YOU ARE HERE (NOW)

My day started in a Cincinnati suburb. Once I finished with my customer in the early afternoon, I drove up to Columbus to be in place for a Tuesday morning appointment. I arrived in town in the late afternoon, and I completed a fairly vigorous eighteen mile hike that ended long after darkness had set in. I had troubles with both of my external light sources. My flashlight was inexplicably not working and my headlamp had a screw loose (much like its owner) and the lamp was not affixed to the straps properly. The light from my phone lit the way in places without street lights. It was nearly 10PM when I returned to my room to finally kick off my shoes and enjoy the sense of accomplishment of an eighteen mile urban hike. 

I found this pointless 'YOU ARE HERE (NOW)' pin painted under a bridge along my trail in Columbus. There was no map, or any other markings to tell someone where 'here' was. But it was true, when I stood by the sign, I was there (then).

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Your Food Diary For:

Monday, October 23, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Kellogg's Raisin Bran	600	145	3	16	664	57
Bread, raisin, toasted	100	19	2	3	127	2
	700	164	5	19	791	59
L U N C H
Dark Chocolate Chunky Granola	200	29	8	3	0	5
Turkey Provolone Sub Sandwich	490	52	14	40	1,380	6
	690	81	22	43	1,380	11
D I N N E R
BBQ Eel Sushi Roll	400	42	16	22	105	0
	400	42	16	22	105	0
S N A C K S
Dark Melting Chocolate Wafers	330	35	23	3	45	32
	330	35	23	3	45	32
Totals	2,120	322	66	87	2,321	102
Your Daily Goal	5,094	637	169	255	2,300	191
Remaining	2,974	315	103	168	-21	89
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 3,164 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 196.5 lbs in 5 weeks .

HIGHBANKS METRO PARK

Yesterday afternoon I used my AllTrails application to find somewhere to hike in Columbus, Ohio. My AllTrails advised me that Highbanks Metro Park was within 10 miles of my late afternoon appointment.

Highbanks is named for its massive 100-foot-high shale bluff towering over the Olentangy State Scenic River. Tributary streams cutting across the bluff have created a number of deep ravines in the eastern part of the 1,159-acre park. Ohio and Olentangy shales, often containing outstanding large concretions, are exposed on the bluff face and sides of the ravines.

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OVERLOOK DECK.  On the bluff, about 100 feet above the banks of the Olentangy River.

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WETLANDS VIEWING DECK

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THE WETLANDS

Your Food Diary For:

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
Enriched instant grits, butter flavor	300	63	5	6	1,020	0
Kelloggs - Raisin Bran Cereal	380	92	2	10	420	36
	680	155	7	16	1,440	36
L U N C H
HUGE SPINACH SALAD	750	0	0	0	0	0
Kind Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew	360	44	18	8	40	28
	1,110	44	18	8	40	28
D I N N E R
Sushi - Volcano Roll (6 Pieces)	350	62	6	27	735	4
California. Roll - California Roll	255	38	7	9	0	0
Cinammon Almonds	200	17	13	7	16	13
DARK COCOA MELTING WAFERS	245	27	14	3	50	23
	1,050	144	40	46	801	40
S N A C K S
Whole Foods 365 - Whole Cashews	160	9	12	5	0	2
	160	9	12	5	0	2
Totals	3,000	352	77	75	2,281	106
Your Daily Goal	4,932	616	164	247	2,300	185
Remaining	1,932	264	87	171	19	78
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
	*You've earned 3,002 extra calories from exercise today

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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Walking	175	1,778
Daily Total / Goal	175 / 30	1,778 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	363 / 210	3,497 / 4,130

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Weather conditions when I set out for my 11 mile hike were ideal as it was a reasonable 75°

WHY DID THE TURKEYS CROSS THE ROAD? 
(to get to the other side,  just like chickens!)

WELCOME TO COLUMBUS, ROLLING STONES

Yesterday, Saturday, May 30th, the city of Columbus (OHIO) welcomed THE ROLLING STONES.  The Rolling Stones played in front of approximately 60,000 fans at the Ohio Stadium on the Ohio State Campus.  I was already in Columbus for the TNNA (The National Needlework Association) trade show.  I was staying at the Hilton Hotel across the street from the convention center.  Apparently, so were The Rolling Stones.  I did briefly meet their keyboardist, Chuck Leavell, which I mentioned yesterday.  I have known about this confluence of events since the day that the tour was announced in late March.  I would have had no problem going to the show alone, but I was sure that I would enjoy the evening more if I could convince my boss, my colleague, my friend at the button company to go to the show as well.  When I told him about the fact that The Rolling Stones would be in town on Saturday night when we were in Columbus he was, I think these words will work....uncurious, uninterested, unresponsive and unconcerned.  No problem, I AM a salesman.  I figured that he would go.  And I figured that if he went that he would enjoy himself.  Right and Right.  We took along another friend from the industry and the three of us made the taxi ride from downtown Columbus to the venue.  It did not take long before we found an honest ticket re-seller and we more-or-less paid face value for tickets which were about middle distance away from the stage, considering how far away one really can be at a football stadium-sized rock show.   Everyone had a good time.  Yes, I know....Shocking.

