Great Late Night Snack

I was staying up until my wife came home and during that time I was getting hungry. So I was looking to have a low carb snack that tasted great and was simple. I was looking in the refrigerator and found some mushrooms. So I sautéed the mushrooms with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. It was excellent! The key of making good mushrooms is to cook them till they are moist and soft in the middle. Oh, this dish is very low in calories and carbs. I made enough to fill 1.5 cups.

Low Carb or No Carb?

For the last week and a half, I have been experimenting with going no carb. Within that time I have lost over 6 pounds. One thing that I have found is when I ate some carbs this last weekend, I gained a lot of weight....I was also eating till I was full all of the time. I mean I was just shoveling it in. But now it is Thursday and I am down to 234 when I was 241 before I started. I am trying to go more than one week straight through so wish me luck and I hope I can see the results that some of my friends are seeing with this. They have lost about 30 pounds per month.

Just to let you know, I have always been against low or no carb diets. Fruits and some starches are just to good for you to pass up. I plan on going back on my normal diet once I hit a certain weight. I will keep you posted.

Plantar Fasciitis Under Control

I have been having plantar fasciitis for a couple of months and because of me taking care of my feet and stretching them out, I am good as new....mostly. I am thinking about running again but I will see what the treadmill says first.

Feet Hurt Again!!

My left foot and partially my right, has been suffering from Plantar Fasciitis again. This time I didn't let it go for over a year and have been working on stretching and keeping from working it to much for the last few months. I can honestly say now that I have been feeling better and my feet are getting back to where they need to be. I went to the gym last night and was on the elliptical machine for an hour and my feet both felt good. Now my calvese are sore but that it is to be expected since I haven't worked them for awhile.

If you ever get Plantar Fasciitis, I would highly recommend start stretching 3-4 times throughout the day for 30 seconds per foot.

You Only Have One Chance

I was thinking about life while I was traveling for work. It hit me that we only have one chance at life and to enjoy it as much as possible. I think sometimes to when I do something, I feel like I will have a chance to do it again later. Like it was a game of something. I then started to think that I don't have a lot of time left of my life. I want to reach my goals of having the body that I have always wanted, travel as a family to interesting places, and just be happy as a married man and as a father of two beautiful girls.

Bedini Motor for FreeEnergy

I have been working on a Bedini Motor with a friend of mine to try to gain free energy. There are numerous motors out there being created to create over unity which is the act of creating more energy than consumed. The motor that we are making is from scrap material from the trash or garbage that I am able to salvage. I am person that likes to make something from nothing or close to it. It is more of a challenge to create something that works well from miscellaneous parts than to go out and buy all of the components. Here are a couple of pictures from what we were able to create thus far.

Here is my rotor which was used from crap pieces of wood for the structure and an old bicycle wheel.

Here is the coil and circuit. My friend made the circuit and I made the coil with the wire found from an electric motor from a dish washer.

The coil is the weak link so I am trying to devise a way to get the proper wire and also to wind it tighter than I did originally.

How much volume should a person consume?

These last few days I have been eating while on vacation. I am able to put away a whole burger (large size burger), fries and a large glass of water. Then on top of it all eat a third of my wifes burger, some of my children's fries and some of their grilled cheese sandwich. A person should not be able to put that much away and then 1 hour later be just starving.

Aquaponics - The Goal

The goal for me is to have an environment where we can have an attached green house to our existing house so we can setup an aquaponics garden within. This kind of garden would consist of fruits and vegetables off all kinds and depending on the size of the garden, have a large enough tank to hold a lot of fish which we would be able to eat from time to time. I am going to try to setup a mini aquaponic system so I can have one or two plants growing just to prove that I am able to create such an environment.

I added a link to suggest some reading to you who read this.

 Aquaponics-integration of hydroponics with aquaculture (Horticulture systems guide)

New Name and Feel

I have updated the site to match more to my personality and interests. I love coffee and I also like things that are economical and also ecological to our life style. I have been interested in living healthy and free for a long time so some of the interests that you will see is aquaponics (organic growing of fruits and vegetables and fish). This is an enclosed environment to allow the vegetation supply food to the fish and the fish to supply food to the vegetation growing.

Another interest that I have is over unity motors. Bedini motors are more of my interest for the simple fact that they put out more power then consumed. I have started to build one and am forced to make some changes to the rotor and coil.

Go mobile...the best thing ever.

I know it has been a long time since I have written on this blog. I have been busy but most importantly, I got a new phone which is awesome. It is an HTC Imagio. The web browser is great (I am writing this with my phone) and the capabilities are endless. I will be utilizing my phone for mulitiple different uses. Here are the following things I will be using my phone for.

SportyPal app. to track my outside activities and have them upload to the site within www.sportypal.com. I will be tacking the miles I go and the speed in which I go there with this app. It utilizes the GPS service that is on my phone very nbicely.

SparkPoeple to track my weight, caloric intake, lifting routine and articles for me to keep up todate on the latest out there. I will be using my web browser to add and read from that site. I would be nice if they had an app for my mobile 6.5 but I can wait for them to get caught up. They have an app for android and iphone...I wish I waited longer for the android instead of the Imagio but I am very happy non-the-less with my phone. It is fast and is the same dimensions as an iphone so the arm band used for the iphone fits perfectly with my phone. I just have to wait for santa to stop by my house to drop it off maybe.

Stopwatch app. for my phone. This will be used for stretching so I don't have to worry about losing my count.

First Week Down and No Sweats!!

Well, I am down my first week of being on the "wagon" and I have not had any sweats. I have eating once late at night but that was Friday night and it was not very much food. I have been using coffee as my late night snack and as a filler for when I want to have that ice cream or cookie. Since it is about 5 calories per one cup of coffee, I am not counting how many I drink especially when I am using it to replace the need for sweats.

