Monday, November 30, 2015

ROOSEVELT ROAD BRIDGE

Lately while crossing the Roosevelt Road Bridge I passed some sculptures which I could not identify or discern their reason for being.  Some googling solved that problem.  

Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus & Mastodon refer to the Field Museum

The Dolphins refer to the Shedd Aquarium

The books refer to the UIC Library

Celestial navigation instruments refer to the Adler Planetarium
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The sculptures are not particularly big.
It might be time to shave...


My daily walk was extended to 16 miles yesterday.  The weather was cooperative.  Although it was cold, I wore enough layers.




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Your Food Diary For:

Sunday, November 29, 2015

BREAKFAST Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
Roundy's - No Salt Added Sweet Peas - 1 3/4 cup 210 35 2 14 53 18
Toasted O's, 4 cup 440 88 8 16 640 4
Michigan Apples - red delicious apple, 2 large 260 68 0 2 0 50

910 191 10 32 693 72
L U N C H
Home Made - Indian Cauliflower Curry, 1 cup 128 13 4 3 202 3
Generic - Whitefish, Lightly Blackened, 6 z filet 183 0 2 40 1,734 0

311 13 6 43 1,936 3
D I N N E R
WHOLE FOODS 8739 - SUN DRIED FIGS, 80 g (approx 4 figs) 260 84 0 2 0 56
WHOLE FOODS 8497 - CHERRY VANILLA GRANOLA, 68.75 g (3/4 cup) 300 50 9 6 75 19
Chicken Tortilla Soup, 2 cup 300 46 7 14 1,280 6

860 180 16 22 1,355 81
S N A C K S
WHOLE FOODS - YOGURT PRETZELS, 40 g (approx 8 pcs) 190 28 0 2 180 19
WHOLE FOODS 5536 - YOGURT ALMONDS, 40 g (approx 12 pcs) 220 22 14 4 20 19
Malt O Meal - Honey Nut Scooters, 60 g 240 48 3 6 420 18

650 98 17 12 620 56
Totals 2,731 482 48 109 4,603 211
Your Daily Goal 4,829 603 161 242 2,300 181
Remaining 2,098 121 112 132 -2,303 -29
Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
*You've earned 2,899 extra calories from exercise today         

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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Cardiovascular Minutes Calories Burned
Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace 216 3,040
MFP iOS calorie adjustment Ic_i N/A -141

   
Daily Total / Goal 217 / 30 2,899 / 590  
Weekly Total / Goal 1569 / 210 23,090 / 4,130

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total calories consumed 2731 calories
total calories burned (16 mile walk) 3040 calories
total net calories 309 caloric deficit
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fitbit day 88
35672 steps
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ten mile walking streak reached 21 days.
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by Blair Kamin, Tribune Architecture Critic, Aug 6, 1995.  (excerpts)

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"The most ambitious of the neighborhood projects has produced a new, but entirely old-looking, bridge where Roosevelt Road stretches over the Dearborn Park neighborhood as well as Metra and Amtrak railroad tracks on the Near South Side.

More than 1,500 feet long and decorated with obelisks and sculptures that represent nearby institutions (dolphins for the Shedd Aquarium, books for the University of Illinois at Chicago), the span reminds us how far we've come from the dogma of the modern movement, which likened ornament to a crime.
But their most intriguing project is the $42 million Roosevelt Road bridge. It leads to Daley's new neighborhood, Central Station, and replaced a portion of a bridge constructed in the late 1920s when it was completed earlier this year.
The bridge is an aesthetic flashpoint because of its abundant use of classicism, which would have been unthinkable when architects were under the sway of the modern movement four decades ago.
There are obelisks of three sizes, towering fluted lampposts, finely detailed planters and retaining walls, handrails that incorporate a miniature version of the Chicago "Y" found at Congress Plaza, and sculptures by Miklos Simon, which are (among other things) likenesses of books, dolphins and celestial navigation instruments.
The design, by DLK's Diane Legge Kemp, raises questions about the propriety of employing such forms today. Some in the avant-garde point to their use as a failure of architectural nerve and a tacit admission that American culture has lost its faith in the future.
It is altogether proper, then, that the bridge has unusual features such as traffic lanes reserved for bicycles and that its decorative elements break down its massiveness in a way that gives it a human scale compatible with Dearborn Park.
The many obelisks, which suggest the profile of a suspension bridge, create pleasing rhythms that appeal to both the driver and the pedestrian. And the sculptures emphasize the bridge's link between the University of Illinois and three lakefront cultural institutions that eventually will be part of a museum campus uninterrupted by Lake Shore Drive--the Shedd Aquarium (dolphins), the Field Museum (prehistoric creatures including mastodons) and the Adler Planetarium (a celestial navigation instrument known as an astrolabe)."
It is altogether proper, then, that the bridge has unusual features such as traffic lanes reserved for bicycles and that its decorative elements break down its massiveness in a way that gives it a human scale compatible with Dearborn Park.
The many obelisks, which suggest the profile of a suspension bridge, create pleasing rhythms that appeal to both the driver and the pedestrian. And the sculptures emphasize the bridge's link between the University of Illinois and three lakefront cultural institutions that eventually will be part of a museum campus uninterrupted by Lake Shore Drive--the Shedd Aquarium (dolphins), the Field Museum (prehistoric creatures including mastodons) and the Adler Planetarium (a celestial navigation instrument known as an astrolabe)."

