Completed and Broken

YES – I finished the Whole 30.

But you wouldn’t know that because I haven’t written in over two weeks I think.   I have my reasons to which I think I posted on facebook once or twice.

I broke my collar bone over a week ago – February 19 to be exact.  Basically, sitting on a bar stool, being up late, and getting tired, and falling asleep and crashing to the ground.

“Bar Stool” you say??  That’s not conducive to the “Whole 30″.

No my friend it sure as hell wasn’t.   In more ways than one.  But when I started this 30 days ago, I said it’s likely that would be the most difficult part for me.  Sure enough it was.

Anyhow, every time I sat down to type something, I quickly developed an ache, and hence decided to not type.  Heck I have a slight ache now.

So what are they going to do about it?

In short, nothing.  That’s right – nothing.  Doctor says 75% to 80% chance of healing by itself.  Good odds in Vegas I think.

But since I broke that, I did slip some from the Whole 30 plan.  I ate well, don’t get me wrong.  Fresh Food, meets, veggies. etc.   But being bummed, that alcohol thing did get in the way.  Heck I may have even enjoyed some wings at the Cafe in St. Albans also.

Exercising also took a big hit.   Riding took a major hit.  I do hope to try to sit on the trainer in a week or so.   Seems each day I’m able to do more and more.   Just this week I was finally able to apply deodorant to my left armpit with my right arm.

A testament to the human spirit.

But this really isn’t about the collar bone.

How did the Whole 30 workout?

January 30th when I started this I weighed 248lbs.  Thursday February 28, when I finished – 236lbs.   TWELVE Pounds.

I’ve dropped two inches off my waste, a few belt holes and more.

I had blood work done on Thursday but don’t know the results of that yet, will post those when I get them.

So how did it all feel?  That’s a gay question, it sucked, as I like to drink too much beer, however it feels good.  I kept notes and was more aware of cravings, changes, etc.

For example one of the biggest things I noticed was with work functions and break food and lunches.  For example you go to a conference and they serve a big hearty lunch of lasagna plus desserts of cakes.  They may even have plenty of snack food like cookies and shit… heck these cookies may even be pretty damn good.

During the last 30 days I had three occasions where I could have participated in such delight-able foods.  I chose not to.   I kept with a salad, may have topped it off with extra meat.   Drank water, and chose a fruit substitute if it was available for snacks.  No cookies.  No bagels.  No muffins.

After all that, I can honestly say I had no drowsiness after such a meal or snack.   This was not just true for these functions, but I never felt any post lunch crash for an entire thirty days.  My actual work days were pretty damned good and productive.

I shouldn’t post this next set of pics… I may get arrested for some crime for which I’m unaware of.

Pictures on the right are Day 1, Pictures on the left are day 30. ( I had to switch to a black and white look or my bruise from the collar bone showed up too easily and detracted from the pics.)

No I didn’t take much care in taking them from the same spot, same zoom, etc.. silly and angry expressions aside, I think you can still see the point.

So where do we go now?

definitely not back to the start.

Happy Hour!!! ~ The Sun has set on this Sunset Wheat

Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat – is this beer tasting session’s subject.  It’s wheat beer, and you can read a shit load about wheat beers at WikiPedia.

Below is what I posted over at Beer Advocate, but since I wrote it, I guess it’s ok to post here also.

First discovered this beer when at a local restaurant was serving it with blueberries.  Took a sample and well my better half seems to enjoy the said combination.

Bought this six pack for the holidays from the local Sheetz, and poured into a glass.  What a few of the others have said below about a nice head and such – I get none, mine was light if anything and quickly faded to a small foamy rim around the edge of the glass.  The color is creamy – like a thick cream ale – yeah I guess that really isn’t a color, but the overall appearance doesn’t put me off, but it doesn’t stand out either.

This being a wheat beer you can smell the fruity’ness, but I don’t really get the orange scent or the coriander as you find in others.   I definetly can get the blueberry idea though.  I’m not saying it smells like blueberry, just that I can see where that would taste well with it.  The fruity isn’t girly, but it doesn’t scream Metal either.  Average

Taste I actually like, this is my second one today.  Although I don’t think I’ll have a third.  It’s fruity, lemon like caramel.  (try that with some Jelly Belly’s and see how it taste??)  Again I don’t get the normal corieander spice kick that I find with most wheat beers I’ve tasted.  Above average.

