Hitting to all fields

I would thought I would spend one post to catch up on a lot of past subjects, so here it goes

• I ran 9 miles the last two Sunday's with better times each Sunday. Yesterday I finished in 82 minutes, which is much faster than I planned. I am getting better at pacing myself, so I think I will do more short runs outside rather than on a treadmill. Looks like I will be getting up early to get a few miles in several mornings a week.
• I have been real good about varying breakfasts each day. A new favorite is a small bagel, smoked salmon and a splash of cream cheese. I am not eating much cereal these days, as I find it too sweet. Another good morning treat is Canadian bacon, tomato, and cheese on an English muffin.
• I picked up a Bobby Flay cookbook a couple of weeks ago, mainly because I was bored with my standard fair. I didn't know what to expect from the book, except he has a lot of great pictures of food. The book itself is a poor cookbook. It lists lots of recipes with a variety of sauces scattered all through the cookbook, but very little instruction on which sauce with which dish, or how they should be assembled. I ended up making a few of the main dishes and a handful of his mother sauces. I took a whack at putting them together and I must say WOW! The flavors are bold and because the sauces are very colorful, the food looks wonderful. I will report more on his recipes after I experiment with my family this weekend.
• I was doing some research on ticketing systems for work, and I came to realize tickets to Padre games on the secondary market are much cheaper that similar tickets to Angel games. Good thing I am a Giant fan, but it makes going to Angel games with good tickets very hard to do without getting your own season tickets.
  
• I need to find a better way to publish recipes. The Google pages are not set up real well for repetitive style pages.
• I have been doing some web 2.0 research as well. So many social network sites, so many web identities. I think we all need to create a single web identity that has two faces (one personal and one work) and if you come across a social network you like, you just submit your personal or work web identity. Probably exists, but I haven't found it yet.
• Ok, I am a Giant fan, and Barry Bonds is probably a jerk to all but his closest friends (I am sure he is not the only other great player to be called a jerk, Ty Cobb comes to mind), but why do I have to listen to all this scorn about Bonds breaking the home run record. One, Bonds has never been a jerk to me, so I can't hold that against him. Two, It is probably safe to assume, Bonds is not the only player (betting more pitchers than hitters) to take performing enhancing drugs, whether it be steriods, HGH, amphetamines, cocaine, or enhance their skills with contacts, lasik eye, knee, shoulder and elbow surgery and many other medical miracles. Baseball encouraged performing enhancing drugs by ignoring the issue for a dozen or more years. Baseball owes the fans more of an apology than Bonds, Giambi or any other accused player. We should admire these players for what they accomplished on the field. Over time the whole steroid issue, will be just one more argument for writers at Hardball Times to add in their statistical analysis to compare players from different eras.
  

Run for Fun

In my effort to trim my weight without going on a isolating restricted diet, I decided to expand my regular workout to include more aerobic exercises. So I moved from a somewhat regular weight training workout to a workouts that included running two to three times a week on a treadmill at the gym. I was running about 10 miles a week. My wife, who walks regularly, encouraged me to go out one Sunday and run, so I went for a 4 mile run in fresh air and really really enjoyed it. So I set a goal for myself to increase my mileage from 10 miles to 20 miles a week. Thanks to Smart Coach on Runners World, and being able to map out runs at MapMyRun.com, I will be running 20 miles this week after this Sunday's 9 mile run. I am 9 weeks into a 12 week program that is supposed to increase my speed and thanks to reduced mileage weeks, reduce injuries. There have been only a couple of the training runs that I have not been able to complete. A cramp in my calf kept me from finishing an 8 mile run a few weeks ago, and early one of my speed runs was just too much. After my 12 week program, I think I will just add a new 12 week program to slowly increase my speed to the point where I am running 9 minute miles for my long Sunday runs (my current pace is about 9:40). That may not happen until this time next year, but seems like a reasonable goal. And, no I am not training for a marathon. The last thing my body needs is the abuse of a marathon. 12-13 miles is about as long as I want to run.

Keep me motivated

As part of my research for work, I was reviewing web sites that utilize Web 2.0 technology to find ways that will allow our sites to sell more tickets. I have been playing with many of these sites for about a month. One site lets me track my ongoing fitness level. If you want to track my progress and be a motivator, go to my training page at My Traineo.

At this site you can see me weight, workouts and other fitness characteristics and you can be a motivator.

Breakfast Five Ways

I accomplished my goal of five different breakfasts; one for each workday this week. Here is the breakdown.