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Roosevelt Road Bridge


Sunday, November 29, 2015

THAT'S BRISK, BABY!®

Brisk is well known for its high-profile “That’s Brisk, baby!” campaigns. The J. Walter Thompson ad agency first launched the campaign in 1996, featuring pop-culture icons in claymation, and was revived in 2010 by creative agency Mekanism. The advertisements highlight exhausted celebrities who are dramatically reinvigorated by drinking Brisk. Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Bruce Lee, Danny DeVito, Bruce Willis, Ozzy Osbourne, Sylvester Stallone, Danny Trejo and Eminem have all been featured in Brisk spots.

So, you are of course, wondering why am I talking about BRISK today?  I have two applications on my phone that communicate with each other: Map My Walk and My Fitness Pal.  When I record a workout on Map My Walk, it automatically records the workout with a short description onto My Fitness Pal.  My TEN MILE walks are recorded like this:

EXERCISE
Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace

Yesterday afternoon in between the time that my daughter checked in for a Swim Meet and the time that she did actually swim in a race, I had about a hour or so.  I decided to take a quick walk around the neighborhood, and as I knew that my walk was going to be a bit shorter, I walked a bit faster than normal.  In fact, I did manage to log three miles in just under 36 minutes.  The application does not bother to label this walk at a brisk pace.  It simply logged this walk like this:

EXERCISE
Walking, 5.0 mph
(if 4.5 mph is very, very brisk - 5 mph is should have been 'brisker!' - Why didn't this faster pace rate an adjective?)

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The reason that I was able to take a THREE MILE walk in the afternoon was that I had already logged my TEN MILE walk in the early morning.  Very early morning.  I knew that I would not have a lot of free time during the day, so at the stroke of midnight on Saturday, I departed from my home for my daily 10 mile walk.  I returned home around 2:15AM,  took a quick shower, took a quick sleep and I was ready to start my day on Saturday morning.  It is extra fun to wake up in the morning and already have 15000 steps 'in the bank.'





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Your Food Diary For:

Saturday, November 28, 2015

BREAKFAST Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
John McCann Steel Cut - Oat Meal, 1 cup 600 108 0 16 0 0
Starbucks - Reduced-fat Turkey Bacon Sandwich, 1 sandwich 230 28 6 13 560 3

830 136 6 29 560 3
L U N C H
Roundy's - Center Cut Bacon, 6 Slices 140 0 8 14 440 0
Eggs - Grade A Large, 2 egg (50g) 140 0 10 12 140 0
Nice! - Toasted O's, 1 cup 120 23 1 4 160 2

400 23 19 30 740 2
D I N N E R
Roundy's - Center Cut Bacon, 6 Slices 140 0 8 14 440 0
Quaker - Rice Cake - Buttered Popcorn, 14 cake (9g) 490 112 0 14 630 0

630 112 8 28 1,070 0
S N A C K S
Quaker - Rice Cake - Buttered Popcorn, 14 cake (9g) 490 112 0 14 630 0
Campbell's - Grilled Chicken and Sausage Combo Soup, 2 cup 280 38 8 14 1,560 0
Heb Organics - Toasted O's, 3 cup 330 66 6 12 480 3

