ADIOS SODA

I have successfully drastically cut back my soda consumption.   I do think I have picked up my coffee consumption with artificial sweetener.  I have vastly picked up my water consumption.  Each time I visit Applebee's, Panera, or Red Lobster - my beverage of choice is water. It is hard to change a lot of bad habits at once, but I have been at least somewhat successful.  And I have now been at this for a grand total of 18 days... The biggest step, was that first one... When I finally decided (again) enough is enough. Never has 278.5 pounds felt so good.  (And by the way, I am not fooled - it is still incredibly morbidly obese - but at least I am going in the right direction for the first time in a long time.

.

.

.

WILDLIFE

Among the reasons that walking about town, or taking a real hike in a park is far more interesting than mindlessly walking on a treadmill as I used to do, is that outdoors one can see real wildlife. During my hikes I have seen frogs, snakes, deer, herons, chipmunks, turtles and wild turkeys. Yesterday as I hiked through Goose Island I spotted something that appeared to be moving. At first I thought it might be a leaf, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be something that I would have never expected to see on a Chicago street. I think it was a scorpion. It was about 3 inches long, and when I got near it to take its photo, it curled up in a defensive position. I sent this picture to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to see if they would be kind enough to confirm my sighting. If I hear back from them, I will let you know... If it wasn't a scorpion, then perhaps it was a three inch lobster, and that seems highly unlikely. But seriously, a scorpion? In Chicago? Walking across the street? 

It took a lot of effort to squeeze in this 6 mile urban hike yesterday.... It rained practically the entire day. In fact, there were thunderstorms in the morning, afternoon and evening. When I set out on this hike, with my daughter, the rain had stopped briefly. This break in the precipitation was short-lived, so we got a bit wet. 

Your Food Diary For:

Saturday, October 14, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Grits	300	66	5	6	930	3
Trader Joes - Pumpkin O's	220	50	2	4	280	18
	520	116	7	10	1,210	21
L U N C H
Read - 3 Bean Salad	300	65	0	5	1,500	40
Mariano's - Spicy Salmon Maki	350	39	16	14	278	0
	650	104	16	19	1,778	40
D I N N E R
Rana - Roaster Tomato & Mozzarella Tortellini	600	89	16	22	1,244	2
	600	89	16	22	1,244	2
S N A C K S
Select Choice - Chewy Oat & Honey Granola	200	38	4	4	110	14
Snack Cheese	100	0	9	6	163	0
	300	38	13	10	273	14
Totals	2,070	347	52	61	4,505	77
Your Daily Goal	2,934	367	97	147	2,300	110
Remaining	864	20	45	86	-2,205	33
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,004 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 218.9 lbs in 5 weeks.

TERRIFIC WEEKEND

The visit to Chicago by my Mom and her brother came to an end when I dropped them off at O'hare Airport at 11:30AM. My Mom wrangled an invitation for me to join them at the Wedding Brunch held in a downtown Chicago Hotel. It gave me an opportunity to briefly meet some distant relatives and enjoy a good hearty breakfast. We arrived at O'Hare Airport precisely when we needed to and miraculously there was very little traffic in either direction. I was back home by noon time. This gave me just enough time for a 10 mile urban hike before I needed to get underway for my drive to Cincinnati. There was time to squeeze in a ten mile hike because I wanted to make the time. It would have been easy (at least for an earlier version of myself) to come to the conclusion that there was no time for a ten mile hike with a five hour drive looming at the end of the day. That particular version of myself is long gone. My priorities included getting in my exercise. As the summer is winding down, I will be faced with options that include the elliptical machine and/or treadmill in the future. I am convinced that there is simply nothing better than an outdoor hike, be it a fast walk through city streets or navigating down the sides of a gorge or climbing to the top of a midwest hilltop. Outdoor exercising when possible is the best. One thing you can't do indoors - Take a Hike.

.

Your Food Diary For:

Sunday, August 21, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Bacon - Generic - Bacon	150	0	11	11	684	0
Pineapple slices - Slices, 4 slices	120	30	0	0	20	28
Scrambled Eggs - 2 Large Eggs	70	0	6	6	70	0
steel cut oatmeal - steel cut oat meal	750	135	13	25	0	5
	1,090	165	30	42	774	33
L U N C H
Oki Sushi - Spicy Tuna Maki, 1 roll	330	33	13	17	210	1
YOGURT RAISINS	400	66	16	2	35	59
	730	99	29	19	245	60
D I N N E R
Gimme Organic - Roasted Seaweed Snacks	50	2	4	2	130	0
Tru Joy - Organic Choco-Chews	240	24	7	2	0	23
Whole Foods 365 - Whole Cashews	160	9	12	5	0	2
Whole Foods - Tamari Almonds	150	4	13	6	110	1
WHOLE FOODS - DATE PIECES	300	75	0	3	25	55
SEMI-SWEET CHOCOLATE	210	30	14	0	0	24
Add Food Quick Tools	1,110	144	50	18	265	105
S N A C K S
skinny pop - pop, 1 cup	80	8	5	1	40	0
	80	8	5	1	40	0
Totals	3,010	416	114	80	1,324	198
Your Daily Goal	3,926	491	131	197	2,300	147
Remaining	916	75	17	117	976	-51
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,996 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 195.2 lbs in 5 weeks.


.

       Your Exercise Diary for:

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Walking	136	1,996
Daily Total / Goal	136 / 30	1,996 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	1917 / 210	24,496 / 4,130

.

