Saturday, May 31, 2014

Saturday, May 31

Post 1750, Day 151 of 2014
- 1,247 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
Weird day for me, yet nothing unusual happened. I watched some movies (Blue Jasmine [apparently a Woody Allen modern take on A Streetcar Named Desire - I liked the original  better - and heartily recommend The Intouchables, a very moving French film).

I finally binge-watched the final season of Treme, crying a lot while I did. I watched some science programming. I took naps. 

That is all.


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 Food and Diet Section
2014 Daily Weight
Today's Weight:         208.4 lbs
Previous Weight:        209.2 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain:      - 0.8 lbs

Diet Comment
I think eating a pound of cheese yesterday may have caused a less-than-usual amount of weight loss, but... I ate a pound of cheese last night and still lost weight. That's something. However, for the first time this year, the trendline is rising. Must do more.


Food Log 
Breakfast
Skipped.

Lunch
Skipped.

Dinner
Omelet with parmesan cheese, baby kale, baby spinach and chard with onions. peppers, celery and tomato-garlic oil; bacon. Not shown: A Quest Bar.

Snack
A Quest bar.

Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  0 oz.   Water: 48+ oz.

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Friday, May 30, 2014

Friday, May 30

Post 1749, Day 150 of 2014
- 1,246 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
I feel something I haven't felt in a while: ennui.

To me, this is a physical and emotional response to some changes in things to which I am attached.

Of course.

Attachment (aka desire, expectation, possession, and so on) always causes pain and suffering, thanks to its object's impermanence. I am not attached to much, but what attachments I have are strong to the point of... painfulness.

No attachment, no matter how strong, lasts forever, right? My attempts to hold onto things, to manipulate things, is the source of this dissatisfaction. I do it all the time, except when I play or meditate (same thing?).

So it goes.
(Note: written after a brief but enjoyable scan of Buddhanet's Introduction to Buddhism (http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/intro_bud.htm).

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 Food and Diet Section
2014 Daily Weight
Today's Weight:         209.2 lbs
Previous Weight:        210.6 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain:      - 1.4 lbs

Diet Comment
An 'on' day, a little weight lost. I'm going to try to be very good this weekend.


Food Log 
Breakfast
A Quest bar.

Lunch
At Ling-Ling's Chinese Buffet and Grill:
Brussels sprouts, kimchee, and, from the "Mongolian Grill", my go-to dish: pork and chicken with cabbage, onions, mushrooms, green peppers and broccoli. This is the same meal, and the same picture, as always.

Dinner
Chopped salad with pepperoni, shaved parmesan, baby kale, baby spinach, chard and balsamic vinaigrette. Also, another Quest bar and a hella big chunk of Kerry Gold Irish "cheddar" cheese.


Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  28 oz.   Water: 102+ oz.

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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Thursday, May 29

Post 1748, Day 149 of 2014
- 1,245 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
I'm laughing at myself over a conversation that occurred at the end of a Bradshaw Blues rehearsal last night.

I was asked about Buddhism. I am not a great person to ask. Why am I laughing at myself? A couple of reasons:

First, my explanation was stumbling and incomplete.

Classical Buddhism has 4 Noble Truths, the Noble 8-Fold Path, and 5 Precepts. I get the Truths, am good with about half the Path and maybe 3 out of the 5 precepts. By which I mean, out of 17 of the basic teachings of Buddhism, I am mindful and practicing about three-quarters. Not that I don't believe in or understand the unheeded 25% (at least, I'm satisfied that I have an understanding), but I don't regularly practice them.

Since one of the things I don't do is study, my description of the Way is pretty general, and, when pressed hard, I can tell the Noble Truths, and a majority of the elements of the Path - but not all. And, I'm gone on Precepts. I sometimes even forget to include them in my description.

Knowing I might never get around to it, I'm trying to find my own Way, based on my limited understanding, and the pleasure I got (and get) reading Hesse's Siddhartha

I plan on doing more, but not until 'right livelihood' is not so time-consuming. I'll be looking for ways to fill my time, then. That would be a good way.

I laugh at myself because, despite my incomplete understanding of the Teachings, I call myself a Buddhist. With my limited efforts at practice, and ignorance of the Precepts, 'real' Buddhists probably don't recognize me as one of them (which is ok. I'm easy with that).

