Revived Again

Last year, about this time, I revived my intent to integrate an aquaponic system into our rocky ledge side yard.  And last night, Dale Johnson brought over a cool Pond catalog which got me thinking about making  a spring run at it this year.   Kate's wedding might push this project off, or maybe not.

Aquaponic Revival

I've been thinking of reviving my Aquaponics project that I scoped out a few years ago.  There is something really cool about raising fish and vegetables in a interactive organic system.... plus it could come in handy if I survive the Mayan end of days. (Editors Note... we did.)

The standard fish is Tilapia, but I'd love to stock the tank with Bass.
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Must be spring fever.

1. Doug Said...Mar 15, 2012 06:31 AM

   Bass are surprisingly interactive pets...Rip Bassford; 2000-2006.
2. 
   Tuna Lips Said....Mar 15, 2012 08:54 AM

   Looks somefin' like the rig ole Shoo Fly had back in North Memphis days, fer growin' reefer indoors, outside of pryin' eyes and such. Ended up torchin' halfa block of triple deckers. He had to split town right quick, bench warrants, you get the picture.
   
   Ole Shoo. Never was much good with jackin' 'lectricity offa the neighbors meter.
   
   

A Letter from St. MOAM to the Corinthians

Peeps....
I was hoping to ease off of the Weight Loss Epistles, but with so many of you hounding the crap out of me by constantly asking about the current status, I guess I have the pathetic obligation to report.  Now I know what the Apostles must have felt like with all of their gospel letters and stuff.
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Anyway... I'm Down 20.7 lbs.
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That's alot for two weeks, but remember I got a huge jump start with the three day juice fast at the beginning.   My calorie counting LoseIt.com program calls for a loss of 2 lbs. per week if I keep to my daily net calorie budget, but I have been significantly under it by adding an hour on the pain machines daily, so have been averaging about 4lbs. loss per week.
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Adding the exercise means that I can eat pretty much whatever I want as long as I account for the calories and portion control.   But when you honestly ask yourself when you are reaching for a cookie if you are really hungry, more often than not, the answer is "No".
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So then you have a choice to make... the joy of the cookie, or the satisfaction of seeing the weight loss at tomorrow's morning weigh in.   The honest truth for myself is that I have felt no real hunger at all during this regime.  And the exercise has almost eliminated the pain in my legs and knees that I had previously conceded as attributable to aging.
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You might have noticed by now that I haven't disclosed to you my starting weight or my final weight loss goal... because it's none of your damn business.... but suffice it to say that the 20 lb loss is just a start and the goal is quite a few more lbs. down the road.
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Although, I'm wicked optimistic about making my target number before the warm weather comes back if the current trends hold.
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A good test for me will be tonight when Dale and Gail Johnson drop by for dinner.   If Dale doesn't call me "Big Guy" in the first five minutes or so, it will be a clear sign that this weight loss gig is working.

Sleep Over at Auntie Kate's house.

Hacks, Scammers, and Lowlifes

Peeps....
There are a lot of creeps, losers, and lowlifes out there who spend their time on earth trying to hack into our email accounts, on-line accounts and social profiles.  You would tink that these hackers could do something better than work their illegal attacks on us, but a Loser is a Loser.
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It seems like everyday that some of these sorry losers makes a run at my stuff, and  I always fend them off by myself with little effort.   For the most part, it is enough just to rebuff the hacks which is easy.
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But I ran into a highly successful company which gave me a reasonable proposal to not only perform cyber detection to identify the losers, but their legal department will also file suit and prosecute!   And they quickly ran down one of the perps who has been bothering me and started the process.  There is a good chance that I will get a judgement and make some money.
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Oh Baby!   Nothing I like better than going after scammers and low lifes.   This should be interesting.

Buttons and Zippers

Peeps...
You don't have to be a Mountain of a Man to realize that sometimes you tend to obsess on things.   But it helps to have a certain MOAM perception of these things.
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I mean, I know that I've been obsessive on this weight loss regime  of late.   But at least I haven't mentioned any fake Cherokee Senators during this rant, so how bad can it really be?
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Let's face it..... none of you gave a rat's ass that Elizabeth Warren lied to us and still was elected a US Senator by the sheep herd that is known as the Massachusetts Democratic Party.
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And I'm pretty sure that you really don't care that I've found the way to steady and attainable weight loss.  
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But do you really think that I give even a inkling of a shit about what you think????   Not even a little bit.
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The fact is, I have a pretty big business meeting coming up in a little more than two weeks, with a highly successful guy that I haven't seen since the late 1980's.   And I'll probably have to suit up for the effort.   Even though, I'm fifteen lbs. down from a week or so ago, it will take another ten or so in the next two weeks to give me a little zipper room in my Brooks Brothers make-a-deal suit.
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I've done the math, and know exactly how may calories I have to avoid in order to button up the pants in the time allotted.

Saturday Afternoon Popcorn time

Trending Downward

Peeps....
The other day I run into a young woman to whom I'm distantly aquainted and she says, "Oh, you write that Blog?  I read it but it is all about you."   Naturally, the MOAM kept his cool.

"No Shit Bitch, it is all about me, because that's my favorite subject,"  is what I wanted to say to this young, prissy-ass turd.  But I just kept silent and flipped her the Bird as soon as she turned away.
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Anyway.... enough of this.... Let's turn to my favorite subject.  ME.
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If I had told you last Saturday morning, before my 3 day juice cleansing fast, that I would be sitting here a week later on this very Saturday morning telling you that I had lost 15 lbs., I would have had my tongue firmly implanted in cheek with fingers crossed.   Not Believable.
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But Peeps, my official Mountain of a Man report this morning is that I have lost FIFTEEN FREAKING POUNDS!!!!!  IN ONE WEEK!!!!
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How?   Three distinct reasons.

1.  The Juice Fast.   I kept to it for three days with no coffee or solid food.  And I credit my kids, Mike and Kate, who called me throughout to see how I was doing as further motivators.

2.  Exercise.   The Blizzard had me moving snow both here in Marblehead and at the Peabody warehouse for about six hours over the week.   And otherwise, I spent about two hours on the Elliptical Pain Machine at the Y, for a total of eight hours of workout during the week.

3.  Calorie Counting.   I followed the free LoseIT ap on my iPhone and established a daily calorie budget of 1900 calories a day, then kept my net calories of food less exercise at about 1600 calories a day.   The Juice Fast established an ability to curb my appetite and steer away from carbs.  My old Lynn English High School classmates and current facebook friends, Denise Kearns and Wayne Webster, were helpful motivators to me.   Both have succeeded with significant weight lose over the past year by diet changes - Wayne by carb counting and Denise by calorie counting.
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The result was 15 lbs lost.  (Actually 14.9, but I rounded up... you gotta give this one to me.)
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So it was a good week.
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I also bought a low end Hamilton Beach Juicer machine, two pineapples, and ten pounds of carrots at Costco.
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Going forward, I would like to juice fast one day week with organic vegetable and fruit juice that is produced using machine, and keep up the exercise and LoseIT based calorie counting.   My goal is to get substantially below 200 lbs well before Katelyn's Wedding in September.  
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When I was in college on the cross country team, I weighed about 155 lbs, but was not comfortable at that weight.  Then after college, I hovered in the 175 lb. range for a while until my metabolism changed in my early thirties.   At the same time, my career took off with business lunches, cocktail parties, lack of exercise and the rest is history.   Steadily Gain in Girth.
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Peeps.... I have a closet full of pants that don't fit.   But not for long.   Soon I will be stepping out in slacks that have been out of style for years now.

Continuing Weight Loss

In the 3 day Juice Fast, I lost  9 lbs.... and in the last two days, I've lost three more.   The reason for the continued loss due to counting calories with the help of the LoseIt.com ap.   
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The application has an unlimited database of foods with their caloric and nutrient values, and it allows you to scan barcodes of any foods with your iPhone and add that food to your intake. 
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It also calculates the calorie burn of exercises such as the elliptical trainer at the YMCA.
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You then tell the ap what your goal is... lose x lbs. per week to reach a certain weight goal, and the program tells you the day when that will happen.
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I've tried this application before and came up short because the calorie budget seemed too stringent... but I think the juice fast jumpstart has shifted my metabolism or something, because now I feel completely satisfied with the daily calorie limits and have been significantly lower than my allotment in the last two days.
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Basically, when you count calories, you can eat whatever you want.... the guy on the Twinkies diet showed that he could eat only Twinkies and still lose weight.   I'm still going to try to stay away from the high percentage carbs like pizza, pasta, potatoes and bread though..... until I hit a certain milestone, because losing 12 lbs is actually a very small percentage of the amount of weight that I have to lose by Katelyn's Wedding in September.

I credit the 3 day juice fast that I started 5 days ago last Saturday with refocusing my body and mind to begin this transformation.

Juice Fast - Final Update

Peeps....
Those of you who claimed with glee that the Mountain of a Man couldn't swear off solid food for three days are wrong again, as I woke up this morning in juice fast victorious glory, having consumed nothing but green tea, fruit and vegetable juices and cashew milk since last Saturday morning.
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At 5:00AM I jumped out of bed, voided, had a bm (where the hell did that come from?) then got on the scale which registered a loss of 9.5 lbs.
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I would have been ecstatic with this if I wasn't so shocked with my weight at the beginning of this fast ordeal, plus I worked out pretty hard shoveling snow from the weekend blizzard, but this is a good jump start.
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No caffeine headache this morning and no food cravings.  Still a little abdominal discomfort, but nothing to talk about.  My mental acuity seems a little sharper too.
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All in all, this fast was very doable with really no heavy lifting and no extreme withdrawal.  If anything, it changes your daily focus away from food, or gravitating from meal to meal....  and this alone could be the lasting benefit.
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This morning, I've had my K cup of Starbucks, and plan to have a banana for breakfast.  My goal is to stay away from carbs and see if I can keep the weight loss regime in place.   
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And if the Vatican calls, I will be letting it go to voicemail.  I really don't care who the Pope is and would rather stay out of it.

Juice Fast

Waiting for the snow to stop this morning, then I'll get out and shovel.... probably sometime around noon.   I've lost hope that the snowblower will start.  Will still give it a try though.
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In the meantime, I've started my three day juice fast, along the lines of the Blue Print Cleanse system.  Mike, Kate, and Brady did this recently and had very satisfying results involving weight loss and an overall healthy feeling.  I don't know if I buy into all of the hype about the toxins exiting your body, called cleansing,  but three days of substituting liquid nutrients for the solid comfort foods that I regularly consume has to have some benefits and certainly can't hurt.
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When I went to  Whole Foods yesterday, one of the prescribed juices in the six juice a day system was missing, and one was short for two days, but I think I can substitute them using the recipes in this website. http://homefitnessmanual.com/diet-tips/hacking-the-blueprint-cleanse-how-to-get-the-same-results-but-at-half-the-cost/
BTW, the demographics in Whole Foods is literally the other side of the world from Market Basket, but this is a whole other post.
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So this morning, I got up and weighed myself (OMG ), voided and had two cups of Green Tea with my daily meds. The fast allows Green Tea, but no coffee or other food of any kind.   My expectation and hope is that I will drop 10 lbs. and start the basis for a different outlook toward food through this regime.   At about 9:30 AM, I plan to drink the first juice of the day... the dreaded Green Juice. 

Update Saturday, Day 1  -  2:00PM 

At 11:00AM I had the Apple Pineapple Mint juice and just finished the second bottle of Green Juice at 1:45PM.  No BM's out of the ordinary, but I now have a dull headache which I attribute to caffeine withdrawal so I just brewed a cup of Green Tea.
The three juices left are the lemon based, beet based and cashew milk. 

The snow hasn't let up and I have been monitoring the weather radar closely.   Seems that this storm has camped on the Massachusetts coast  I had hoped that we'd see some blue sky by now, but no such luck.   In the late morning, I started moving some of the snow, but is not exactly light and fluffy, but compact and heavy.  Digging out will be an ordeal if I can't rev up that snowblower.

Update Saturday Day 1  -  4:45PM

The light weight, Toro "electric shovel" worked but the Ariens snowblower didn't so it was a lot of hand shoveling for 2 1/2 hours.  When I came in at 4:45PM I had the lemon based juice.  The dull headache is gone but I really feel spaced out.  I took off my shoveling clothes and weighed myself - lost 1.6 lbs..  Two juices left today - the beet and the cashew milk.  Plenty of shoveling left for tomorrow.

Update Sunday,  Day 2  - 7:00AM

Last night,  after the beet juce, I had a BM with lots of red.  Would have been scary if I wasn't forwarned by something I read on a website.   Drank the cashew milk then went to bed. 
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When I woke up this morning, I voided then weighed myself... lost 4.9lbs. total.   I have no craving for food and actually feel full but a little fuzzy headed.  Had a cup of Green Tea with my meds and I'm happy that  the downsized caffeine from my usual three cups of Starbucks a day is not causing a brutal withdrawal headache, which I have experienced in the past.
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Since they ran out of cashew milk when I was buying my supply at Whole Foods, I bought some raw cashews and am soaking them for blending at the evening juce drink.  After a couple hours shoveling to get the F150 out on the street, I have to get to Whole Foods to buy some more Green Juice.  That should be by noon or so.

Update Monday, Day 3 -  6:30 AM

After four hours of shoveling and then driving back to Whole Foods to get the Green Juice, I felt like hell... tired, sore, headache, fuzzy.  Then, resting on the couch and watching Sunday, no football Chick Flicks with Joanne, I had a series of bathroom sessions that you probably don't want to read about.  Nothing solid.
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Surprisingly, I didn't crave food.  At the Whole foods,  Instinctively, I went over to the nice looking lady offering samples at front door, then turned away when I realized that I was going to take a sample. Bought some Agave syrup for the cashew milk there too and checked to see if they had any of the Blue Print Cleanse, but they were still out of bottles.
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The cashew mike that I made in the blender turned out fine, but I'm not giving you the recipe here, It's on the webpage above.  What do you think this is???? A Freaking Cookbook?
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Joanne thinks this regime has made me crabby.
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This morning, after a sound sleep, I got up, voided, and found that I had lost 7.9 lbs. total.   Still feel fuzzy headed and intestinally challenged, but again, not interested in food.  At this point, there is no chance of cheating and eating solid food, and I think that a total 10 lb loss is very possible by tomorrow morning.

Update Monday, Day 3 - 5:45 PM

No headache anymore, in fact I feel really good.   I should be craving food but I don't seem to.  Joanne made herself a dinner of roasted chicken wings, peas and perogi and my dinner is the Beet Juice, but I'm still OK.  Weird.

Not sure of my weight loss, but I do the official weigh in tomorrow morning.  My jeans definitely seem a bit looser.   One more Cashew Milk to go before I go to sleep tonight.