Saturday, December 31, 2016

SWEET 16

Yesterday was my daughter's 'sweet 16.' She is not quite yet fifteen years old. It was her 'sweet 16' because she joined me in an urban hike that was not concluded until we had trekked 16 miles.

We did not set out to walk quite so much. My daughter continues to surprise me. She likes to join me in my urban hikes and I like to have her around. I get plenty of practice walking alone, so it is nice to be walking with someone else. Yesterday, it was her idea to walk over to a place called 'Stan's Donuts,' which is about two miles north of our home. This is that part of the recounting of this urban hike which I am pleased to report, because someday she will re-read this blog and be even more amazed. It was my daughter's idea to first walk downtown three miles and then hike back up north three more miles (more or less to return to where we started) and then finally to walk the two miles to 'Stan's Donuts.' This is precisely what we did. We eventually met my wife at Mariano's Market where we all had a meal together. Still we were not done. We walked home from Mariano's. When this urban hike was completed, we had travelled 16 miles throughout the city. That was a 'sweet 16' indeed.

This girl, nearly 15, during her 'sweet 16.'

Your Food Diary For:

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal- Maple, 5 packet	800	160	10	20	1,300	60
	800	160	10	20	1,300	60
L U N C H
Kirkland - Pre-Cooked Bacon	240	0	18	18	1,050	0
Cod With Lemon	250	3	6	43	501	0
Fried Shrimp	100	4	0	42	0	0
Butternut Squash	50	12	0	1	0	2
Creamed Corn	100	5	9	1	15	3
	740	24	33	105	1,566	5
D I N N E R
Sushi - Salmon Avocado 1 Roll	400	55	11	17	0	0
	400	55	11	17	0	0
S N A C K S
Crunchy - Oats 'n Honey	190	29	7	3	180	11
Dark Cocoa Melting Wafers	500	55	30	7	102	48
	690	84	37	10	282	59

Totals	2,630	323	91	152	3,148	124
Your Daily Goal	4,279	535	142	214	2,300	160
Remaining	1,649	212	51	62	-848	36
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 2,349 extra calories from exercise today

Your Exercise Diary for:

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
16 MILE URBAN HIKE	249	2,657


Daily Total / Goal	249 / 30	2,657 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	876 / 210	9,514 / 4,130

The way that I have been (over)eating lately... I should be damned glad that my weight on Saturday morning was 'only' 240.2 lbs. I have definitely been going in the wrong direction lately and I know that I will likely overeat fondue prepared at home this evening. I guess like everyone else in America, I will be making a New Year's Resolution for 2017. Start eating better (again) like I did when I first started on December 24, 2014 when I weighed 309 lbs.

Friday, December 30, 2016

DUNKIN' DONUTS HIKE

Last evening my daughter wanted a donut at Dunkin' Donuts. In fact, she wanted more than one. There is a Dunkin' Donuts literally around the corner from our home in downtown Chicago. My daughter also knows me quite well. She knew that we would walk there. A couple of years ago, in the midst of my laziest, most lethargic lifestyle, even I did not drive around the corner! The temperature was approximately 30°F so we dressed appropriately. We walked outside our home. We then walked nearly 3 miles downtown to Polk Street, walked east two blocks more, and then walked back out to our neighborhood and to the Dunkin' Donuts. The store did not have the exact donuts that she wanted in the quantities that she wanted them - so she settled for just one. Once the donut was secured, we walked around the corner back home. That is how one can take an urban hike of 6 miles to get to a place around the corner. It may seem bizarre to some. Bizarre it may be, but healthy it is too.