1,100 216 14 40 2,670 3
Totals 2,960 487 47 127 5,040 8
Your Daily Goal 5,710 714 190 286 2,300 214
Remaining 2,750 227 143 159 -2,740 206
Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
*You've earned 3,780 extra calories from exercise today       

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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Cardiovascular Minutes Calories Burned
Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace 132 1,942
Walking, 5.0 mph 36 663
Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace 27 390
Walking, 3.5 mph, brisk pace 106 940
MFP iOS calorie adjustment Ic_i N/A -155

   
Daily Total / Goal 302 / 30 3,780 / 590  
Weekly Total / Goal 1353 / 210 20,191 / 4,130


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total calories consumed 2960 calories
total calories burned (10, 3, & 2 mile walks) 2995 calories
total net calories 5 caloric deficit
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fitbit day 87
48479 steps
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ten mile walking streak reached 20 days.



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Saturday, November 28, 2015

MARC BY MARC JACOBS

Somewhere within the past decade, the term, BLACK FRIDAY, became a marketing sensation.  When I was younger, Black Friday, simply meant the busy shopping day on the Friday after Thanksgiving that retailers finally went 'into the black' and starting actually booking profits for the year.  Nowadays, whether that it still true or not, is no longer the point.  BLACK FRIDAY, today, means that retail stores are making extraordinary efforts to earn the dollars of consumers.  Some stores offer impossibly low prices on very limited numbers of items, other stores have markdowns on the entire inventory of their store and still more stores open for business on Friday morning at ridiculous times like 5:00AM.  The latest trend has been for BLACK FRIDAY to start on Thursday.  More and more stores are opening sometime on Thanksgiving Day and then staying open all through the night until closing time on Friday.  In Chicago, we took notice of this trend at Banana Republic, The Gap and Macy*s. Our family had some minor shopping to do for the final preparation of our daughters' Bat-Mitzvah next weekend.  Me?  I am always looking for an 'excuse' to walk downtown and build up my 'steps.'  My family walked along Michigan Avenue, we took a detour to check out Millenium Park and then we finally headed to the legendary Macy*s store on State Street. (This location was the original home of Marshall Fields flagship store)  Before a dress and shoes were purchased for my wife and daughter - we stopped by the Marc Jacobs section where his handbags were for sale. Our shopping expedition was complete by 1:30AM early Friday morning, and since it was raining, we relented and took the subway home.  

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Yesterday morning, I awoke around 7:30 for my 10 mile walk.  Although when I started it wasn't exactly raining, it wasn't exactly not raining either.  The gusty winds were quite evident and the temperature had dropped around 20° from the relative warmth of the night before.  It wasn't too long during my walk that it started to unambiguously rain.  The lakefront looked much more like an ocean than a lake.  I was walking on a paved path close to the waters, and a wave surprised me and I found myself standing in 2" of cold lake water.  This made the last 1.5 miles of my walk just a bit more uncomfortable.  (note to self: when the Lake Michigan waters are so evidently choppy - stay away)

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Your Food Diary For:

Friday, November 27, 2015

BREAKFAST Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
Quakers - Rice Cake Lightly Salted, 14 Cake (9g) 490 98 0 14 210 0
michiganApples - red delicious apple, 1 large 130 34 0 1 0 25
Kind Healthy Grains - Dark Chocolate Chunk, 1 bar (35g) 150 23 5 2 70 8

770 155 5 17 280 33
L U N C H
Libby's - Whole Kernel Sweet Corn, 1 3/4 cup cooked 210 32 5 7 700 25
Campbell's - Home Style Mexican-Style Chicken Tortilla Soup, 2 cup 260 40 4 14 1,700 8

470 72 9 21 2,400 33
D I N N E R
Bobak's - Polish Sausage, 1 link 230 1 21 10 0 0
Wegmans - Herb Stuffing, 4 oz 160 20 7 4 360 2
Broccoli - Broccoli, 1 cup 60 6 1 5 49 0

450 27 29 19 409 2
S N A C K S
WHOLE FOODS 7700 - ORGANIC DATE PIECES w/OAT FLOWER, 80 g (2 TBSP) 240 60 0 2 20 44
WHOLE FOODS 8497 - CHERRY VANILLA GRANOLA, 77.0 g (3/4 cup) 336 56 10 7 84 21

576 116 10 9 104 65
Totals 2,266 370 53 66 3,193 132
Your Daily Goal 5,043 630 168 253 2,300 189
Remaining 2,777 260 115 186 -892 56
Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
*You've earned 3,113 extra calories from exercise today         