SATURDAY MENU

breakfast oat meal, eggs, bacon, granola, fruit cup                                         calories 1396 calories
lunch      two apples  (trade show)                                                                  calories   190 calories
dinner     MONGOLIAN GRILL, scallops, calamari, shrimp, salmon           calories  770 calories
snack      COORS Light (at Concert)  three Glenlivet's on the rocks              calories  550 calories

caloric consumption  2907 calories

CALORIES BURNED

Here is more proof that I am a nut. I knew that I would not have time between the end of the trade show and going to dinner early and getting to the Stadium to secure The Rolling Sones tickets.  I knew that I would not have time to exercise after the concert. I was out 'drinking' until around 1:30AM late Friday (early Saturday morning) and I knew that I would not want to get up early and exercise.

WHAT TO DO?  (small aside, 'What to do' is the name of an early 1960's Rolling Stones song)
The solution to my dilemma was easy.  I spent 35 minutes on the elliptical machine at 1:30AM in the morning BEFORE RETIRING FOR THE EVENING.  Surprisingly, the fitness room was uncrowded.

1:30 AM Saturday Morning - after a night of 'drinking' - This was a fairly productive workout!

1:30AM Hilton Hotel AMT elliptical machine 35 minutes                             645 calories

SATURDAY NET CALORIES 2262 CALORIES

The set list

1. Jumping Jack Flash
2. It's Only Rock'n Roll
3. Let's Spend The Night Together
4. Tumbling Dice
5. Doom & Gloom
6. Bitch
7. Wild Horses
8. Paint It Black
9. Honky Tonk Women
   --- Band introductions
10. Before They Make Me Run (Keith Richards)
11. Happy (Keith Richards)
12. Midnight Rambler
13. Miss You
14. Gimme Shelter
15. Start Me Up
16. Sympathy For The Devil
17. Brown Sugar
    --- ENCORE
18. You Can't Always Get What You Want (with choir)
19. Satisfaction

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Show start :  9:30pm
Show end   : 11:38pm

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

AND ONE MORE THING....

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Yesterday morning, I received an email from my Mom.

My Mom, whom I love dearly reads my blog each day.  

My Mom commented that calories aside, perhaps I should not be

drinking so much alcohol.

I have this to say.  THANK GOODNESS, THANK GOD...

...I was  not blogging back in the days when I was a university student!

Enough said.  See you tomorrow!

NOT FADE AWEIGH

NOT FADE AWAY was written by Buddy Holly and first recorded in 1957 by Holly's band, the Crickets. In 1964, The Rolling Stones recorded a cover version of NOT FADE AWAY. It was the very first 'single' released by the Stones in the United States and it appeared on the Stones' first US released album, England's Newest Hitmakers. Back in the 1960's the song served as the opening number at many Stones shows. During the 1994-95 Voodoo Lounge Tour - the song was again used as the opener.

If there was talk about me fading away, that does not seem to be the current problem. Lately I have been overdoing it on snacking, overdoing it on some portions and overdoing a bit with some drinking at a couple of back-to-back trade shows.  My thing now is to make sure that all my results don't fade away.  I think I may need to return to a 1000 calories per day to correct the recent direction of my weight changes.

224.4 lbs

I weigh 224.4 lbs.

I gained 6.4 lbs this week.

I lost 84.6 lbs in 157 days. Today begins Day 158.

I have lost 14 inches from my waist. 

I will always be at the beginning of a journey that never ends.

I weigh 224.4 lbs. (157 days ago I weighed 309 lbs)

I have lost 27.4% of my weight since Dec 24.

Considering how different my calorie count has been - eating much larger portions of still mostly nutritious foods - I am not shocked at the recent weight gain - but this trend must stop...soon.

I have a BMI, body mass index of 30.02 (far away from obesity!)

I had a 42.0 BMI on 12.24.14 just 150 days ago (Class III obesity)

I wonder about achieving a 'normal weight' - the charts say 186.8 lbs - I'm not too sure about that...

I know this, regardless of what the BMI charts show - Marc Jacobs is no longer a fat man!

I have four words to describe how I feel right now - time to course correct

...I know how to begin this week... 

32 minutes ELLIPTICAL

It would be great to ascribe recent weight gain to muscle building.  And the truth is, there may be a small degree of that... I can feel my body hardening.  I can physically do things now that I would not have dared dream of doing just a few weeks ago.... for example....