• Monday - Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal, blueberries and non fat milk. A light breakfast because I had a lunch meeting that day. Being cereal, it was quick and easy.
• Tuesday - Whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter and bananas with a glass of non fat milk. Very filling. I didn't eat until after my noon run.
• Wednesday - Steel cut Oatmeal with blueberries and maple syrup. The longest to cook, but sure was tasty. I usually have this on Saturday mornings. I ended up reading the newspaper as I cooked the oatmeal.
• Thursday - Breakfast sandwich with a toasted whole wheat English muffin, Canadian bacon, a fried egg and salsa. Easier than I thought and filling.
• Friday - Two croissants and jelly. Very Italian style breakfast. Very tasty, but I am sure not that healthy, but once a week can't hurt right?

My favorites were probably the oatmeal and the breakfast sandwich. I was going to make pancakes on Friday, but I ran out of eggs. I probably need to find a couple more quick breakfasts so I can rotate more variety. I am looking for more savory options. Any suggestions?

Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper

A while back I lamented about my too sweet American breakfast and I was going to search for a less sweet alternative. Ultimately, I switched my bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunch to a bowl of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal with non fat milk and some blueberries for my fruit. The new cereal is less sweet, full of fiber and whole grains, so I was content. But something happened over the last several weeks when I started to increase my weekly running miles. During my lunch time workout, I was starving, even though I ate my new whole grain cereal and having a mid morning snack (a banana). I realized I probably needed more protein in my morning meal.

The other thing that hit me was we generally desire meal variety at lunch and dinner, but for breakfast many of us are creatures of habit and eat the same thing most mornings. We even get upset when the box of cereal that we each morning is empty forcing us to find something else or just skip breakfast. To get more morning protein, I needed to break my breakfast habits, so that means variety.

I remembered an old German proverb;

"Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper."

This eating pattern makes a lot of sense. The problem is who has the time to cook for a king in the morning. I need to have a variety of healthy protein filled breakfasts that can be made in minutes. Leftover homemade pizza, seems like a natural, as do some sort of breakfast egg sandwich and something with peanut butter, along with my standard cereal and my favorite oatmeal. I will try 5 different breakfasts next week and report if my breakfasts are fit for a king.

Things to do in 2007

I got on the scale this morning and was 171.5lbs, so I made it through the holiday season without gaining any weight. I set a goal last year to lose 20 pounds and I lost 25lbs so good for me. Thinking about want I wanted to set my goals for this year, I realized my goal last year wasn't to lose 20 pounds, but my goal was to change my eating and exercise habits that would cause me to lose the weight. So over time I gave up sugar in my coffee, sodas, and set goals to go to the gym 4 days a week. As my habits changed, I included more habit changing goals. Fast food became a rare event and not an every night occurrence.

So here are my habit changing goals for 2007.

1. No TV in the morning before work. (Actually I got an early start on this one.)
2. Do something for an hour after dinner besides watch TV (Could be anything, cooking, shopping, exercising, reading, anything but sitting and watching)
3. Read six books this year. I am hoping I can make this a habit, as I currently don't read that much.
4. Use our new home gym equipment twice a week (In addition to my current gym activities)
   

Here is what I hope to achieve by adhering to my habit changing goals.

1. Drop my weight to the 165-170lbs range. I am not sure if this is possible, as I have been at 171-172lbs for about 5 months.
2. I would like to be able to run a 10K. Joints will determine if this will be possible.
   
3. Focus my TV watching on quality shows and educational purposes. I think I will be a better person if I never watch The Insider or Access Hollywood again. Sporting events count as a quality show.

Back to the Basics

As my cooking skills have improved, my desire to have quality ingredients has increased and I find myself on the weekend not cooking gourmet items, but making the basics that make cooking easier and tastier for the rest of the week. I decided to share some of my favored recipes and the first one is about as basic as you can get, chicken stock. As I said before, the better the ingredients the better the final dish. Since most recipes require chicken stock, I thought I should tackle this one first. This version of chicken stock comes from Cook's Illustrated and their public TV show America's Test Kitchen. This makes a full flavor gelatinous stock that improves the flavor of every dish where it is used.

Chicken Stock


Ingredients:

4 lbs Chicken legs each hacked into two pieces
1 onion roughly chopped into big pieces (so they don't fall through a strainer)
2 bay leaves
2 quarts of boiling water

Process:

Put a large stock pot over medium heat with one to two tablespoons of olive oil. Once hot, add the onions and cook for about five minutes until soft and beginning to brown and remove onions to a bowl.

