WEEK WORTHY OF FORGETTING

This week, the Republicans took a beating in a special senate election in Alabama, where the Republican candidate was extremely flawed. True conservatives, who know that the enemy of America is the 'Left' (like me) supported this flawed guy and he lost. Since Tuesday night I have not turned on the news at all. I have completely buried myself in netflix.

This wee, while I have been zipping around Ohio and Indiana, it has snowed virtually every single day. It has been really cold, and I have not once returned to my hotel room before dark. I have not walked at all this week. Still I managed to step in place while I was binge watching netflix, but that ain't the same as actually walking.

This week, I have eaten extremely poorly. I often eat poorly, even when I am restricting my calories. This week I have exacerbated my poor eating with too much eating. Weighing myself tomorrow, on Saturday will not be fun.

This is a week worthy of forgetting.

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Your Food Diary For:

Thursday, December 14, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Dunkin' Donuts Bacon Egg Cheese English Muffin, 2	580	64	20	32	1,400	4
Met-Rx Big 100 Super Cookie Crunch	420	42	14	32	320	26
	1,000	106	34	64	1,720	30
L U N C H
Boston Market Chicken Noodle Soup	230	22	8	20	1,300	2
Boston Market Chicken Market Bowl, 1 Bowl	500	63	14	35	1,150	9
	730	85	22	55	2,450	11
D I N N E R
Sushi combo	825	113	24	33	1,250	9
	825	113	24	33	1,250	9
S N A C K S
Dark Chocolate Coconut Bites	300	32	20	3	38	27
Klondike - Klondike Bar, 2 bar	500	58	28	6	140	46
	800	90	48	9	178	73
Totals	3,355	394	128	161	5,598	123
Your Daily Goal	1,991	249	66	100	2,300	74
Remaining	-1,364	-145	-62	-61	-3,298	-49
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 61 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 241.4 lbs in 5 weeks     

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WICKER WICKER WICKER

Yesterday during my hike I stopped by the statue of WICKER which is in a park called, WICKER PARK, in a Chicago community also called WICKER PARK.

Charles Gustavus Wicker

Charles Wicker was a businessman, politician, and developer.  His statue is donned in a Lincoln-like stovepipe hat and bulky overcoat holding a straw broom, a reference to sweeping out a dusty polling place and illustrating the idea of "If there is something to be done, then do it."  SOUNDS MUCH LIKE THE NIKE MOTTO....JUST DO IT.

This is a closeup of my path through the park called, Wicker Park

As you can see, Wicker Park is in Wicker Park, Chicago

Right before dinner I scooted out for an 8.5 mile urban hike

Your Food Diary For:

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Kirkland Signature - Bacon, 4 slices	160	0	12	12	700	0
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal- Maple, 1 packet	160	32	2	4	260	12
Eggs - Poached, 4	300	2	20	26	599	2
	620	34	34	42	1,559	14
L U N C H
Campbell's Chunky Manhattan Clam Chowder	240	36	6	10	1,600	6
Goya - Agua De Coco	90	23	1	0	102	17
Hot Dog w/Bun	300	22	18	10	820	3
	630	81	25	20	2,522	26
D I N N E R
Curry Chicken w/Rice	500	146	14	29	1,088	5
	500	146	14	29	1,088	5
S N A C K S
Chewy Oat & Honey Cranola Bar, 3	300	57	6	6	165	21
	300	57	6	6	165	21
Totals	2,050	318	79	97	5,334	66
Your Daily Goal	3,092	386	103	155	2,300	116
Remaining	1,042	68	24	58	-3,034	50
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,162 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 227.2 lbs in 5 weeks 

CHICAGO CUBS

As a transplanted New Yorker, I somehow still consider myself a New York Yankees fan. Although at the present time, I can only name one player on that team - and I do not admire him as he has managed to sully the game with his steroid use - Alex Rodriguez.  Since I have lived in Chicago since 1993, I suppose I should have some affinity for the local teams. The thing is, I don't think I really ever 'recovered' from the last baseball strike which was 22 years ago when the entire post-season was completely wiped out. I have mostly lost interest in Major League baseball. Each year that the Yankees were in the playoffs, I would get a bit interested and start watching some games. When they were eliminated, so too, was my interest.