Mouthfeel – in all my reviews I’ve done, if it’s crisp I give it a good rating – this is crisp, doesn’t leave a filmy taste on my mouth.  I’ll go with 4

I will say I don’t normally enjoy wheat beers but this one isn’t that bad and I will definitly try again and may even shop for it.  It’s good, not great in my opinion.   If you like wheats try it.  If you don’t it may be different enough that you still may want to try.

So far… So Good…… So What!! (days 18 n 19)

The Whole 30 – I don’t know why but Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction comes to mind as I do this little experiment with myself that I started on January 30.  Here’s what happened today – or most likely over several days…..

The weekend is over.  Nine more days to go on this wonderful experiment.

Friday I mentioned we fell off the rails.  Had a couple beers with Kara course that has caused me to lose the bet with her daughter, course I lost that on February 3 during the Super Bowl.

Saturday

All that doesn’t matter too much as feeling good on Saturday, I ended up having a couple glasses of Pinot Grigio that evening. 

Wine???  You say wine??  The dinner recipe from Paleo Comfort Foods, was a shrimp, tomato, bell pepper and onion fair, which used a little wine.  Albeit a Pinot Grigio isn’t dry, used it for the “splash of white wine”, and since the cork got thrown away, what’s one to do but to try to finish the bottle?    (I didn’t finish so you know)

Sunday

Sunday was much better – Kara made some scrambled eggs, and warmed up a small bowl of the shrimp and tomato meal, along with a few slices of tomatoes.

Lunch, I had some left over grass-fed steak and brussel sprouts and cherry tomatoes.

Dinner – we had hamburgers – minus the bun of course.   No french fries, just lettuce, onion, tomatoes.  Various non-Whole 30 approved condiments.  

I kept to a minimum on the condiments only using some canned jalapenos that I had prepared over the fall.  Due to the sugar used in the canning process I can guarantee you that those are non-Whole 30 approved.

Overall Saturday (day 18) and Sunday (day 19) were pretty successful.

I think me and Kara needed the little splurge there on Friday, doubt my slip on Saturday will kill anyone either. 

Forgot to mention that slip by Kara on Sunday….  can you say “Krispy Kreme” ??

The struggle so far:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Days 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7
• Days 8 throug 14
• Day 15
• Days 16 & 17

Weekend

Sunday was a nice sunny day.

However it was also very cold out, and this put a big damper on my motivation.

See even yesterday, I have had every intention of getting off the trainer and freezing my toes and doing some rides outside.

Yesterday, I was even partially dressed and prepared to ride, prior to realizing that my merino wool socks are soaking in the washing machine.

- enter the screeching sound of cars coming to a halt, then add the concluding crash -

Hence the ride I planned on doing on Saturday was much like the one I did on Sunday.

The excitement came by only looking out the window.

Monday – it’s supposed to be 50 degrees.

Things will change.

Days 16 and 17 – fishing at work

The Whole 30 – I don’t know why but Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction comes to mind as I do this little experiment with myself that I started on January 30.

Here’s what happened today – or most likely over several days…..

Day 16 was Singles Awareness Day as you all know, and Friday was the day after.

Singles Awareness Day I was a good boy and stayed true to the Whole 30.

Friday February 15, I had wings and beer.

It was my betterhalf’s decision and thus her fault, and I do plan to “go past go” and “collect my $200″ ~ thus not starting back at Day 1.

Thought I’d share a trick at pissing off co-workers that I’ve alluded to on more than one occasion since this awesome chronicling started:

Cooking Fish At Work

also known as pissing off co-workers!

Note it’s the women co-workers you’ll piss off the most as has been my experience.  As I always say – can’t please everyone so piss them all off.

Ok in order to get a nice quick healthy meal when your rushing out the door for whatever reason ~  kids late for school, waking up hung over, dogs needing walked, forgot to type that report for the boss yesterday.

For whatever reason, you will at some point find yourself needing to grab something quick.

One thing I’ve found is having frozen fish on stand by is the best solution.  The most common and affordable is probably going to be Tilapia, but I like Salmon, and White Fish – doesn’t matter, pick your poison.

Try to go with “Wild-Caught”, yes there’s some concerns about  “Wild-Caught” actually caught wild anymore – you don’t know, but just go with it.   If it’s out of your budget, then hell farm raised is a better choice than Taco Bell.   Pop some extra omega three and call it a day.

Grabbing your individually wrapped frozen fillet and off to work you go with whatever vegetables you’ve packed.