In the here and now, my commitment to do better is meaningless, its only what I'm doing right now that counts. Right here and now, I'm writing about an attitude, a belief, that is present, but I'm writing about it. A good Buddhist would be more mindful. 

I'm not that good a Buddhist (cue laughter).

So it goes.

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 Food and Diet Section
2014 Daily Weight
Today's Weight:         210.6 lbs
Previous Weight:        209.6 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain:      + 1.0 lbs

Diet Comment
Ugh. That was a lot of hummus, mostly eaten after midnight. Wearing it today!


Food Log 
Breakfast
Skipped.

Lunch
Quest bars (2).

Dinner
A toasted cheese sandwich with pepperoni and cole slaw.

Snack
A Quest bar.

Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  26 oz.   Water: 78+ oz.

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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Wednesday, May 28

Post 1747, Day 148 of 2014
- 1,244 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
A confluence of stimuli has me thinking about meals - not in the diet sense, but the social sense.

My family was one that ate meals together - dinners every day, breakfast and lunch as well on weekends. There was no TV visible from the dining room, and there was classical music (dinner music) on the radio, at background levels.

Like almost everybody else, when I had a family of my own, I tried to have family meals as often as I could, but it wasn't the same, and it wasn't as good, and it definitely wasn't as frequent. And, although I did try and keep the TV out of site, it wasn't, usually.

Mealtimes also became contentious because I had a different philosophy about eating, and especially about feeding children than first wife and mother-of-my-son Nell. For her, it was about pleasing and nurturing and bonding and showing love, while for me, it was about nutrition, socialization and health. 

Alex became a finicky eater, and mealtimes became very unpleasant - for everybody. At no time did the family eat the same food at a meal.

These days, sharing a meal with friends and family has become very important and very gratifying for me. For one thing, I eat more than 90% of my meals alone - and by that, I don't mean at a table for one in a restaurant or dining room, I mean I eat almost all my meals in isolation, in my apartment.

So meals with other people are special to me. They are more enjoyable, and they elevate the quality of the meal, no matter the circumstances, in part by making the food itself less important, at least, not the only thing. The social factor is dominant when I'm sharing a meal. Even when the discussion is about the food, it is discussion, and it is missing from most of my meals.

This past weekend, that encompassed everything I did, and it was a blast!

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 Food and Diet Section
2014 Daily Weight
Today's Weight:         209.6 lbs
Previous Weight:        210.6 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain:      - 1.0 lbs

Diet Comment
A start has been made.


Food Log 
Breakfast
A Quest Bar.

Lunch
Chopped salad (roasted turkey breast, shaved parmesan, baby kale, baby spinach, chard and balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinner
Cheese toast, hummus, cole slaw.


Snack
Cheese and hummus.

Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  28 oz.   Water: 88+ oz.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Tuesday, May 27

Post 1746, Day 147 of 2014
- 1,243 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
Memorial Day weekend was wonderful. Once my initial drive down to Croton-on-the-Hudson was behind me (pouring rain), the weather was perfect. 

I did put a lot of mileage on, including an unplanned trip to Manhattan. A brief, sub-12-hour City fixthat ended in one of the most pleasant mornings I can remember, walking around the Flatiron district (it used to be considered part of Chelsea, now its its own neighborhood). Glorious! Looking good, NYC!

Then it was a drive up to New Paltz, the NY City hippie country getaway from my late teens and early 20s. A gorgeous drive up the Hudson, then into the Mohonk Mountain Range, a party with plenty of rarely-seen long-time friends, lots of catching up.

The capper was a drive home that took me through some fond old haunts in the Catskills, past Yasgur's farm, White Lake, Monticello, Liberty (scenic route taken, no hurry). So many memories from my 20s - when I spent quite a bit of time in what I then considered upstate NY (3-4 hours South of what I now consider upstate).

I rarely enjoy driving, it tends to get so tedious, but this was one of those road trips that never got boring. Memories were triggered every step of the way, all pleasant, suffused with the glow of negative-free memory editing. Whatever bad memories formed in my late teens to mid-20s - were all beyond recall.

It was such a magical, evocative weekend. I'm still feeling it.

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 Food and Diet Section
2014 Daily Weight
Today's Weight:         210.6 lbs
Previous Weight*:       206.8 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain:      + 3.8 lbs
*Friday, May 23

Diet Comment
Its been a long weekend, full of good foods, but also an absolutely crazy amount of desserts. No regrets, but I've got to put the lid back on. See that flat trend-line? I have to get under that. Starting today.