Your Exercise Diary for:

Friday, November 27, 2015
Cardiovascular Minutes Calories Burned
Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace 132 1,968
Walking, 3.5 mph, brisk pace 123 1,091
MFP iOS calorie adjustment Ic_i N/A 54

   
Daily Total / Goal 256 / 30 3,113 / 590  
Weekly Total / Goal 1050 / 210 16,306 / 4,130             
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total calories consumed 2266 calories
total calories burned (10 mile walk) 1968 calories
total net calories 298 calories
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fitbit day 86
40912 steps
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ten mile walking streak reached 19 days.


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214.8 lbs

I weigh 214.8 lbs.
I lost 2.2 lb this week
I have lost 94.2 lbs in 339 days. Today begins Day 340.
I will always be at the beginning of a journey that never ends.
I weigh 214.8 lbs (339 days ago I weighed 309 lbs)
I have lost 30.48% of my weight since Dec 24.
I have a BMI, body mass index of 28.73
I had a 42.0 BMI on Dec 24 just 339 days ago (Class III obesity)

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My daughter does not share my opinion that this is a clever photograph.

Friday, November 27, 2015

TRADITIONAL THANKSGIVING TWENTY

Yesterday, was the beginning of a new tradition.  I set out in the morning, long before my family was stirring about, to walk 20 miles.  The weather was much more cooperative at the beginning than at the end of this particular urban hike.  The weather was a very comfortable 53°F when I started and the forecast for rain was for much later in the afternoon.  The forecast for rain was not quite so accurate.  The last 5 miles of my walk was largely in a pouring rain.  Nevertheless, I perservered and continued on until I had logged my 20th mile.  Whether I will be able to do this next Thanksgiving (a 20 mile walk does carve out a bit of time) or not - I do not know.  It seems like a good tradition to shoot for.  Next year I will let you know how the 2nd Annual Traditional Thanksgiving Twenty goes....
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As part of my 20 mile urban hike - I explored parts of Grant Park for the first time

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For the past few days, I have continued to attempt to 'perfect' this type of 'action' photograph.  By standing very near the edge, it does become much more obvious that I am 'in the air.'  On this grey day, my bright orange shirt is the only color in the picture.  It should be fairly obvious now that the premise of the 1992 film, White Men Can't Jump, is certainly not disproved by my prowess defying gravity!

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Your Food Diary For:

Thursday, November 26, 2015

BREAKFAST Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
Quakers - Rice Cake Lightly Salted, 14 Cake (9g) 490 98 0 14 210 0
Michigan Apples - red delicious apple, 3 large 390 102 0 3 0 75

880 200 0 17 210 75
L U N C H
Sweet Baby Ray's - Original Beef Jerky, 6 oz 540 36 6 66 2,880 36
Nature Valley 4 Crunchy Granola Bar Oats and Honey 380 58 14 6 360 22

920 94 20 72 3,240 58
D I N N E R
Brisket - Brisket, 8 oz 352 0 17 48 176 0
Potatoes, red, flesh and skin, baked, 1 potato large 266 59 0 7 36 4
Roundy's - Sweet Peas - Canned, 1 cup 120 20 1 8 30 10

738 79 18 63 242 14
S N A C K S
General Mills 2 Nature Valley - Oats 'n Honey 190 29 6 4 160 12
Kind Healthy Grains 2 Dark Chocolate Chunk  300 46 10 4 140 16

490 75 16 8 300 28
Totals 3,028 448 54 160 3,992 175
Your Daily Goal 5,516 689 184 276 2,300 206
Remaining 2,488 241 129 116 -1,691 30
Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
*You've earned 3,586 extra calories from exercise today         
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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Cardiovascular Minutes Calories Burned
Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace 260 3,978
MFP iOS calorie adjustment Ic_i N/A -392

   
Daily Total / Goal 261 / 30 3,586 / 590  
Weekly Total / Goal 794 / 210 12,476 / 4,130             

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total calories consumed 3028 calories
total calories burned (20 mile walk) 3978 calories
total net calories 950 caloric deficit
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fitbit day 85
51605 steps
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ten mile walking streak reached 18 days.




Around mile 5, the rain was still two hours away...
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and for no particular reason, here is some very bad advice from The Most Interesting Man in the World....