Try to let it thaw till lunch time, most of these are going to be about 3oz or so, and I find that they thaw by noon.  Just makes nuking more easy and more thorough.

Find your plate, cut the end off the shrink wrap, and drain the water out of your tasty morsel.

Now don’t try to just toss it in Ol’ Chernobyl and start nuking away.  If you do you’ll really have the neighbors pissed at you.  Instead, keep the fillet in the opened plastic wrapping and then wrap it in a paper towel as such:

I find that nuking it without the paper towel, the fish explodes and blows fish chunks all over the microwave.  If you cook it long enough and with a rotating microwave, you can get a pretty good coating of fish debris.  So the paper towel helps keep any accidental explosions contained.  Plus once cooked it helps in cleaning up any moisture and gives you something to hold on to..

Now, throw all this in the microwave and depending on the power of your microwave cook it for a few minutes.  For a thawed out piece I find it takes about two to three minutes.  I check it about half way and usually flip it over.  You’ll have to play with this and perfect your style.

Once cooked, take it back to your little personal space and grabbing one end of the bag try not to scorch yourself and dump it onto your plate.

Now a steamed piece of fish isn’t going to taste all that great, at least to me it doesn’t.  So you need to add some spices.   Ms. Dash has a plethora of no sodium varieties that I like.  I also like to douse it in Hot Sauce, or sprinkle Dill.  Doesn’t matter just whatever blows your skirt.

Assuming your pals at work haven’t thrown you out, sit back and eat your fresh from the sea meal.

Sorry for the blurry photographs and such, but you get the idea.

And about that beer and wings…..     we won’t mention that anymore.

The struggle so far:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Days 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7
• Days 8 throug 14
• Day 15

I put a Hex On You – The Happy Hour brew review!

Wow what away to start a health kick out!  Doing a beer review just a few days later is awesome and says it all.   Some how I think that so called “says it all” simply indicates failure.

Nevertheless I’m sitting in a Hotel Room writing this up, as I’ve just completed a few work chores.   This brew review is brought to you by Magic Hat Brewing and it is their Octoberfest or as they call it “Ourtoberfest” – HEX.

So let’s dive right in:

Appearance – I guess it’s average or better – I don’t have a glass as my employer is too cheap to put me in a nice hotel that puts actual glasses in your room – so I just have styrofoam cups. Plus I’m lazy and am drinking straight from the bottle. Call it an average – hell beauty is in the eye of the beholder right? However, after pouring into one of those said cups – it looks reddish – kind of like a high vitamin’ish pee. I really didn’t get no large foaming head, and what small head I did get quickly disappated. Now only large bubbles cling to side of my cup – probably due to the styrofoam.  It’s no concern though as I’m on my second one, as the beer is quite tasty – getting a head of myself …or as they say in literature terms – that’s a bit of foreshadowing.

Smell – I’ll be quite honest – I can’t smell a damned thing. I do have a screwed up nose, but really there isn’t much smell – a small hint of what may be malt. Is this due to the cheap paper cups or is it due to that it’s mid november and the Magic Hat site says the quit brewing this around Sept 15th (explains the no freshness label). I’m going to go with average. It doesn’t smell bad, and it doesn’t smell good.

Taste- is malty and what I would call lightly sweet – not so much a caramel sweet but more like a tangy bbq sweet. I doubt that makes any sense. I like it though. There is no lingering aftertaste and that “malty slightly sweet” taste still manages to stay – but it’s a welcome stay. Let me pause while I get number three. Same on this one, however I must add that for me mouthfeel and taste go hand in hand….which brings me to… (ohh… 4.5 on taste)

Mouthfeel – CRISP – I’m giving it a 5, it’s the way I like a beer to feel. It doesn’t feel like I’m coating my mouth with something.

Overall – I’m going to give it a 4 as I’m not sure about the smell or the appearance but at the end of the day it’s all about taste so I’m going to weight it that way.

Doubt this review was helpful, but at the same time it’s my review and my opinion.

Target Earth ~ Voivod

Damn, I was schocked to see that Voivod was still putting out new music.

Target Earth came out January 21st, 2013 and for the first time in two years I actually bought the damn CD.

Yes jewel box and all – CD booklet – forgot what that felt like.

Target Earth has 10 songs of brand new material, from all original members except Piggy who passed away in 2005.

I guess last year they started touring agian with a new guitarist – Chewy – filling in for Piggy.

Everybody seemed to think this dude did an awesome job, and Voivod must have too as they have granted us new music here for 2013.