Add 1/2 of the chicken pieces and brown on all sides. Keep the heat high and turn after five minutes. The pieces will smoke and stick, just pry up and rotate or stir. Remove batch to the bowl with the onion and brown the second batch of legs. Once browned, add onion and first batch back to the pot, turn the flame to low, cover and sweat for 20 minutes.

Raise the heat to high, add boiling water, bay leaves and stir, scraping the bottom of the pot for all those chicken pieces that stuck to the pot during the browning. Bring to boil, then cover, lower the heat back to low and simmer for twenty more minutes. After 20 minutes, turn flame off, and let cool. Discard the big pieces and strain ( I use a mesh strainer then a finer mesh strainer) and then pour into plastic containers. I use some 2 cup and 1 cup sizes and freeze. The two cup is about the size of the can of stock, and the one cup is the size of those juice box stock boxes.

You can de-fat before you freeze or after you thaw, or just use the fat, its up to you. You can also add some salt when you add the water, but I would rather salt my final dish rather than the stock.

I will add some recipes later that I love that use this stock as an ingredient.

How Sweet it Is!

Over the summer we hosted several European water polo players who generally ate everything in sight, but I did notice that their tastes ran toward the savory side and they generally stayed away from sweet items, especially at breakfast. I didn't think much of it until this last weekend when I went to the local grocery store for our weekly provisions rather than Whole Foods, as I didn't need a lot of produce or pantry items. Not only was the produce bad, but everything seemed to have added sugar. I couldn't find a staples like a loaf of bread that didn't have high fructose corn syrup (this includes items from their bakery). I even found canned tomatoes with sugar.

So it got me thinking. Am I eating too much sugar? I don't use many (if any) process foods as ingredients in my cooking. I don't add sugar to my coffee or tea. I gave up sodas a year ago. But I do eat Kashi Go Lean Crunch for breakfast most every morning. This cereal is a high fiber, high protein mixture but does have some added cane sugar (but no where near Captain Crunch). But during their summer long stay, none of the water polo players ever touched any of the breakfast cereals in our pantry. The problem is I didn't notice what they had for breakfast. While we were in Italy, the hotel breakfast, although americanized, offered cheese, salami, and other savory items. So I am on a quest to find a natural savory or balanced breakfast that I will eat and like. My hope is to wean myself off the general American desire to eat a sugary breakfast and in turn tune my taste buds to taste the natural sweetness of most produce. Stay Tuned....

The Results are in.....

A year after being told to lose weight, I went for my annual physical and blood test to see how I am doing. Lets just say I passed with ease. Cholesterol was 116,the lowest its ever been. Triglycerides are at 53 HDLs at 42 which puts LDLs at 63. Weight was down 25 lbs to 172. Glucose was within normal levels. All these numbers mean things are good. So then what is next?

My goal weight is between 165 and 169, so I have another 5 pounds to lose, but I will try to maintain my current weight through the holidays and go after those next five pounds after the first of the year. I have almost completely eliminated processed foods. I have drastically changed and improved my eating habits, and I am working out 4 to five days a week, so its down to refining the process.

So my goals are more aerobic workouts (we bought a treadmill and elliptical equipment), more vegetables, more reading, more travel, more variety in wine, more muscle tone, more entertaining, more fish, more live sporting events, and less Haagen Dazs caramel cone ice cream, less TV, less processed sugar and less bread.

Back to the Weight

I made an appointment for my annual physical for later this month, so by December 1, I should know if all the work to shed 30lbs has paid off. I have been hovering around 172/173 for several months now, so either I have hit a wall or that is a good weight for my body. Based on the body mass index, at 172bs, I am susceptible to diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and all those other things that kill you prematurely. If weighed 171lbs, it says I am in perfect health. Hopefully, there is some leeway in the calculation.

Follow Up

Stepped on the scale today and was 171.5. Not bad. My goal for the last couple of weeks is to see the 160s on the scale (ok 169.5 counts as in the 160s). If i see that i will consider my eating lifestyle complete and i can worry about something else. Portion control is working. Eating a little bit every few hours also helps. Whole grain cereal and blueberries with non fat milk at breakfast. A piece of fruit during the morning. Home made lunch (salad or sandwich) at lunch and some trail mix in the afternoon. For dinners, I have simplified the menus. Instead of chicken with rice and a veggie, i have switch to chicken with veggie. A little sweet later finishes my day.

