Tuesday, December 27, 2016

LOOKING BACK TO DAY ONE

Today's blog will look back to day one of this blog two years ago. First, I will review yesterday.

I enjoyed the quiet national holiday on Monday. In the early afternoon, I spent some time on the elliptical machine and I thought that I was done for the day. At around 5:00PM my daughter asked if I would take a walk with her. She knows that when she asks me to take a walk that we will not be walking to the corner store and back. Why daughter also knows that I will just about never say no to a request to take a walk. When our nighttime evening walk was completed, we had taken an evening urban hike that was eleven miles. It always (happily) surprises me that my daughter likes to walk with me. Our pace was as fast (approximately 4+ mph) as when I walk alone. I can not remember anytime as a high school kid that I would have walked 11 miles for any reason. It would have been beyond my comprehension if my parents had suggested that I travel anywhere by walking 5 miles to a destination. Suburban kids get driven, they are car-pooled, they ride their bikes. They do not walk. I did not walk. I am glad that I am teaching my daughter that a five mile walk need not be more than a 75 minute investment in time.

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
	840	128	23	31	1,915	48
L U N C H
Campbell's Chunky - Sirloin Burger	520	68	16	28	3,160	12
Quaker - Chewy Dipps Choc Chip	280	46	10	2	120	26
	800	114	26	30	3,280	38
D I N N E R
Taco Bell - Hard Shell Taco	850	60	50	40	1,550	5
	850	60	50	40	1,550	5
S N A C K S
Nabisco - Oreo - Cinnamon Bun	499	70	23	1	233	43
	499	70	23	1	233	43

Totals	2,989	372	122	102	6,978	134
Your Daily Goal	4,940	617	164	248	2,300	185
Remaining	1,951	245	42	146	-4,678	51
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 3,010 extra calories from exercise today

Your Exercise Diary for:

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Elliptical Trainer	99	1,033
ELEVEN MILE URBAN HIKE	158	1,977


Daily Total / Goal	257 / 30	3,010 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	257 / 210	3,010 / 4,130

Daddy and Daughter out and about on an eleven mile urban hike

A LOOK BACK
DECEMBER 26, 2014
THIS WAS THE DATE OF MY VERY FIRST BLOG ENTRY.
I am pretty sure that on that day after Christmas, 2014, I would never really thought that I would still be blogging two full years later.

BEFORE/(no after) PICTURES

Do you share this concern? Every time you see a before and after set of photos from someone who has lost weight - the before photos are always fuzzy and your are never really sure if the photos in the after are even the same person? I don't have have the after photos yet. My weight loss journey only started 48 hours ago, right around the time I visited my doctor for a 'Wellness" visit and discovered that I weighed nearly 315 lbs. When I returned home to measure my waist and neck - I was more dismayed to discover that the measurements were 52" waist and 18.5" neck. I didn't need to visit the doctor to discover that I was overweight - mirrors that I passed as well as my belt were extremely effective in transmitting this data to my mind. I always figured that I could start a new diet (lifestyle change) 'tomorrow.' Tomorrow was yesterday. It should be obvious that I only have the before photos. I am aware that this journal could become a bit more interesting with some comparative after photos. That is the plan. Marc

Monday, December 26, 2016

JEWS, CHRISTMAS & CHINESE FOOD

It sometimes surprises me that people who know that I am Jewish ask if I celebrate Christmas. It is true that Christmas is an American national holiday. Christmas is also a religious holiday and it is simply not a holiday for Jews to celebrate. Obviously, I am not dumb enough to attempt to speak for all Jews, but Jews can enjoy Christmas without celebrating it. We can enjoy the music (Quite a few classic Christmas songs were written by Jews) We can enjoy the beautiful store decorations, we can enjoy the beautiful private homes lit up at night and we can enjoy cookies and other seasonal treats. It is just that Santa does not visit our homes, we tend not to lay our wrapped presents under our Christmas Tree which we also tend not to have. However, Jews do have some Christmas traditions. It is not uncommon for Jewish families to get together on this day simply because so many people have the day off from work. Growing up in Long Island, my family often zipped into Brooklyn to visit Grandma and Grandpa on Christmas Day simply because it was a convenient day for family to visit. Another tradition, is born out of reality. There are not too many restaurants open on Christmas Day. Like Jews, most Chinese people do not celebrate Christmas either. It is for this reason, that the tradition of going to Chinese restaurant for Jews on Christmas Day has evolved. Yesterday my family walked five miles downtown to Chinatown in Chicago and five miles back home. For the second year in a row ate dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant, Emperor's Choice.

