again. Made them stickier than fly paper. Just pressing them together worked way better last time, altered the recipe slightly this go around -- instead of raisins as the dry fruit, I added dried cherries, and added 1/3 dried raisins in addition to the rest.

I put all of that together in my new Food Processor! I picked up a Food Processor (12 cup capacity, 500 horsepower motor) at Fred Meyer today, they were on sale for $50.

It. Is. Awesome.

The batch of Larabars went super fast, it has high enough capacity to do all of the crackers and chips and everything else. Will work great.

Other than that, another day towards 21. Next Tuesday marks the 21st day on raw foods -- 3 days into my San Diego trip. I'm not sure how that's going to work, but I'm going to do my best to stick with it while I'm travelling.

With that, I'm going to go -- the wife and I are going to watch some episodes from the first Season of the Cosby Show.

Cheers!
Ben

BBQ

I'll keep this short as I didn't get a chance to log an entry last night before bed as it was a late night. (Wife and I watched Back to the Future II)

Yesterday was pretty standard -- Food, workout, etc... but I had a chance to get some stuff cooked up and made that is pretty neat.

I seasoned and dehydrated some more almonds for snacking on. This batch wasn't as good as my other ones -- have to do it the original way again. I also put together and made some flax seed crackers for some snack items as well.

I'm finding the raw thing isn't particularly difficult if you have some low fat, raw snacks to keep around. The main dishes are veggie wraps, salads, and raw entrees if you get really adventurous -- but as the goal of most 'diets' is basically grazing as the day goes on instead of 3 square meals, it works pretty well.

So yesterday we had a barbecue for the Northwest Steelheaders (a fishing/conservation organization I belong to) and its potluck style. The hardest part about this raw diet is eating around others that are not raw. (and for me, explaining it all to a bunch of crusty old fishermen from up the canyone didn't sound like fun...) Last year, Shannon and I went, and we weren't able to eat the main course as they were pork Octoberfest Sausages -- however, it wasn't a problem because there were TONS of salads! So I made some raw coleslaw to take with us, and figured I'd have some salad, and some raw coleslaw.

We got there, and everything on the table this year had been purchased -- Reser's Potato Salad, some Italian Pasta Salad, Fried Chicken, Brownies, Cookies, Blueberry/Peach Cobbler, the list goes on. Not a salad to be seen. The entrees: Really good looking Costco Hamburgers, and a freshly caught Chinook on the grill.

I went through the line, grabbed myself some coleslaw, about a tablespoon of the pasta salad, and a little chunk of Chinook. (I know... Slap my hand) I'm not sure I can technically classify myself as non-wheat or 100% raw anymore. But it was delicious, and a 1000 times healthier choice than the Costco burgers.

I was still hungry, so I had a little more coleslaw, and then I went through the burger line, and grabbed some lettuce, onion, and tomato, and stuck the tomatoes and onions into the lettuce, with a little bit of mustard, and nommed on those. Not too bad.

My body has been craving protein, at least it seems that way, so I'm tryign to be more conscious of taking in more nuts and seeds with my raw meals. The refried beans that I made, and the almonds have got plenty, but with the workouts and building muscle, my body could always use more. Not to mention, the O+ Blood Type requires a high protein diet. So I'll need to come up with a maintenance diet the start this weekend that allows for higher protein.

That's all for now, tonights blog will go up this evening.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this...

So today I put together a bunch of stuff from the seeds I had soaking. I made some Sunflower Seed Refried Beans (that don't really taste like refried beans, but aren't bad), some really good pico de gallo, and I made some guacamole, I also finished the mock tuna salad, which is AWESOME wrapped in lettuce with a little bit of soy sauce. I have some additional projects going as well -- I'm in the process of making some banana chips, and seasoning some more almonds to dry, as well as soaking more sunflower seeds for some additional things.

Food-wise, I had a banana with my herbal tea this morning for breakfast, mid morning had a couple ounces of seasoned almonds, for lunch I had a salad with some mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, sunflower seeds, and shredded carrots. During the afternoon, I had the rest of the seasoned almonds another ounce or two, and a homemade larabar (I need to stay away from those things! LOL) For dinner tonight I had some lettuce wraps. One of them was the Mock Tuna Salad, and another was a wrap of the sunflower refried beans. Then I put together two wraps for dinner that were a combination of Sunflower Beans, Pico De Gallo, Guacamole and sprouts wrapped in some green leaf lettuce. It was super good! (Picture is at the top)

Weight is holding steady at 304, at least I'm not rapidly losing anymore. I should start losing at about 1-2 pounds a week now with my calorie intake about 2,000 calories a day. I'm working out Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays right now, and looking for something to put in on Tuesday and Thursday evenings that would not necessarily workout the muscles that I'm using M-W-F as I need to be resting them, but still is a workout/relaxing/stress relieving -- maybe Yoga or Pilates?? Racquetball? Swimming? Don't know. Still thinking about that.

Other than that, things went pretty good today from a diet standpoint. I was a little on the irritable side, but that's just kind of a me thing every now and again -- I don't think it was a function of lack of energy or anything.

Well, I need to cut this short so I can get the stuff from the foods today put into Vida so I
can count todays calorie intake.