Me and me Mum right before enjoying a downtown Chicago Sunday Brunch.

* * * * * * * * 

 A party favor from the wedding attended by my Mom was a gigantic 360 gram (a bit more than 3/4 of a pound) chocolate bar. 159 calories per serving. Allegedly twelve servings per bar. Yeah, right.  I know myself. 

I have a complex formula that I use to calculate calories for any packaged food.

1 BAR=1 SERVING

THAT WOULD BE NEARLY 2000 CALORIES

FOR THIS 'ONE BAR' OF CHOCOLATE.

My wife asked for the bar, for my child and herself. I immediately handed it over. I do not need it. I am not active enough to 'erase' 2000 calories in one chocolate bar.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Bar

Product information

Guideline Daily Amount Summary

Be Treatwise. Per 30g contains

• Energy

  664 kJ
  159 kcal,8.0%of your GDA

• Fat

  9.1g,13.0%of your GDA

• Saturates

  5.6g,28.0%of your GDA

• Sugars

  17g,19.0%of your GDA

• Salt

  0.07g,1.0%of your GDA

*% reference intake of an average adult (8400 kJ/2000 kcal)

Description

Milk Chocolate

By Appointment to H.M. The Queen Cocoa and Chocolate Manufacturers Cadbury UK Ltd., Bournville.

Pack Size: 360g

• Deliciously creamy milk chocolate made with a Glass and a Half of fresh milk
• Made with Fairtrade cocoa and sugar
• Generous 360g bar - perfect for gifting
• Packed in our special easy-open, easy close wrapper
• Suitable for vegetarians

Information

Ingredients:

Milk**, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Vegetable Fats (Palm, Shea), Emulsifiers (E442, E476), Flavourings, Sugar, Cocoa: traded in compliance with Fairtrade Standards, total 70%, **The equivalent of 426ml of Fresh Liquid Milk in every 227g of Milk Chocolate, Milk Solids 20% minimum, actual 23%, Cocoa Solids 20% minimum, Contains Vegetable Fats in addition to Cocoa Butter

.

ONE LAST QUESTION?  This Cadbury Chocolate Bar touts its 'EASY CLOSE WRAPPER.   
They close? 
WHO CLOSES A CHOCOLATE CANDY BAR!

* * * * * * * * * *

one more thing...
I titled today's blog TERRIFIC WEEKEND.

I just want to clarify that I am using definition '1' for 'terrific'.

ter·rif·ic      təˈrifik

adjective

1. 1.

   of great size, amount, or intensity.

   "We had a terrific vacation"

   synonyms:

   tremendous, mighty, great
2. 2.

   archaic

   causing terror.

UBER DRIVER

My Mom and her brother came to Chicago from New York this weekend for a wedding. I promised them both that I would be their personal uber driver during their 48 hour visit. Although I kept my promise, I still managed to get my walking accomplished as well.  On Friday when I picked them up at the airport, I walked 3 miles around O'Hare airport before I met them at the luggage carousel.  Friday afternoon we did some sightseeing, and while my guests rested before a Friday night party on a Chicago Party Boat, I had enough time to sneak in a seven mile walk before I had to don my uber hat again and drive them to the riverfront.  I spent the whole morning and afternoon with my Mom on Saturday. The high point of the day was watching The Thunderbird Jets as part of the Chicago Air and Water Show. We watched from the rooftop or our building.  

This photo was taken as these four jets flew directly over us on the 24th floor rooftop.

On Saturday night, I drove my Mom and my Uncle to the wedding which was about five miles from downtown (30 minutes with traffic) and since the parking lot seemed rather secure, I decided to park the car, and do my walking from that location. I dropped my guests off at 6:45PM and I picked them up at 11:45PM.  During that downtime, I managed a 17 mile walk, and I managed a quick healthy dinner at Mariano's.  Have I previously mentioned that I like to walk?  My hike was all over the to no place in particular, the one particularly nice spot I found was a short Canalport Riverwalk.

My favorite photo taken yesterday was me and my Mom in front of a Chicago store.  I can't say that I shop there often, but I do seem strangely attracted to the shop.

Does my Mom seem young or what? Couldn't we pass for brother and sister?

Your Food Diary For:

Saturday, August 20, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Quaker - Grits - Instant - Original, 3 packet	300	66	0	6	930	0
	300	66	0	6	930	0
L U N C H
Italy Restaurant pizza quatro formaggi	700	86	26	28	0	10
Arrugula Salad	6	1	0	1	6	0
Chocolate Eataly - Chocolate	200	19	14	0	8	16
	906	106	40	29	14	26
D I N N E R
Bush's - Baked Beans	300	62	2	13	1,177	26
Cranberry Walnut Cabbage Slaw	200	19	14	3	167	0
Chicken 3 oz - Chicken Breast	300	0	4	65	158	0
	800	81	20	81	1,502	26
S N A C K S
Luna Bar - White Chocolate Macadamia	200	25	7	9	190	8
	200	25	7	9	190	8
Totals	2,206	278	67	125	2,636	60
Your Daily Goal	6,176	772	206	309	2,300	231
Remaining	3,970	494	139	184	-336	171
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 4,246 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 164.6 lbs in 5 weeks 

       Your Exercise Diary for:

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Walking	237	3,137
Daily Total / Goal	237 / 30	3,137 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	1780 / 210	20,904 / 4,130