DARKNESS FALLS EARLY THESE DAYS

I will obviously no longer be able to restrict my daily walks to daylight. Sunset in Chicago is around 4:30PM and that time is going to be heading to 4:00PM as the weeks progress.  On Thursday, I made no effort to even try to catch daylight. I set out, armed with my goofy looking headlamp on my goofy looking hat and took a seven mile urban hike which took me to the Chicago Lakefront. There were parts along the path where there really was no light and the headlamp was useful and highly necessary. I recall that in years past, the only flashlight I had was the lame one that is built into my iphone. The headlamp, does a great job lighting the path ahead. 

Your Food Diary For:

Thursday, November 9, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Eggs - Poached	300	2	20	26	600	2
Turkey Bacon Slices	240	0	9	30	1,440	0
	540	2	29	56	2,040	2
L U N C H
Campbell's Manhattan Clam Chowder	240	36	6	10	1,600	6
Egg Salad Sandwich	300	38	18	20	285	4
Wasa - Sourdough Crispbread	105	27	0	3	135	0
	645	101	24	33	2,020	10
D I N N E R
Simply the Best Trek Mix	600	52	40	16	60	28
	600	52	40	16	60	28
S N A C K S
Snickers - Ice Cream Bar	250	25	15	4	80	21
	250	25	15	4	80	21
Totals	2,035	180	108	109	4,200	61
Your Daily Goal	3,141	392	104	158	2,300	117
Remaining	1,106	212	-4	49	-1,900	56
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,211 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 212.8 lbs in 5 weeks.

WHAT CHANGED?

Many times over the past two years (in fact, tomorrow will be the two year anniversary of this blog) I have reminded what few readers this blog has, that that real reason that I do this every day is because I personally enjoy going back and reading some of these daily entries as time passes. I admit that I try to make this blog somewhat interesting for the few people who have the spare two minutes each day to see what I am pontificating about. For many months, the average number of visitors each day has been somewhere near fifty. Beginning on December 7th, for a reason that completely eludes me, the daily visitors to this blog has 'skyrocketed' to nearly 300. I have no idea why. I always thought that I might be 'discovered' if not for my successful weight loss, then at least for my 'razor sharp' and/or  my twisted political viewpoints. However, before I get too jazzed about my increased readership, here are the stats from 'drudgereport.com' which is a website that I visit numerous times each day. For comparison, my blog has accumulated just over 50,000 hits in two years. 

VISITS DRUDGEREPORT.COM 12/25/2016

020,179,375 PAST 24 HOURS
853,034,180 PAST 31 DAYS
10,675,624,505 PAST YEAR.

It's time for me to do my 'Rain Man' thing.  If the Drudge Report had 20,179,375 visits in the past 24 hours, then it was visited approximately 840,807 times per hour, which translates to 14,013 visits per minute.  In the last four minutes, the Drudge Report has had more visitors to its website than my blog has had in the past 2 years. But we should compare apples to apples, right?  How many minutes has my blog been active?  Two years, is 730 days, which is 17, 520 hours, which further is translated to 1,051,200 minutes.

Now I have a good comparison... My blog needed to be active for over ONE MILLION MINUTES for it to be visited as many times as the DRUDGE REPORT is visited in just 4 minutes.  OK, on second thought, perhaps I should have not reported that my visits to the blog 'skyrocketed' beginning on December 7th. But they did increase. What changed? I do not know. 

.

.

Your Food Diary For:

Saturday, December 24, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal- Maple	800	160	10	20	1,300	60
Kirkland - Pre-Cooked Bacon	240	0	18	18	1,050	0
	1,040	160	28	38	2,350	60
L U N C H
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, 2	760	60	34	18	310	34
	760	60	34	18	310	34
D I N N E R
Home Made - Potato Latkes	852	186	28	34	4,524	15
Black Angus Sirloin Steak	360	0	24	33	0	0
	1,212	186	52	67	4,524	15
S N A C K S
Klondike Vanilla Ice Cream Bar	500	70	34	6	170	56
	500	70	34	6	170	56
Totals	3,512	476	148	129	7,354	165
Your Daily Goal	3,495	437	116	175	2,300	131
Remaining	-17	-39	-32	46	-5,054	-34
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,565 extra calories from exercise today

.

       Your Exercise Diary for:

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
ELEVEN MILE URBAN HIKE	166	1,879
Daily Total / Goal	166 / 30	1,879 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	929 / 210	9,885 / 4,130

.

.

During my eleven mile urban hike yesterday, I tried my new headlamp. I know that it looks a bit goofy. I also know that there have been a few times in recent weeks when this would have come in very handy when my hiking extended into darkness, especially where there was very little light to mark the way forward. These days, I always carry a flashlight with me. I also think that this headlamp will be permanently stowed in my backpack for the times that it is necessary. 

.

.
from wikipedia...

Rain Man is a 1988 American road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. It tells the story of an abrasive and selfish young wheeler-dealer, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware. 

Charlie learns more about Raymond, including that he is a mental calculator with the ability to instantly count hundreds of objects at once, far beyond the normal range of human subitizing abilities. 

.

subitize

[soo-bi-tahyz]

• Word Origin

verb (used without object), subitized,subitizing. Psychology.

1.

to perceive at a glance the number of items presented, the limit for humans being about seven.

I personally, do not have any subitizing abilities, nor do I have a mental calculator. The reason that I identify with the character of Rain Man is that sometimes I just need to carry out mathematical problems to somewhat absurd exactitude.

.