If you’re not familiar with Voivod, they’re like a heavy prog0-metal.  I always thought of them as Pink Floyd on speed.

They had all these sci-fi overtones and themes in their songs, crazy album covers – just fucking wild to me.

I’ve listened to this disc now for a couple weeks and I’m fucking hooked – hell going back through their discography I didn’t realize I’ve missed so many albums.   Needless to say I’ve loaded my Amazon.com “Wish List” up with various discs and MP3 downloads.

How is the disc?

As I said I think it’s awesome, here’s a coule of reviews one from Angry Metal Guy, and one from Metal Injection.   I agree with both – if that makes any freaking sense.   Great return to form but at the same time probably will not garner any new fans.

That latter part is a bummer as somehow this is a great band that has lumbered in obscurity.

Here’s a track off the disc – Mechanical Mind

Turn to eleven and enjoy

In case you missed something…….

1/2 and 1/2

The Whole 30 – I don’t know why but Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction comes to mind as I do this little experiment with myself that I started on January 30, here’s what happened today – or most likely over several days…..

Well by my calculation it’s Day 15, I’m half way there.  That light at the end of the tunnel is either a runaway train or one tall cold beer.  A beacon in the night of this dark despair of healthy chow.

Nah, no dark despair here as I have to admit, this many days in and I’m pleasantly surprised.

As I said, it’s Day 15, I can’t say I’ve been perfect so far, but I can say I’ve been pretty damn strict and way better than I have any other time I’ve tried one of these health tortur…. experiments.  I can also say with a little planning ahead it’s not too damn difficult to eat fresh foods.

Yes there’s a shit load of books, that give you tips and such on how to do this, but for me at least, all that is pretty hard to put into practice.  That is where the work is for me.

Yeah I know what to do, how to do it, even when to do it.  Yet, I always found myself planning meals unrealistically, buying too much food eating rusty lettuce and throwing out brown avocados, etc.   However early in the year I bought a book ~ Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan, and she gave several helpful hints on how to plan, etc.  I highly recommend it – plus her book is full of great and flavorful recipes not necessarily your typical fare either.  All with common sense substitutions and combinations. AGAIN – CHECK IT OUT!

As I often do, I digress…

So the biggest hint is exactly what I said was so hard to do – Plan Ahead, her book for some reason just made it click for me on how to make it work.

Cook a bunch of stuff at the beginning of the week that you can throw together in a hurry when needed.  You can always cook something fancy if you want, but who the hell has time for that?  On top of that I tend to pick one meal that I’m going to do, after that then it’s…..

Take a Sunday, cut some salad, veggies, etc..  Maybe saute those veggies some and prepare to warm up in stir fry later in the week.  If you grill some meat, grill extra, chicken, steak, whatever – just have it ready.  I tend to vary the seasonings on various pieces.  If you want healthy dressings for your salads, well make a couple up and put them in these little salad dressing containers that are ideal for taking in a lunch.  I bought four of these from Amazon.Com – they work great, and hold about four tablespoons.

But I love salads, and have actually enjoyed making various dressings and trying them out.

I’m a dork like that.

But what I’m saying, if you get used to doing this and have some of this stuff ready for when you wake up hungover, come in late, etc.  It’s simple just to toss together real quick and take with you in the morning, evening, or where and whenever.

Now if you’re one that loves to eat out or has to be in the mood to eat, or one of those that can’t stand to eat leftovers - well you’re probably going to have a problem as leftovers make it that much easier and I think essential.

Cook Dinner, have dinner for breakfast or lunch the next day, and switch that up the day after that.  That way you shouldn’t be eating the same thing in a row.  It can be done.  I’ve been doing it for 15 days, and other than the fish in the microwave, most people are asking what I’m cooking today and why I didn’t bring them some.

For example today for dinner, I got home about 4:45, walked the dogs, did a short ride and finished around fifteen after six.  Luckily I had cooked up enough beef on Sunday that I could slice up in thin strips, threw it in a  coconut oil heated Wok, along with some cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and asparagus, garlic, bell peppers and coconut aminos – stir fry away.   Ten minutes later I’m eating a plateful of steak and crispy vegetables.

Had enough for two more servings that I put in containers, one of which I’ll take to work tomorrow.

This isn’t a picture of the above mentioned stir fry, its a picture of a salad and tilapia with some balsamic vinaigrette I had for lunch today.  I should mention I’m on a strawberry kick.

The struggle so far:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Days 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7
• Days 8 throug 14