Lately, a quick check of the Major League baseball standings show the hapless Chicago Cubs atop their division with the best record in baseball. This 'incomprehensible' fact is in direct contrast to their 'recent' (100+ year) history as reported by wikipedia:

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In 1906, the Cubs won a Major League record 116 games, and posted a modern-era record winning percentage of .763, before losing the World Series to the Chicago White Sox by four games to two. The Cubs won back-to-back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908, becoming the first Major League team to play in three consecutive Fall Classics, and the first to win it twice. The team has appeared in a total of ten World Series, most recently in 1945. The Cubs have not won the World Series in 107 years, and they have not won the National League pennant in 70 years, both of which are record "droughts" in Major League Baseball. Since the start of divisional play in 1969, the Cubs have appeared in the postseason seven times. This included four trips to the League Championship Series—in 1984,1989, 2003, and 2015.

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#	NL Central	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	AWAY	L10
1	Cubs	48	26	.649	-	25-11	23-15	4-6
2	Cardinals	39	35	.527	9.0	15-21	24-14	4-6
3	Pirates	37	39	.487	12.0	22-18	15-21	4-6
4	Brewers	34	41	.453	14.5	21-18	13-23	4-6
5	Reds	29	47	.382	20.0	18-22	11-25	3-7

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As of the morning of June 27th, the Chicago Cubs have the best record in all of baseball.

What does this prove?

It proves that nothing lasts forever - not even failure. Things change. A person can have no history of eating well, no history of personal fitness, no history of good health - but one can change. It does not matter if a person has been neglectful for 1 year, 10 years, 20 years or 30 years. All it takes is the willingness and the courage to make that first huge step. It requires the willingness and courage to make a small change today. And then again tomorrow. I did this a decade ago. And then I fell back into all the bad habits that I tried to escape. Eighteen months ago, I vowed to try again. I have been on a much more steady course during this period. Clichés are clichés because they contain truth. 

If I can do it, so can you.

If the Chicago Cubs can become successful after a century of failure, so can anyone!

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Sunday started as a somewhat 'typical' day for me... I had two 99 minute sessions on the elliptical machine. What made the day a bit atypical was that my entire family took a late afternoon/early evening 10 mile urban hike together.

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Since yesterday's urban hike was NOT taken alone... I was able to take a few interesting photos that were NOT selfies. You see, it's not that I am a complete narcissist, it's just that there is no one else around for most of my hikes!

Mom and Daughter enjoying the view from a spiral staircase on Roosevelt Road.

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Major General John A Logan

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Sure, Homer Simpson's message is mildly amusing... but it is a completely unhelpful message!

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

This blog professed to expose the secret of diet and weight loss.   Nothing about this blog was suspenseful - the 'secret' was revealed in the blog synopsis.

Here is the secret: Eat Less. Exercise is critical to one's health.  Exercise is not he critical component to weight loss.

Until now I had never exposed the secret to successful exercise...

Once again, there is no secret.  I believe the slogan from Nike said it quite well nearly 20 years ago, in 1988.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the hours I have spent on treadmills, ellipticals, rowing machines and StairMaster machines over these past 6 months while discovering and re-discovering all the music that I enjoyed (and never stopped) enjoying since I was in high school.   In coming weeks, I am going to discuss some of the great music from some of the great classic rock bands that have been providing the soundtrack to my exercise regiment.

Yesterday, I wanted to see if I could replicate my 2 hours on the Precor EFX 576i Cross Trainer and perhaps log a 10 mile session.  I did something different to distract me from the repetitive nature of taking 10000+ steps during the course of a two hour workout.  I brought my iPad to the gym and synced it with my Bluetooth headphones (for the first time) and watched two continuous hours of...
...CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM.

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM was a show that was broadcast only on HBO.   Although I have never in my life subscribed to HBO - CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM quickly became my absolute all-time favorite television show ever.   I own all 80 episodes digitally on my iPad.  Usually I only watch them during downtime at airports or during flights.  CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM is surely the FUNNIEST SHOW that has ever (or likely will ever) be produced.   It finds comedy in a lot of areas that don't often get discussed in polite conversation.  I am sure it is NOT a show that I would enjoy watching with my Mom for example.   (Still I recommend that my Mom watch it - and I dare her (or anybody) to tell me that it is NOT hilarious.)  Wait a moment....that's not good enough... I double dare you!   So what is the point of my telling you this?  Yesterday at the YMCA while I was watching two consecutive hours of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM while I was having a 1500+ calorie workout on the Precor EFX 576i Cross Trainer, time went so fast that my workout stopped suddenly.   I thought that there was something wrong with the programming of the time that I had set.   Turns out there was no problem, I simply was so engaged in the CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM episodes that I lost track of the time elapsed and I DID SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE ANOTHER TWO HOUR WORKOUT.   I didn't quite reach my goal of logging 10 miles as I 'only' logged 9.87 miles.

Still after this workout... (as all 'Curb' fans can imagine...)

I felt pretty, pretty, pretty...pretty good!

LARRY DAVID playing himself in CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

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 SATURDAY MENU

breakfast  red delicious apples (3), raw cacao goji, wasabi green peas    605 calories

lunch        Peckham Pear, chewy ginger, toffee almonds, wasabi peas,
                 cherry vanilla granola, sesame sticks, date coconut roll        1232 calories
dinner       Mariano's Huge Spinach Salad, vanilla macaroon                 1250 calories

                                                

total calories consumed 3087 calories

calories burned

PRECOR EFX CROSS-TRAINER 4:3 INTERVAL SESSION

125 MINUTES, 9.87 MILES          1556 CALORIES
rowing machine 15 minutes 165 calories

total calories burned Saturday 1721 burned

Saturday net calories  calories 1366 calories

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I was so pumped after my two hour workout - that I was not prepared to call it a day.
I jumped on the rowing machine for just 15 minutes and logged a 15 minute 165 calorie workout.
BUT AFTER THAT, I WAS TRULY EXHAUSTED.  AND IT FELT ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC!

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Listen this small number of random photos from the series do not do the show justice.  I promise you there is nothing funnier that has ever been produced.   Larry David created Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.  If you liked Seinfeld - try to imagine a show way, way funnier.  (I know that that would be difficult - but it is true!)

These were the 4 episodes I watched from Season 4.   It would matter not which four episodes I watched...The show is unbelievably funny.   Whether these synopses sound funny or not - I don't know - I only know that they are funny when you watch them play out over a 30 minute episode.

		Title	Directed by	Story by	Original air date

		"The 5 Wood"	Bryan Gordon	Larry David	February 1, 2004
Larry faces termination from his country club if his locker is not cleaned; Larry steals a golf club from a deceased person's casket.
		"The Car Pool Lane"	Robert B. Weide	Larry David	February 8, 2004
Larry hires a prostitute (Kym Whitley) to be a passenger in his car so he can use the HOV lane while driving to a Los Angeles Dodgers game on time, and he also attempts to get medicinal marijuana for his father. Marty Funkhouser (Bob Einstein) refuses to give away his dead father's baseball ticket.
		"The Surrogate"	Larry Charles	Larry David	February 22, 2004
Larry wears a heart monitor to get a clean bill of health for his lead role in The Producers but finds himself in stressing situations such as racial encounters and dealings with David Schwimmer's father.
		"Wandering Bear"	Robert B. Weide	Larry David	February 29, 2004
Larry's purchase of an adult video causes trouble when his longtime assistant Antoinette becomes unstable after breaking up with a boyfriend. Larry gets some herbal remedies from his gardener, Wandering Bear. (synopses provided by wikipedia)