Food Log 
Breakfast
A kale protein shake (almond-coconut milk, baby kale, raw organic cacao powder, hemp seeds, hemp protein (7g protein), chia gel, whey powder (24g protein), cinnamon and stevia-inulin blend.

Lunch
Salmon salad: Wild-caught salmon, mayonnaise, baby kale, cole slaw mix, shaved cheese.

Dinner
Pepperoni and cheese, Quest bars.

Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  28 oz.   Water: 80+ oz.

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Friday, May 23, 2014

Friday, May 23

Post 11745, Day 143 of 2014
- 1,239 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
Memorial Day weekend. Lots of visiting to do. Will not be on-plan eating. Will probably not be making music. Will be connecting/reconnecting with some old friends, halfway between here and the City. Well, closer to the City, but... 

Probably no posts until Monday or Tuesday. Enjoy, everybody.

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 Food and Diet Section
2014 Daily Weight
Today's Weight:         206.8 lbs
Previous Weight:        206.2 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain:      + 0.6 lbs

Diet Comment
I predicted this weight gain yesterday, and am a little relieved it isn't worse.


Food Log 
Breakfast
A kale protein shake (almond-coconut milk, kale, raw organic cacao powder, hemp seeds, hemp protein (7g protein), chia gel, whey powder (24g protein), celery, cinnamon and stevia-inulin blend.

Lunch
A grateful nation served up an awful lunch to VA employees. True to my free food inclinations, and not wanting to be rude, I tried the tossed salad, and then something that turned out to be a brick of pasta salad (I thought it was... something else, with cheese. No cheese.). Big fail, and after, I didn't feel so good, which probably saved me from an awful dessert fail.

Snack
Quest bar.

Dinner
Pepperoni and Swiss cheese, celery and home-made mayonnaise, Quest bars.

Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  36 oz.   Water: 58+ oz.

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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Thursday, May 22

Post 1174, Day 142 of 2014
- 1,238 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
In a conversation I had last night, I was asked for my secret to being happy.

I thought about that. I am not sure there is a secret to being happy.

For me, I made a decision to be happy, and everything that followed seemed to be somewhat accidental, not so much a result of that decision, and not following any plan of mine.

But it did seem to happen, to come together, after that decision.

No cause-and-effect claim, and too small a sample size to claim correlation.

Let's give props to the Universe. Showing gratitude always seems to help. Showing up seems to do the rest.

And, speaking of gratitude, finally, an i am Fool rehearsal tonight. Damn right I'm grateful.

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 Food and Diet Section
2014 Daily Weight
Today's Weight:         206.2 lbs
Previous Weight:        206.2 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain:      - 0.0 lbs

Diet Comment
Apparently, nothing changed yesterday. Today, thanks to all sorts of scheduling surprises, like an i am Fool rehearsal, and a retirement party at work, consisted of a series of fails, including a very late dinner, eaten tired.


Food Log 
Breakfast
Quest bar.

Lunch
Salad with bacon, shaved parmesan, baby kale, baby spinach, chard, cole slaw mix and balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack
A slice of pizza Margherita, because I can't resist free food, especially free hot food. As revenge, carrying it to my desk, as I sat down, a big chunk of tomato and sauce fell onto my lap, creating an embarrassing stain.

Dinner
Pepperoni and Swiss cheese, Quest bars.

Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  28 oz.   Water: 118+ oz.

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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Wednesday, May 21

Post 1173, Day 141 of 2014
- 1,237 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
I was thinking about folk music. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Chad Bradshaw, leader of Bradshaw Blues, the trio I play with, bills his music as "blues, ballads, and rockabilly.'

Nah.

Folk music.

As I was recollecting, folk music was probably my first introduction to popular music. My dad's one folk album, Burl Ives, figured pretty prominently in my very earliest (toddler-age) musical memories. Shoo-fly, shoo.

Amidst all the classical and big-band jazz that was standard fare on the radio in the house (with the occasional Broadway standard thrown in), that (and Roy and Dale singing 'Happy Trails' at the end of the Roy Rogers show), is the primordial ooze from which my sense of music sprang.