Your Food Diary For:

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal- Maple, 4 packet	640	128	8	16	1,040	48
Kirkland - Pre-Cooked Bacon, 5 slices	200	0	15	15	875	0
	840	128	23	31	1,915	48
L U N C H
French Baguette	750	150	5	25	1,850	5
Fresh Market - Thai Lobster Salad	550	25	43	13	0	0
	1,300	175	48	38	1,850	5
D I N N E R
Minestrone Soup, Homemade	550	78	17	32	0	0
	550	78	17	32	0	0
S N A C K S
Protein Plus Protein Bar - MET-Rx, 1 bar	310	29	10	32	95	1
Dark Chocolate Melting Wafers	500	55	30	7	102	48
	810	84	40	39	197	49

Totals	3,500	465	128	140	3,962	102
Your Daily Goal	2,873	359	95	144	2,300	107
Remaining	-627	-106	-33	4	-1,662	5
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 943 extra calories from exercise today

Your Exercise Diary for:

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
SIX MILE URBAN HIKE	88	1,061


Daily Total / Goal	88 / 30	1,061 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	628 / 210	6,860 / 4,130

Thursday, December 29, 2016

ANOTHER LOOK AT OUR RECENT ELECTION

Think fast. How many weeks since the presidential election? Can you believe that it was more than seven weeks ago? It seems like each week, a new excuse has been discovered to explain how Hillary Clinton lost.

Just as the lefties are still thinking about this election, so I am too. I found this October 15, 2015 article on vocativ.com

The Elections That Aren’t Really Elections

How much of a ballot can a dictator claim and still call a vote an "election"?

By Sarah Kaufman

Oct 15, 2015 at 6:43 PM ET

Belarus president Alexander Ukashenko won this week’s presidential elections in a landslide victory of 83.5 percent of the vote. Activists and international elections monitors argued the election was unfair, a safe bet with his only opponent scraping up 4.4 percent of the vote. While 83.5 percent of the vote is pretty high on the scale as rigged elections go, it’s nothing compared to the results some dictators have pumped out in the past few years. We looked at a number of widely scrutinized elections of the past 15 years to see how far dictators tend to go when rigging the vote. The countries we looked at scored 7/7 for lack of political freedoms according to Freedom House, which calculated relative political freedom in terms of political rights and civil liberties. Of these countries, all were deemed “not free” by the Freedom House except Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The percentages “won” by leaders ranged from 60 to 100 percent. The most shameless, ruthless leaders (typically those who maintain violent, repressive personality cults) claim 100% of ballots and yet still call the processes “elections”. Examples include the 2002 Iraqi vote which kept Saddam Hussein in power and North Korea’s polls that installed Kim Jong Il and his successor Kim Jong Un in 2009 and 2014, respectively. In each, 100 percent of the “vote” went to dictators, and making the country go to the polls was merely another exercise of their absolute power over a subservient slave nation. Next in line are the over 90-percenters, who usually ensure that government criticism is repressed and/or punished and corrupt voting tactics are rampant, but may tolerate the existence of a nominal opposition, on and off. In Uzbekistan, for example, Islam Karimov won with 90.39 percent of the vote in a March 2015 election that Western monitors slammed for widespread proxy voting and biased media coverage. A 2010 election in Rwanda that kept incumbent Paul Kagame in power with 93 percent of the vote was marred by the murders of members of Kagame’s political opposition. Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, who ran unopposed and was re-elected in 1987, 1993 and 1999, won again in 2005 with 88 percent of the vote in an election that was widely said to be rigged. Not all leaders are quite so blatant. Some almost blew an election or are better at making it seem like there is healthy opposition. Take Russian president Vladimir Putin, for example, who won 63.64 percent of the vote in the 2012 elections. The runner-up party was the Communist Party with 17.2 percent. Again, Western monitors criticized the election as having been decided from the start. “The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain. This was not the case in Russia,” said Tonino Picula at the OSCE. “There was no real competition and abuse of government resources ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt.” And while Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe stuttered in the 2008 election, failing to exercise full control, his political machine ensured hetook 85.5 percent in an uncontested run-off. As a rule, any candidate who wins more than two-thirds of the vote should be considered suspicious, political scientist Thomas Lundberg at the University of Glasgow told BBC News. Any candidate who garnered a 60 to 80 percent range could indicate opposition parties in his or her country are too small or fragmented to make a difference in polling, he said.

