Now that I’ve started riding the bike again it’s also time to start eating right.  The following is a typical ideal day of meals.  In other words I realize there will be days where I don’t follow this exactly and maybe pop a bowl of popcorn in the evening and cover it with an insane amount of real butter or something.  That’s OK as long as the ideal is the norm, because over time the exercise and diet will impact my health and weight in a positive way.  So, here it is.

First is a glass of milk first thing out of bed to give the body some protein rich food as fuel.  While I’m drinking that I am fixing my first cup of coffee which I drink while I am preparing the weather for my friends on the internet (see www.TucsonWeather.us for more).  I do put 1/2 and 1/2 and honey in my coffee.  Honey is much better than refined sugar, but it would be even better to skip the honey altogether.  However, I like it, so I’ll just have to bike or hike a little farther!

After the coffee and the forecast I drink some water and go on a bike ride.  Immediately when I return I have a hard boiled egg.  Your body wants protein after a workout to start repairing the muscles you used and abused.  While I am eating the egg I am getting a bowl of oatmeal ready.  I add blueberries and a scoop of Whey protein.  Nutritious AND delicious!  Sometime in the morning I will start having a tablespoon of Cod Liver Oil.  (I haven’t made it to the Walgreens yet)  I know, I know, you think it’s gross and for most people it is.  For some reason not only can I stomach it, but I actually like the taste!  It reminds me of the ocean.  Anyway, Cod Liver Oil is chalk full of Vitamin D and Omega 3.  Sooo good for you.

For a mid morning snack I’ll have an apple or orange or pear or nectarine.

For lunch it’s the big salad.  Usually a big bowl of the Spring Mix with avocado, tomato and a can of sardines added.  For dressing I use Apple Cider Vinegar with Olive Oil and Sea Salt.  I don’t always add the sardines (again, another great source of Omega 3) and sometimes I might add cucumber or onion.

For a mid afternoon snack I might have a yogurt or a handful of almonds or maybe a couple of carrots.

For dinner it’s something light and before 8pm.  A few chicken livers maybe!  or perhaps a stuffed artichoke.  mmmm.

Sunday is anything goes day.  The goal is stay 80% or better on this plan during the rest of the week.  Too many carbs are bad for my body type and this diet is low on carbs and high on fiber and protein.  Blueberries are a great anti-oxidant.  Apple Cider Vinegar is a pro-biotic and avocados and olive oil have the good kind of mono-saturated fat.

OK, enough writing.  My oatmeal is ready.  Have an amazing day!

Experience tells me that it takes me about 2 weeks to get my leg strength and wind back.  I started Saturday, so I have a ways to go before I get back to basics to build on.  Still, you have to start somewhere and I’ve started!

I found this pretty cool app to track my hikes and bike rides.  Today was my first day to use it so I thought I would share.  Tomorrow I’ll talk about what I’m eating.  Here’s this morning’s ride:

10. You have trouble getting the Tardis started
9. GPS turn by turn directions keeps leading you to Dairy Queen
8. Steely Dan is staticy on the FM
7. People’s hair randomly bursting into flames on the street
6. Plants actually growing right before your eyes.
5. Forecast calls for a high near 155
4. You can microwave your lunch on the sidewalk
3. Your cell phone starts dispensing cash like an ATM!
2. The power grid goes down but your appliances are working anyway

and the number one way you can tell it’s a solar flare day…
1. You can see in ultraviolet

Turns out that not only is the left silent on this serious problem, now they want to study it!  Yep.  One man’s trash is another’s research grant.  The National Science Foundation and the University of Michigan are collecting garbage from trash sites along the border.  The Huffungton Post reports, “Since 2008, The Undocumented Migration Project, directed by De Leon, has collected what has become the largest assemblage of migrant artifacts in the country.”

ARTIFACTS?!  Wow.  If you want to call old clothes, backpacks, water bottles, children’s toys and dirty diapers artifacts I would submit that you are severely delusional.

For the rest of the article just follow the link at the top of this entry.  Don’t forget you can comment both here and there.

Anchorage this Morning at -13

I opened my browser minutes ago and my home page opened up.  It’s the Borealis Webcam Multiview of their web cams scattered about Anchorage, Alaska.  The current temperature at 3:53 a.m. local time just happened to be -13 F, which is also the coldest temperature I have had the pleasure to enjoy.

Enjoy?  Well sure.  I was a teenager and it was a great adventure.  You may disagree if you have lived where it’s regularly colder.  Especially if you’ve had to endure plugging in your car to keep the oil a semi liquid, or shoveling snow for an hour just so you can get out of the driveway only to have the snowplow come by and block your drive again.  That does sound frustrating.

But my story is different.  I was 16 years old and we took a Winter road trip to Grandpa Jones’ ranch in John Day, Oregon.  Shoveling snow was not part of my life.  We were visiting from the Willamette Valley were the rare snow doesn’t stick around long and temperatures rarely fall below the teens above zero.

It was already cold when we left Canby.  In the 20s maybe and so my brothers and sisters and I were dressed warmly as we piled into the van.  It was an evening/night drive to eastern Oregon.  My first clue that this trip was going to be different was when we got into the mountains and ice started forming on the inside of the van windows!  Yes, Dad had the heat on, but it was near zero outside.  We stopped to go to the bathroom in the woods (you can do that in Oregon.  Lots of trees :-) and the wind blew through my jeans like I wasn’t wearing any!  First lesson.  Wear thermals when it’s nothing degrees outside.

We arrived in John Day and went to bed.  The next morning it was get out of bed and feed the cows.  No shower or breakfast first.  The cows get fed at daybreak, which also happens to be the coldest time of the day, even in John Day.  It was perfectly calm and clear and thermometer read -13 F.  A personal best for me that stands to this day.