Salt is now my concern, although i am not sure it should be. RDA for salt is about 2500 mg which is about 1 teaspoon a day. Even if I dont use any processed foods, that seems like a very low number. Panera Bread's Fuji apple salad has over 1000mg of salt. Seems like a lot, but is it really? Its the same amount as a Big Mac or slightly less than a MacDonalds California Cob salad with grilled chicken.

Ok so here are the high points:

• Fruit intake is up
• Portions are smaller
• Dont really like fast food anymore

And the counterpoints

• Still not eating tons of veggies, although leaf lettace count is up
• Still like my sweets, cookies or gelato

One thing I have noticed is now that I am eating less calories, it is real important to me that each calorie be flavorful. I dont like filling up with blah food, and now i consider fast food blah.

My exercise routine is changing as i am running on the treadmill 3 days a week and lifting on two or three other days. They say some impact exercise is good for your bones. It will probably take me 30 years to verify that.

Losing weight sucks

Well its been another month. I am down to 181 pounds, so 15 pounds in two months. Not bad, but i want to see those 170 numbers, and it seems so much harder to lose pound number 180 than pound number 195. I hope i can be at 175 by the end of March.

I have done pretty well on my plan. My workouts have been a fairly consistent 5-6 days a week. Lots of aerobic stuff augmented with some weights. I have generally eliminated fast foods from my diet, and to tell you the truth, i dont miss it. I have been packing salads for lunch and that works out well if i make my own dressings sometime during the week. For some reason i cant stand bottled dressings.

the biggest issue i have is bread. I love bread, but i am trying to convert to wholesome, whole wheats and breads with no preservatives. The problem is I dont eat the bread fast enough as it goes bad, so i end up spending more money on a good loaf and end up throwing half of it out. I guess i should buy a good loaf, divide it in three and freeze two thirds of the bread.

He are the highlights so far:

• Cascade Fresh yogurt from Whole Foods. Best yogurt i have tasted
• Cook alot on Sunday, so meals can be heated up during the week
• I usually take the weekend off and dont worry about calorie intake. Seems to be working
• A banana at 10 am is wonderful
• I find the South Beach diet oatmeal cookies very satisfying. 100 calories and have whole grains.
• Not a big frozen yogurt fan, but Hagen Daz chocolate sorbet is tasty.
  

Ahh middle age

I went to the doctor the first of January for my annual checkup. In previous checkups i was treated for high cholesterol and higher the average blood pressure but everything else checked up fine. This time a blood test showed elevated blood sugar levels. To treat this my doctor said lose 20 pounds and 30 minutes of aerobic exercise everyday. Now lets start with i am already in decent shape. I have been going to the gym 3 times a week and lifting weights. I had a small ponch, but I consider it much smaller than the average middle age man. My diet was good. I stopped drinking sodas last year. I stopped putting sugar in iced tea and my morning coffee. I was eating a bowl of whole wheat cereal each morning. The milk I used was non fat. But I took my doctor's advice and decided to change my eating habits and change my workouts to lose the weight. But I needed a plan.

To lose 20 pounds ( I was 196 lbs naked on the scale at the gym), i decided my bad habits had to go. Fast food at lunch was a big issue, so i had to find substitutes. I love to cook and my wife, kids and friends say I am a very good cook, but I looked at the dinners I usually prepare and found many of the portions were too big, not enough veges and never any fruit (not a big fruit fan, but thats a future post).

So here is my plan:
30 minutes of aerobic exercise daily, mostly at the gym
Take my lunch to work
Avoid the "food cube" of snacks that most softare companies have (I design software)
Find foods with no high Fructose Corn syrup.
Smaller portions
More veges
More fruit
Avoid fast food when ever possible.


Here is what i wont do:

No fad diets: Diets are isolating. the last thing I want to do is decline dining out with friends because it doesnt fit my diet, or making food that meets my diet restrictions, but turns my family off.

I am not giving up good ingredients like butter, cream or breads. To prepare good food you need good ingredients. Margerine is not an ingredient. I will continue to cook with good ingredients, but i need to alter their proportion.

We enjoy go out to nice restaurants. If the special has an alfredo sauce, then damn it, i will get the alfredo sauce.

I enjoy wine and occasional beer. These will continue.

I am 1 month into my change of life plan and I have lost 8-10 pounds, depending on which scale you use at the gym. I will detail each part of my plan in future posts, but generally all things are working fine.

For inspiration, read the beginning of Rick Bayless's "Everyday Mexican" cookbook. He had a similar realization that he was losing the middle age battle and changed his lifestyle as well.