On Wednesday, I weighed myself and I was at 229lbs and had 21% body fat. My goal is still 200lbs or about 10% body fat. Amanda and I were talking about quiting the YMCA again and we still have a hard time justifying it for me and kids. I mean that we were talking about getting rid of it because we don't use it that much for the kids and I use at least three times a week. I would like to use it more with the kids for swimming or something else.

The sweats are killing me this time.

Last time I wanted to lose weight I had a little trouble staying away from the sweats. This time, it is just killing me. So I am going to create a list of the sweats that I have missed so I can come back and revisit them once I lose the weight that I want to lose. I need to lose 10 pounds before I can have sweats again. Once I have done that then I will eat whatever is on that list and enjoy each and one every one of them. UNTIL THEN...NO SWEATS AND LATE NIGHT EATING.

I have been doing pretty good about the late night eating but most of my focus is on the sweats.

Importance of Omega 3 Video

I received a comment from a reader yesterday about the Omega 6: Omega 3 ratio post stating how she thought I would be interested in this video...I was and it was very cool to show an Omega 3 nourished rat over an Omega 3 malnourished rat. Comes to show how eating your greens and the proper meats really will go a long way with human development and maintenance. I have recently started adding crushed flax seed to my eggs after I cook them in the morning to make sure that I get a good dose of some Omega 3 right away in the morning. I also eat tuna and salmon regularly because it is such an important fatty acid that most Americans lack.

With our kids, we have always been concerned with their diet especially with getting the right amounts of Omega 3 and that is why we nursed them both till they were two years old. World average for nursing is in the area of 4 years and national standard for US has now been bumped up to 2 years...it is about time.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did...short and to the point.

Thank you very much Susan Allport for the video and good luck with the book. Susan Allport is the author of "The Queen of Fats" and if you wish to learn more, please go to her website www.susanallport.com to read more about Omega 3.

What is the proper dose of Omega 6 : Omega 3

Studies have shown us that taking the proper dose of omega 6 and omega 3 is beneficial for our health. In many cases, it has been shown that these two fatty acids can help in the fight against obesity.

Sounds great right, wrong. Omega 6 and Omega 3 are very good fatty acids but with the improper ratio of the two, can actually cause obesity and cancer. The magical ratio to try to maintain for weight lose and general health is 3-4:1 Omega 6:Omega 3.

Today Americans are taking in about 15-20:1 due to the oil used in our fried foods and other cheap oils. People are eating to much which is the cause of our on growing obesity and cancers. Studies have shown that the balance of these two fatty acids are very important and to those who wish to live a healthy good life need to keep this ratio in mind.

Here is an article which helps explain this a little further.

Update on The Hip

I have been doing the stretches almost everyday and whenever I have some down time at work. I have also incorporated a new stretch that I felt it working last night. What you do is stand at attention and then take your right leg and cross it over your left leg. While holding onto something lean to the the left until you feel tension and hold it for about 30 seconds. Now reverse that and lean to the right with your left leg over your right leg. There is a muscle on your side of the leg that seems to benefit from this and so I have been getting it into my stretching routine at night and in the morning. It seems to be helping and that is all that matters.

Switch It Up

I was lifting last week and I just could not get over that fact that my arms were not increasing in strength. I have been increasing in everything else but not that. So this week I switched the order in which I did my lifts and saw a huge improvement right away. For my arms, I was able to lift past 95 pounds for EZ curls and when I did my flat bench dumbells, I did an easy set of 90s. I am starting to feel sore today and that is only one day after the lifts, I am happy about that.

This just goes to show you that you have to switch things up and shock your system. Your body is the most adaptive machine on the planet so you have to treat as such and shock the shit out of it. I know I have preached this before but I sometimes lose focus on this and need to get slapped from time and time again so I can pay attention to it.

Data Data Data...Sometimes to much is to much.

I have been maintaining a couple of journals to keep track of my progress. I have now come down to using a little journal book that I keep in my back pocket. It is about a 3" X 5" book that has many lines on it which allows me to keep track of each day with the food that I eat and the weight that I weigh. I have evolved from that and am liking it.

I use to weigh myself every day and now I am waiting for every Friday to see my progress. With jogging in the morning everyday, I hope I see more results. I have also been watching my caloric intake to also help with that.

One place where I will not skimp out on tracking data and that is my weight lifting. I need to track the weight and intensity of all of my exercises so I don't forget and where I can see myself push myself to get past the plateaus.

Stretching in the Morning

For the last few weeks I have been stretching my hip flexors and also the rest of me for walking and jogging. I have been working more on my hip flexors because I have been having some pain when I turn to go to the left. The discomfort is primarily in my left hip and it is a sudden pain and then goes away. I was suggested to keep stretching my hip flexors and to also strengthen my glutes since I sit all day in an office.

Here is a good link to show how to properly perform the hip flexor stretch. I also use the method that allows you to use a couch or a bed which really puts pressure on your hip to stretch them out.

Jogging...that's what I said

So there I was, slightly jogging with my two dogs and then finding myself jogging farther and farther and then I was almost done with my route so I decided to keep going. The next day I did it again and I was almost enjoying it.....me enjoying jogging....never, but in this case I think it because of the weight that I have lost and stretching that I have been doing to my feet and legs. I stretch every morning now for about 30minutes before I go out with the beasts.

New Blog

I am going to be starting a new blog called Optimum Knowledge. I have started it as a on going journal of all of my thoughts and ideas. I wanted something to capture all of my interests and research. I have done a lot of research on energy savings, perpetual motion, aquaponics and of course weight lifting. I did have a thought in bringing this site over into it but I have not yet gone that far.

Does anyone have any ideas if I should bring this blog into that one?