I also found the DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 2016 ELECTION RESULTS TOO. I think I am beginning to understand why lefty liberal democrats love dictators so much, for example, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and al-Assad (al-Assad aka the reformer, as the uncontested genius, Secretary of State announced in 2011). They are jealous of their electoral hold on their populations. Pesky elections are not annoying obstacles to remaining in power. Look at the results of the recent presidential election in Washington, D.C. Can you imagine just one D.C. public school hanging the presidential portrait of the new President in the hallways or any classroom as was done in the past? Can you imagine just how fair and balanced the teachers and professors are in Washington when discussing any issue? Let me help with the numbers here... In Washington D.C., a place where over 300,000 Americans (hopefully) voted in the past presidential election, 24 out of every 25 people DID NOT VOTE for the next president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. And they say that Washington is out of touch with regular Americans? Democrats dream of having the electoral sway enjoyed by the likes of Saddam Hussein, al-Assad, Fidel Castro and the Kim Jong 'twins'. The Democrats already have this choke-hold on the black community. If Donald Trump can make good on his promises to improve the lives of blacks, they will surely rethink the politicians that they support in the future.

District of Columbia Results

DEC. 20, 2016, 12:15 PM ET

President

	PARTY	VOTES	PCT.	E.V.
Hillary Clinton	Democrat	282,830	90.9%	3
Donald J. Trump	Republican	12,723	4.1	—
Others	Independent	6,551	2.1	—
Gary Johnson	Libertarian	4,906	1.6	—
Jill Stein	D.C. Statehood Green	4,258	1.4	—

100% reporting (143 of 143 precincts)

Your Food Diary For:

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal- Maple	640	128	8	16	1,040	48
Kirkland - Pre-Cooked Bacon	200	0	15	15	875	0
Post Great Grains Raisins, Dates & Pecans	400	78	8	8	257	25
	1,240	206	31	39	2,172	73
L U N C H
Omelette - 3-egg Omelette With Cheese, 3 eggs	425	0	21	28	650	2
	425	0	21	28	650	2
D I N N E R
BBQ Ribs	501	7	36	34	2,904	0
Roasted Cauliflower	100	3	10	1	497	1
BBQ Meatballs	300	3	23	20	0	0
Chocolate Coconut Clusters	400	40	28	4	50	26
	1,301	53	97	59	3,451	27
S N A C K S
Lindt Lindor White Chocolate Truffles	690	42	57	6	90	42
	690	42	57	6	90	42

Totals	3,656	301	206	132	6,363	144
Your Daily Goal	3,748	468	125	188	2,300	140
Remaining	92	167	-81	56	-4,063	-4
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,818 extra calories from exercise today

Your Exercise Diary for:

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Elliptical Trainer	99	1,352
FIVE MILE URBAN HIKE	83	786


Daily Total / Goal	182 / 30	2,138 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	538 / 210	6,107 / 4,130

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

5 X 6 ≠ 30

It should be, in fact it is, a mathematical truism that 5 x 6 = 30. It turns out that it might be less true when one is speaking about six mini workouts versus one 30 minute workout. Even when the workout is nothing more exotic that walking about. I have claimed before that it made no difference whether one walked for 30 minutes or walked six times for five minutes each. The number of steps accumulated would be equal. The number of calories burned would be equal. This is, of course, true.

A study in the New York Times (which miraculously managed not to bash Donald Trump, or call half of Americans bigots, and/or tell me how wonderful Obamacare is) gave some evidence that it is actual beneficial to spread out the walking in smaller bursts multiple times during the day. I will accept this and simply try to do both. I will continue to take long walks, but I will be conscious that as often as possible I should get up and move about multiple times during the day.

.

.

Your Food Diary For:

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal- Maple	800	160	10	20	1,300	60
	800	160	10	20	1,300	60
L U N C H
MARIANO'S - HUGE SPINACH SALAD	1,000	0	0	0	0	0
	1,000	0	0	0	0	0
D I N N E R
Sweet Onion Chick Teryaki	840	94	26	52	1,980	14
DARK COCOA MELTING WAFERS	500	55	30	7	102	48
	1,340	149	56	59	2,082	62
S N A C K S
Protein Bar - MET-Rx, 1 bar	310	29	10	32	95	1
	310	29	10	32	95	1

Totals	3,450	338	76	111	3,477	123
Your Daily Goal	2,852	356	95	143	2,300	107
Remaining	-598	18	19	32	-1,177	-16
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 922 extra calories from exercise today

Your Exercise Diary for:

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Elliptical Trainer	99	959


Daily Total / Goal	99 / 30	959 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	356 / 210	3,969 / 4,130

from the New York Times

WELL | MOVE

Work. Walk 5 Minutes. Work.