RIDDLE:
When is a 12 story hotel equal to 72 story skyscraper?
When you climb its stairs beginning at the sub-basement level and continue all the way to the rooftop level and you repeat this exercise four times as I did at the Hilton Hotel yesterday.   I counted steps.  Each floor was 16 steps. The number of steps from top to bottom was 289.  I walked 1156 steps total.  That works out to the equivalent of one 72 story climb.  Unlike at home where I have simply gone up 25 flights of stairs, worked out on the elliptical machine and walked down the same staircase 25 flights, at the Hilton Hotel, I climbed the equivalent of of up 18 stories, and back down 18 stories, and repeated this four times.  I was not racing, nor was I resting between ascents and descents.  The whole event took 37 minutes.  Although I have loosely calculated that I might have burned nearly 400 calories - that is not the point. I have a mountain facing me in the not-too-distant future, and I think that I am going to need two things to be successful. I believe these two things to be stamina and confidence. My confidence is building each day, in direct proportion to increased stamina. I no longer fear this adventure. I embrace it.

On the same day that I did this, I had my best workout on an elliptical machine....ever.  I got into a groove and I kept up upping the time until my workout was exactly one hour. The specific elliptical machine (PRECOR AMT ADAPTIVE MOTION TRAINER) requires much more energy of its user and many more calories are allegedly burned on this machine than a standard elliptical machine.

And one more thing I did yesterday, after working out on the elliptical machine was begin to learn how to use dumb bells for muscle building in the upper body.

My physical strength and stamina have never been stronger.
This of course, makes it a bit ironic that I am seeing a gastroenterologist to determine the source of anemia.  Anemia does not outwardly appear to be anything that I am suffering from!

Yesterday, I received a phone call from the Gastroenterologist office advising me that all the biopsies of tissue sampled from my colonoscopy and endoscopy were negative.  Although the source of my anemia remains a mystery, pending the results of still more additional testing, some of my worst fears have been erased.

Yesterday, was quite a momentous day....
72 story stair climb, massively exhilarating accomplishment...
1 hour on the treadmill, massively exhilarating workout...
Call from Gastroenterologist, massively exhilarating news...

and one more interesting thing....

Last night in the Hilton Bar around 12:30AM I had the opportunity to meet the musical director of The Rolling Stones who are in Columbus getting ready for a concert tonight at Ohio Stadium.  Chuck Leavell has recorded and toured with The Rolling Stones for 33 years. On stage he plays keyboards and as musical director he is said to be charged with creating set lists for each show (with the input and approval of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) I asked Chuck if it was really true that setlist creation was his responsibility and he confirmed that it really was.  The guy was extremely gracious and happy to pose for a photo with me. (Just look at the photo, he looks at least as happy I do!)

Chuck Leavell graciously poses for a photo with me at 12:30 AM (Saturday morning)
About 21 hours after this photo was taken, Leavell will be onstage with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood in front of approximately 60,000 fans at Ohio Stadium as one more stop on the Rolling Stones 'ZipCode Tour'

FRIDAY MENU

breakfast   two bowls oatmeal, two apples, eggs, bacon, fruit                               1036  calories
lunch         Ahi Tuna Tacos, two apples, granola                                                      960 calories
dinner        lamb with noodles, beet salad                                                                 536 calories
snacks (drinking)  5 double Glenlivet's on the rocks                                                690 calories

caloric consumption  3223 calories

calories burned
stair climbing (72 stories) up and down                                384 calories
ellipical, 60 minutes                                                             1222 calories

total calories burned 1606 calories

FRIDAY NET CALORIES  1617 CALORIES          

TNNA - THE NATIONAL NEEDLEARTS ASSOCIATION TRADESHOW

 My travels have now brought me to Columbus, Ohio for the TNNA Show. The National Needlearts Association tradeshow. This show occurs twice per year.  In the earlier part of the year, usually January, the show happens on the west coast. The summer show has traditionally taken place in June in Columbus, Ohio. Beginning next year, the show is scheduled to visit different cities instead of almost always being in Columbus. This wholesale only show caters to Needlepoint and Yarn Shops.  As most fine yarn shops carry specialty buttons, one of the companies that I represent as an independent sales rep, Dill Buttons, is a vendor here where we have lots of customers.

THURSDAY MENU

breakfast  oat meal                                                                                                    300 calories
lunch        Turkey Jerky, Fruit & Nut bar, two apples                                               800 calories
dinner       Chili Bowl, wedge salad                                                                           608 calories
snacks      salted plantain chips, 7 Quaker rice cakes, 4 Glenlivet's on the rocks    1017 calories

total caloric consumption  2725 calories

CALORIES BURNED
PRECOR AMT TRAINER with OPEN STRIDE  (HILTON HOTEL)                      596 calories

FRIDAY NET CALORIS   2129 CALORIES