RETURN TO ZIONSVILLE RAIL TRAIL

My attempt to walk along the Zionsville Rail Trail on Tuesday was thwarted by my veering off the trail and walking much of my 10 mile hike off the trail and along the streets of the town.  I arrived at the trail on Tuesday evening very close to dusk and just did not have a plan and I did not know which way to start.  I fixed this with a pre-dawn hike on the very next day, yesterday.  For Wednesday's hike I set my alarm for 5:00AM and I was on the trail (in total darkness) at 6:00AM.  I parked at Zionsville City Hall which was one of the official trailheads.  The trail was paved, it was wide and I started my hike under a blanket of shimmering stars.  My flashlight came in handy as it really was completely dark.  Still, even at that hour I passed a number of people who were jogging, also with flashlights. (headlamps)

It appears that I left the Indianapolis area during a last gasp of unseasonably fall weather.  When I returned from my hike to enjoy my breakfast at the Days Inn, the local television weatherman was speaking of the 1" to 3" snowfall that was expected over the weekend.  A quick check of the forecast for Chicago indicates that we will not be escaping the cold weather or the snow.  Although, today, Friday should be warm enough, the temperatures are going to dip below freezing on Saturday and never rise above freezing on Sunday.  So, a challenge lies before me:  Am I going to continue to get my ten mile walk outdoors?  I expect to do precisely that. Certainly I will try.

After walking off the Zionsville Rail Trail on Tuesday night and veering into the muddy unpaved trail of the Starkey Nature Preserve, this paved trail was a welcome sight.  Especially in the darkness of the pre-dawn hours.  I got a kick out of these signs warning that the wooden planks of the bridge were slippery when wet.  The wet surfaces of the wooden bridges were, in fact, incredibly slippery.

.

.

Your Food Diary For: Thursday, November 19, 2015 BREAKFAST Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar KELLOGGS - RAISIN BRAN (dry cereal, no milk), 1 cup 190 46 1 5 210 18 Sage - Red Delicious Apple, 2 medium apple (170g) 190 50 1 1 4 38 Quaker - Cinnamon & Spice Instant Oatmeal, 3 packet (43 g) 480 96 6 12 630 33 General Mills - Nature Valley - Oats 'n Honey Crunchy Granola Bar, 2 bars 190 29 6 4 160 12 1,050 221 14 22 1,004 101 L U N C H Whole Foods - Blackened Trout, 1 fillet 220 21 8 18 650 0 Home Made - Collar Greens, 9 cups cooked 75 15 0 0 60 3 Generic - ++ Hush Puppies ++, 4 piece 204 28 9 4 772 0 WHOLE FOODS - NATURAL WASABI GREEN PEAS, 0.533332807947278 cup (30 grams) 192 30 5 6 384 3 WHOLE FOODS - SUPERFOOD CEREAL RADIANT RASPBERRY, 66.3 g (1/2 cup) 217 32 9 5 18 9 WHOLE FOODS 9269 - DRIED PAPAYA, 7.2 slices (40g) 120 30 0 1 12 18 1,028 157 31 35 1,896 33 D I N N E R WHOLE FOODS 8890 - STRAWBERRY VANILLA HEMP GRANOLA, 66.0 g (3/4 cup) 300 48 10 6 72 18 Campbells Home Style Soup - Italian Wedding Soup, 2 cup 200 26 5 12 820 8 WHOLE FOODS 8609 - KAHUNA CRUNCH TRAIL MIX, 84 g (approx 1/4 cup) 390 48 24 6 75 30 890 122 39 24 967 56 S N A C K S Kind - Fruit & Nut - Almond & Coconut, 2 bar (40g) 380 42 24 6 50 24 WHOLE FOODS 7251 - PINEAPPLE RINGS, 40.85 g (approx 2 pieces) 133 32 0 0 19 23 WHOLE FOODS 7241 - UNSALTED SPROUTED RAW PUMPKIN SEEDS, 39.2 g. (1/4 cup) 211 7 18 10 7 0 KROGER 90078 - BANANA CHIPS, 40.0 g (approx 3/4 cup) 216 25 12 1 0 5 940 106 54 17 76 52 Totals 3,908 606 137 97 3,943 242 Your Daily Goal 3,722 465 124 187 2,300 139 Remaining -186 -141 -13 89 -1,642 -102 Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar *You've earned 1,792 extra calories from exercise today          .
Your Exercise Diary for: Thursday, November 19, 2015 Cardiovascular Minutes Calories Burned Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace 132 1,946 MFP iOS calorie adjustment N/A -154     Daily Total / Goal 133 / 30 1,792 / 590   Weekly Total / Goal 533 / 210 8,246 / 4,130 . total calories consumed 3908 calories total calories burned (10 mile walk) 1792 calories total net calories 2116 calories . ....................... fitbit day 78 50129 steps ........................ ten mile walking streak reached 11 days ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  so how does one reach 50,000+ steps in one day?  It is 'easy.'   A ten mile walk in the pre-dawn hours will catapult the step count well over 10,000.  When I arrived home from Indiana around 5PM, I examined my caloric intake for the day, and I was 'alarmed.'  One cannot really erase calories, but one can try.  I walked in place for nearly 4 hours.  I was walking in place while on the phone for nearly one hour.  I was walking in place while watching a video of a TV show that I wanted to catch up on.  I was walking in place while I watched the 'live' broadcast of a TV show.  And I was walking in place while I watched the news.  When I passed 50,000 steps for the day, I was satisfied.  Just two hours later, the fitbit mocked me at midnight.  It indicated zero steps.  Just as it does every single day. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  and one final thing... The MARC JACOBS WEIGHT LOSS JOURNAL blog passed a milestone last evening... It has logged its 25000th visit.  The blog hasn't exactly gone 'viral.'  And the Rabbi Hillel Diet has not become the biggest diet program (philosophy) in the world - but it has helped me.  I am its author and its biggest fan.  I know that it has been instrumental in keeping me on track, and getting me back on track each time I showed signs of derailing.