Phys Ed

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS DEC. 28, 2016

Stuck at your work desk? Standing up and walking around for five minutes every hour during the workday could lift your mood, combat lethargy without reducing focus and attention, and even dull hunger pangs, according to an instructive new study. The study, which also found that frequent, brief walking breaks were more effective at improving well-being than a single, longer walk before work, could provide the basis for a simple, realistic New Year’s exercise resolution for those of us bound to our desks all day. There is growing evidence, of course, that long bouts of uninterrupted sitting can have undesirable physical and emotional consequences. Studies have shown that sitting motionlessly reduces blood flow to the legs, increasing the risk for atherosclerosis, the buildup of dangerous plaques in the arteries. People who sit for more than eight or nine hours daily, which for many of us describes a typical workday, also are at heightened risk for diabetes, depression and obesity compared to people who move more often. In response, researchers and some bosses have proposed a variety of methods for helping people reduce their sitting time at work, including standing workstations and treadmill desks. But such options are cumbersome and pricey, making them impractical for many work situations. Some experts have worried, too, that if people are physically active at the office, they might subsequently become more tired, grumpy, distracted or hungry, any of which could have an undesirable effect on work performance and long-term health. So for the new study, which was published last month in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, and other institutions decided to test several methods of increasing movement among office workers. (The study was funded largely by Johnson & Johnson, with additional support from the Colorado Nutrition Obesity Research Center.) To start, the researchers invited 30 sedentary adult office workers to a university clinic to complete a battery of health tests and questionnaires. The researchers measured their heart rates and stress hormone levels and asked them to rank, on a numerical scale, their sense of how energetic or tired they felt, as well as how happy they were, and whether they were feeling puckish and longing for food or had little appetite just then. The volunteers also completed computerized games designed primarily to test their ability to concentrate and make decisions. Then, on three subsequent visits to the clinic, each volunteer simulated a six-hour workday. During one visit, the volunteers sat for the whole time with no interruptions, except for bathroom breaks. During another, they walked moderately for 30 minutes at the start of their experimental day, and then sat for the next five-and-a-half hours with no additional scheduled breaks. Finally, during a third visit, the volunteers sat for most of the six hours, but began each hour with five minutes of moderate walking, using treadmills at the clinic. At the start and end of each session, the researchers drew blood to check levels of stress hormones. And periodically throughout each day, they asked their volunteers to numerically rate their moods, energy, fatigue, and their appetites. The volunteers also repeated the computerized testing of their thinking skills at the close of each session. The researchers then analyzed the data. The numbers showed that on almost all measures, the subject’s ratings of how they were feeling rose when they did not sit for six uninterrupted hours. They said that they felt much more energetic throughout the day if they had been active, whether that activity was bunched into a single, longish walk at the start of the day or distributed into multiple, brief breaks. On other measures, though, the five-minute walks were more potent than the concentrated 30-minute version. When the workers rose most often, they reported greater happiness, less fatigue and considerably less craving for food than on either of the other days. Their feelings of vigor also tended to increase throughout the day, while they often had plateaued by early afternoon after walking only once in the morning.There were no differences on the scores on the cognitive tests, whether they sat all day or got up and moved. Stress hormones also remained steady during each visit. These results suggest that “even a little bit of activity, spread throughout the day, is a practical, easy way to improve well-being,” says Jack Groppel, a study author and co-founder of the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute. He points out that the walking breaks did not cause people to feel more tired or hungry, but instead had the opposite effect. They also did not alter people’s ability to focus, so, in theory, should not affect productivity (for good or ill).This study, however, was small in scale, short-term and limited by its dependence on the volunteer’s perceptions of their responses to the experiment. But even so, “it’s clear that moving matters,” Dr. Groppel says. So set your 2017 appointment calendar, he suggests, to devote five minutes every hour to physical activity, whether you walk up and down a staircase, along a corridor or just pace around your office.