This short paragraph from 'The Atlantic' was interesting.

If there’s a single identifiable moment when Jewish Christmas—the annual American tradition where Jews overindulge on Chinese food on December 25—transitioned from kitsch into codified custom, it was during Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s 2010 confirmation hearing. During an otherwise tense series of exchanges, Senator Lindsey Graham paused to ask Kagan where she had spent the previous Christmas. To great laughter, she replied: “You know, like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.”

I am no fan of Elena Kagan, but I must admit that I found her response endearing.

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
Post Great Grains Raisins Dates Pecans	700	137	13	13	450	43
	700	137	13	13	450	43
D I N N E R
Wonton soup - Soup	200	16	8	16	850	1
Potstickers, 2	100	15	3	5	231	2
Generic - Crab Ragoon	100	6	7	3	189	0
Sweet & Sour Pork	300	41	2	27	225	21
Seafood Delight, squid & shrimp	200	5	10	8	423	0
Fried Rice	600	87	21	17	0	0
	1,500	170	51	76	1,918	24



Totals	3,000	467	74	109	3,668	127
Your Daily Goal	4,033	504	134	202	2,300	151
Remaining	1,033	37	60	93	-1,368	24
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 2,103 extra calories from exercise today

Your Exercise Diary for:

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Elliptical Trainer	99	1,017
Walk to and from Chinatown	150	1,200


Daily Total / Goal	249 / 30	2,217 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	1177 / 210	12,101 / 4,130

Sunday, December 25, 2016

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:

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:

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.

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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.

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.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

CHANUKAH

Chanukah / חנוכה

Hanukkah (Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה, usually spelled חנוכה pronounced [χanuˈka] in Modern Hebrew, also romanized as Chanukah or Chanuka), also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.

Chanukah begins at sundown on Sat, 24 December 2016.

Rededication. Am I ever in need of a rededication! This morning I weighed myself and I have reached 239.3 lbs. I was just weighed two days ago in the doctor's office and they noted my weight as 234.3 lbs. This does not mean that I gained five pounds in two days. It does mean that my scale is imperfect. However, by using the same scale to mark my progress (or lack of progress) I can still get a good idea of my success (or lack of success) in managing my weight. I am in need of a rededication to progress. Especially today, December 24th, 2016. THIS IS THE DAY, EXACTLY TWO YEARS AGO, when this whole weight loss and weight loss management began. Two days later, on December 26, 2014 I started this blog. I remind myself today, for not the first time, that just because I do not enter a food, cake or sweet into my daily food journal does not mean that it didn't happen. I am pretty good about not failing to record my daily exercise, but I am definitely more imprecise when it comes to logging all my foods. I need to find the person that I was two years ago and re-summon the willpower to be successful once again. I have heard that today is Christmas Eve too. So to everyone and anyone who is reading this today - Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!

Your Food Diary For:

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Butter Flavored Grits, 4 Packet	400	84	4	8	1,360	4
Great Grains Raisins Dates & Pecans	630	123	12	12	405	39
	1,030	207	16	20	1,765	43
L U N C H
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches	760	60	34	18	310	34
	760	60	34	18	310	34
D I N N E R
Fried Chicken Tenders	800	46	53	38	2,042	4
Creamed Spinach	70	9	3	3	510	4
Fire Roasted Corn	100	22	1	3	0	2
	970	77	57	44	2,552	10
S N A C K S
Peppermint Creme Oreo	560	84	28	0	360	52
Chocolate Covered Strawberry	200	20	27	3	67	13
	760	104	55	3	427	65

Totals	3,520	448	162	85	5,054	152
Your Daily Goal	3,419	427	114	171	2,300	128
Remaining	-101	-21	-48	86	-2,754	-24
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,489 extra calories from exercise today

Your Exercise Diary for:

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Ten Mile Urban Hike	148	1,751


Daily Total / Goal	148 / 30	1,751 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	763 / 210	8,006 / 4,130

The first 1.5 miles of this walk was with my daughter, as I escorted her to a spot where she was meeting some friends. All I had to do was promise to keep out of sight once we neared the rendezvous point. What teenage girl wants to be seen with her dad when she is meeting up with her friends? Perhaps there are such girls, my daughter is not one of them.