Later, drummer Richie Becker turned me on to Motown, and then, right after, came the Beatles, and I put steel strings on my classical guitar. But first, folk music.

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 Food and Diet Section
2014 Daily Weight
Today's Weight:         206.2 lbs
Previous Weight:        206.4 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain:      - 0.2 lbs

Diet Comment
SOS.


Food Log 
Breakfast
Skipped.

Lunch
At Ling-Ling's Chinese Buffet and Grill:
Brussels sprouts, kimchee, and, from the "Mongolian Grill", my go-to dish: pork and chicken with cabbage, onions, mushrooms, green peppers and broccoli. This is the same meal, and the same picture, as always. Not shown: A Quest bar.

Snack
A brownie.

Dinner
Pepperoni, Swiss cheese, cole slaw.

Snack
Quest bars.

Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  28 oz.   Water: 104+ oz.  2 shots, neat, of Jameson's

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Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Tuesday, May 20

Post 1172, Day 140 of 2014
- 1,236 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
I am slowly falling out of the Apple camp, as far as devices are concerned.

It isn't that the products aren't great. The MacBook I have is easily the best computer I have ever owned. My new iPod Air is also a technological amazement.

But...

Having been 'raised' in the PC environment, the Apple way of doing things is not only foreign, it is frustratingly more difficult.

The simple fact of the matter is, I don't use my computer devices the way Apple users usually do.

My computers are not entertainment centers. I am way more text than graphic-oriented. All the Apple's ease-of-use features seem to pertain to apps/programs I don't use.

My favorite programs (as in, the ones I use most) were all designed for Windows. I find Apple file-handling to be frustratingly more difficult than Windows drag-and-drop.

I had two reasons for wanting an iPad. One was to put it on a music stand, and use it as a teleprompter for song lyrics or chords. The other was to use as a browser at work, where internet access is extremely limited, and there is no wi-fi available.

The difficulty with file-handling (and the lack of good word processing on the iPad) has meant I have never used it in a musical performance - also an indication that maybe I didn't need it for that in the first place.

At work, I have found myself using my work browser whenever possible. I check my mail and messages on the iPad, but that's it. 

Of the 44 apps I have on my iPad, I have only ever used 7, and only regularly use 4. That includes Safari, a browser I don't particularly like.

And I hate iTunes, and always have.

Finally, I like Windows keyboards better. Much. I like having a delete key (as opposed to a destructive backspace key. I also like on-keyboard navigation. And a real CTL key. And a numeric keypad.

I'm pondering this today because, as of yesterday, my Verizon cell-phone contract is up. My knee-jerk reaction is to wait for the new iPhone 6 in August-September, but I'm thinking about not doing it. I might switch teams... again. Including maybe going with T-Mobile as a less-expensive provider.

And my next (final American-purchase) computer will probably be a Windows machine, even though whatever the MacBook Pro version is out there will probably be a much better machine (in nearly every respect). Of course, that's further out (at least a year-and-a-half away).

Let me be clear: Apple's products have been phenomenally good, not only compared to their direct competitors in the tech world, but compared to any other consumer experience I've ever had. Their service has been equally above and beyond expectaions.

But their stuff doesn't do what I want it to do - I don't use a single application for Apple that I favor over its Windows equivalent (and especially not the made-for-Windows, ported-to-iOs software), or, in the case of iTunes, above not having to use an application at all.

Sigh. I love Apple, as a forward-thinking, design-leading, confidence-inspiring, son-employing company, and I wish it nothing but the best. But I am feeling a gravitational pull out of its customer space.

Also, the Red Elvises.

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 Food and Diet Section
2014 Daily Weight
Today's Weight:         206.4 lbs
Previous Weight:        207.8 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain:      - 1.4 lbs

Diet Comment
Last night's three Quest bars? Nada.


Food Log 
Breakfast
A Quest bar.

Lunch
A kale protein shake (almond-coconut milk, kale, raw organic cacao powder, hemp seeds, hemp protein (7g protein), chia gel, whey powder (30g protein), cinnamon and stevia-inulin blend; also, celery and home-made mayonnaise.

Snack
A Quest bar.

Dinner
Pepperoni and Swiss cheese.

Snack
Quest bars.

Liquid Intake
   Coffee:  28 oz.   Water: 102+ oz.

Please leave a comment if you visit my blog. Thank you!