I bundled up the best I could and I was made to wear a handkerchief over my mouth and nose so I wouldn’t “frost my lungs.”  I doubted then (and now) that that was a real danger at that temperature, but I don’t remember arguing.  Maybe I rolled my eyes.  You know how teenagers are.

I stepped outside into the squeaky snow and man it was cold!  I just gotten up, so there was not much blood circulating in my body yet.  Thankfully it was perfectly still so the wind chill was also -13 (unless you started walking fast).

We got to work.  We loaded the trailer with hay and Grandpa drove the tractor while we peeled flakes off for the cows to enjoy.  The cold was making my nose run and as I inhaled my snot (sorry about the visual) froze in my nose!  It’s like someone crammed cardboard up there!  The condensation from my breath turned the handkerchief into ice.  It was also forcing moisture to exit near my eyes and one of my eyes actually froze shut!  I had to take off a glove and melt the ice off of my eyelashes so I could open my eye again.  (I knew that handkerchief was a silly idea)  Crazy.

We were done before I knew it.  The cows were fed and we went inside to warm up and have a hearty breakfast our own selves.  That afternoon it got up to a toasty 10 degrees.  With sunshine icicles were growing and we went sledding and sliding into, and through, one of the frozen ditches.  FUN!  The whole visit was fun.  Later that Winter I got to return and my Uncle and I hiked up into the John Day Mountains and surprised a bunch of deer.  We also almost got lost in a snow squall, but that’s another story.

I love cold and snow.  Always have.  It’s beautiful and fun.  Of course, I’ve never had to plug in my car or shovel my way to work either…

Here is my first UStream broadcast from my phone:

Run!

Nike has something there, but that is the final step of the process. Almost always before we do, we ponder. Even before that we have to have the idea to act on in the first place. Sometimes the time between having an idea and acting is a split second! Often in those cases you can end up getting in trouble.

So where am I going with this? New Year’s Resolutions, of course. It’s great that I want to get back into shape, lose weight and get organized. (notice I didn’t say get reorganized :-) That’s where the process starts. Deciding to do something, coming up with a plan of action and ultimately acting. Just doing it. Unfortunately I am all too familiar with thinking about a thing and thinking about a thing and thinking about a thing but not acting. Funny how things don’t change until our actions change!

It’s Biblical too. Proverbs 14:23 says:
In all labor there is profit,
But idle chatter leads only to poverty.

The key word here is idle. If you are thinking about something, that is the first step, but don’t let it stop there. Even if it’s years and years that you have been pondering, chances are it’s not too late to act.

Different actions spring from different thinking, so don’t discount that. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you’ve been thinking about getting back into shape, but haven’t acted yet. You are on the right track! The next step is to drive yourself to a track and actually run around it.

Me? My boss got me involved with a group at his church that is gradually working up to running a 5k in March. The first workout was Thursday and we are meeting again this morning in just an hour or so. The workout is pretty easy to start. (but turned out to be harder in action then it looked on paper) After a 5 minute brisk warm up walk it was 60 seconds of jogging followed by 90 seconds of walking. Lather rinse and repeat for 20 minutes. Not bad. The workouts gradually increase the running component so that by mid March we are running for 28 minutes and ready for the 5k.

I’m really excited about it. Even though I have run a few 5k’s before, that was in the early 90s! I used to jog almost everyday in 1999 and 2000. I had worked up to 4 to 6 miles almost everyday and was in my best shape since high school. A knee surgery and 10 years later (and 40 pounds later) it’s almost like starting over.

The important thing is I am starting and with a goal in mind. Now, if I could just get someone to wash my car and clean this apartment.

Mom’s Assorted Dried Fruit:

Mom’s Apple Tudes Dude:

Mom’s Banana Chips:

Mom’s Dried Pineapple Chunks:

Mom’s Dried Strawberry:

Mom’s Peach Drops:

Mom’s Plum Plunges:

It’s no secret that I have a serious photography addiction.  With sunrises and sunsets as beautiful as they are around here it’s hard to resist.  The perils of living in a target rich environment I suppose.  As a result I have all these pictures.  What to do?

Over the last couple of years I have been playing around with Zazzle.com.  I have a little store there with some of my pictures on coffee mugs and mouse pads.  I’ve sold a few and it’s pretty neat to see some of the great scenes I capture around here on a mug.  My favorite is the “God Is Amazing” mug with a great shot of Pusch Peak after a storm.  The other is a mug that screams Valentine’s Day gift.  The, “Life is Better Shared” mug features two hummingbirds enjoying a sunrise lit breakfast together.  Aw.

I’ve had a couple of friends asking when I was going to have a calendar for sale.  Well today I finally went through my pictures and have published two calendars you can buy at my Zazzle store.  The Oro Valley 2012 Calendar and the HummingbirdFeederCam.com 2012 Calendar.  The cost is kinda high though.  Almost $21! and I only make $2 of that.  Calendars are half price today at Zazzle, so you might could grab one for $10.50 plus shipping.  I’ve sold a couple so far today!

Still, $21 is kinda high for a calendar.  I don’t care how much you like me :-)  So, I was looking around for a better solution and I found it.  A quick web search landed me at Lulu.com.  I remember my Mom telling me about it.  A site mainly dedicated to self publishing authors, but they also have a slick tool for creating calendars.  Here’s what I came up with.  My self published TonightsSunset.com 2012 Calendar:

Best part is I can offer it to you for $15.99 and I make almost $3. I call that a win win.  Order up a couple today and tell your friends.  2012 is only a week away!

Here is the HummingbirdFeederCam.com 2012 Calendar: