Update!

Thanksgiving was Dana and my 4 year anniversary.  We got married the saturday after thanksgiving, so we knew that eventually it would fall on thanksgiving and this was the first time it did!  We went down to Rockaway Beach to hang out with Troy, Allyson, and Christy Jo (who I haven't seen in FOREVER!). Camp Magruder was pretty quiet, and it was really nice to see Troy seem a bit more relaxed and Allison a bit more "at home" than our last visit this past summer.  It is such a blessing to have them so close (5 hour drive), and I plan on visiting them more often.  I deaned a junior high camp at Magruder this past summer and cant wait to do it again next summer.  Dana hadn't seen me in "camp mode" and she got a good dose of that and a vacation out of it!

Thanksgiving was amazingly delicious, Allyson cooked up a storm.  Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce... She's such a bad ass.  I made Pumpkin pie and Apple pie.  I did mini gluten free pies as well.  Not a fan of gluten free baking.  You can ask Dana Jill, even with regular pie dough, when it comes time to roll it out and put it in the pie dish I start losing my mind.  The dough never quite does what I want it to and no dough is more stubborn than gluten free pie dough.  Anyway, they turned out alright, the apples macerated a little to long so they were a bit mushy.  The pumpkin pie was the best I've ever made (eclipsing the previous title holder last year's pumpkin pie from Christmas).  We also made a gluten free skillet cornbread that was good (not as good as the glutinous one but still delicious) and we all shared a really yummy Cab Franc from 2012 that I brought in honor of our anniversary (we got married in 2012)

Digby was looking at me 1 second before I took this picture... 

We brought Garry along with us, and he spent a good amount of time in the car.  We bought him a huge bone, and gave him that in the car while we ate thanksgiving.  Troy and Ally have a super cute scruffy dog named Digby, and Digby isn't a fan of other dogs.  We brought Garry inside and they were cordial at first, and then Garry just would not stop wining and wanting to wrestle with Digby and Digby wasn't having it so back to the car went Garry.  At the end of the night we took both dogs out to a wide open area and through tennis balls for them to chase to get some energy out.  It was fairly rainy so we were left with 2 soaking wet happy and tired out pups.

I'm also getting settled back into Tutta Bella.  They needed someone to take over their new food truck, 'D'Asporto' and I've always dreamed of having my own food truck so it was really exciting when the director of operations reached out to me as a possible candidate for the position.  It's been really amazing to see how the company has grown since I left.  In my re-training I was assigned to read some training material that I had written years ago, which was a really cool experience and a good reminder that I need to be more patient when it comes to changing systems and structures, and that my opinion and my voice is valued.

 Dana has been very sweet and patient with me as of late.  With any job transition comes a new collection of stressors, and when I'm not diligently processing what's going on, I tend to be a real genuine douche bag to her.  I'm also pretty good at apologizing and Dana is very forgiving, so it all works out in the end.  She just made a giant batch of Mo-Mo's Mini's (delicious and delightful little Christmas cookies) that I've been trying to avoid eating all of them so that we can actually give them as gifts.

Don't know if I gave everyone an update on our Ketogenic experiment.  I got down to 207 which was a loss of 22 pounds in 30 days.  Dana saw some benefits in energy levels and clear thinking.  She felt sick almost the whole time though.  I am more than likely going to give it another go at some point next year for a couple months.  I have gained 10 pounds back, and I'm thankful that we were able to go through something like this together.  Didn't end up doing crossfit since it's ridiculously expensive.

That's all I have for you today; I know it's been a while since I've posted, and my excuse is that it's been a very busy season.  A few posts I'm working on right now are the idea of being a stranger (partly inspired by one of my new favorite podcasts "Harry Potter and the Sacred Text" That my friend Hope introduced me to.  If you even remotely enjoy Harry Potter I highly recommend it)And one that revisits the idea that life happens around food. I'm also working on a few more posts all at the same time so that I can get back to posting on a regular basis.  As always comment or whatever with suggestions or questions.  Love you all, Miss you. Thanks for reading.

I am eating fat to help me not be fat.

I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but I wanted to dedicate a whole post to the crazy diet that Dana and I will be on for (at least) the next 30 days.

We are trying the Ketogenic Diet. This means that we will be eating a lot of (smart) fats, moderate protein, and very little carbs (the carbs that come from leafy green vegetables).  Some people say the Keto diet is like a paleo diet on a diet.  Another fair comparison is the Atkins diet.  So let's see... What are we eating you may ask?  here's just a few things

• Grass-fed Butter 
• Coconut Oil
• Avocado Oil
• Olive Oil
• Pork Belly
• Prosciutto
• Creme Fraiche (Dana refers to Creme Fraiche as "food of the gods" it's SOOOO delicious)
• Mayonnaise (yes I have gotten over my hatred for Mayo for the sake of my own health)
• Cottage cheese
• Cheese & eggs
• Pork (yay bacon!), chicken, beef (grass fed & organic when possible)
• Broccoli, Cauliflower Zucchini, steamed mixed greens
• Salmon salmon salmon (Wild caught & organic)

That's most of it so fair.  We need to go to the grocery store and get some almond flour since that is ok on the Keto diet.   So what aren't we eating?

• Bread
• Rice
• Pasta
• Sugar (or it's cousins Maple Syrup, Agave Syrup, and Honey)
• Potatoes
• Most fruits (strawberries and blueberries are ok since they have a very low sugar content and are fairly nutrient dense.)

That's basically it.  It's been a week  and a half so far and I've lost ~10 lbs, however I'm not really scale watching. Let me try to explain what this diet does, and then I'll get into why we chose it.

So what does this diet do? Well the Ketogenic diet basically trains your body to burn ketones (which are made from your fat stores) for it's energy.  By depriving the body of glucose, your body looks for it's secondary energy source which is fats.  The reason our body stores fat is for when we can't find food, we can still live long enough to find food by burning the excess energy our body can produce by burning it's fat stores.  Our fat storage is like a extra gas can in the back of the truck, if that gas can somehow magically make your car run on diesel and overall be more efficient.  Some of the benefits of keto are that your brain runs more efficiently on ketones than on glucose so alot of people report on feeling more clear minded and sharp and its been known to be a great help for those suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia.  By moderating proteins and not taking in any glucose, you do alot to help your body become less insulin resistant so it can help reverse type II diabetes (although ketoacidosis is a very really danger for those with type II diabetes and a ketogenic diet should only be attempted under close watch from a medical professional).  It removes most inflammatory foods out of your diet so it's known to help with arthritis or tendinitis.  It's been known to treat, and in some cases cure, childhood epilepsy because of it's positive affect on the brain.

Some of you might be saying, Sam, you don't have childhood epilepsy, Alzheimer's, type II diabetes or arthritis.  Why would do such a crazy restrictive diet?  Well I'd be willing to bet that I am pre-diabetic (I haven't been checked or it)  The more and more I read about this diet the less reasons I had to not do it.  Dana was on board pretty quickly, but I wanted to do more research so I bought a book, read countless blogs, listening to podcasts, and perused the Keto reddit thread.  I was convinced.  Honestly, it only feels "restrictive" right now because of having to track our macros.  We try to hit a 80% fats 15% protein and 5% carbs (from leafy greens) ratio.  So far it's been hard for me to get my protein intake under 15, but I'm getting better at it day by day. 

I've decided on tracking my progress in the following way:  Pants.

I have 4 categories of pants right now.  As I progress in weight loss and waist inches loss I will move along into different categories of pants. 

Category 1:  current pants-  These are pants I wear now that are either a little big or fit just right on me.  work khakis, 2 pairs of jeans, work grey pants

Category 2:  Almost pants-  These are pants that I could wear to work in a pinch, but are a bit to tight for my liking.  another pair of khakis and a pair of blue slacks I bought 2-3 months ago that I even got hemmed to fit my hobbit legs, but are just too tight in the waste to be comfortable

Category 3:  2010 pants:  I would say the most in shape I've been in my life was 2010.  I was dating a woman who runs long distances, and when we broke up I started to work out for like 3 months.   I still have 2 pairs of pants from then.  1 pair of jeans, and 1 pair of brown plaid pants

Category 4:  Juice fast pants-  I lost so much weight on the juice fast that almost all of my pants I had looked ridiculous so I had to buy a few new pairs.  1 pair of mustard yellow pants 1 pair of dark grey work pants, and 1 light blue capris (we went to Europe; don't judge me).

This was me right after my juice fast.  The most svelt I've been in my life. 

I think I'll be fully into category 2 by next week.   I'll keep you updated on my current pants situation. I can't wait to be able to button those ridiculous yellow pants again.   Wish Dana and I luck, and please let me know if you have any tips or questions in regards to the Keto diet.  The more I talk about it and research it the better I can understand it's affect on my body.

Stay tuned, I'm really excited for next week's post:  Where is Hillman City?

WAKE UP

Lately I've been fired up.  I've felt awake.  "What are you fired up about Sam?" you might be asking me.... Well the answer isn't that simple.

I spend too much time on my phone.  I spend to much time on Netflix.  Dana can confirm both of these facts.  Before a few weeks ago, my days off consisted primarily of doing laundry, cooking, and watching Netflix.  I'd sit on our couch (which is where I'm sitting right now typing this) and just veg out non-stop;  finish whole seasons of shows (Limitless the TV series, Netflix's Voltron, Penny Dreadfuls etc.) or sometimes re-watch movies I've already seen (The Matrix trilogy for example).  While watching these movies I would play a Marvel game (Contest of Champions) and a Star Wars game (Galaxy of Heroes) along with the normal Facebooking. I wasn't even pay attention to the movies!   

Even while I've been sitting here, I've checked Facebook and Instagram twice, watched Bad Lip Reading NFL 2016 (very funny) and started listening to a podcast about fantasy football.

None of these things are bad in and of themselves.  What I have come to realize is that I have been asleep.  I stay distracted.  Why?  That's what I'm trying to figure out here today.  

Why is it that when there is an infinite amount of information out there for me to learn, hobbies out there for me to tackle, and people out there that need someone to talk to or tell their story to, I am watching 30 Rock for the 3rd time (btw Toofer follows me on Twitter!) I love all of those things.  In fact the joy that I get out of the those games and re-watching Fieval Goes West or Ant Man pales in comparison to the joy I get when I sit down, do the work, and realize that I can be out of debt in 5-6 years.  By a long shot.  

I am beginning to do things differently.  I'm researching.  Historically I'm not a detail oriented person.  I am more excited by the big picture ideals that guide, inspire, promote, and communicate the "why" behind things.  The details are more about the "what".  Why someone does what they do is more interesting that what they actually do.  I can easily listen to someone talk about their passion for accounting and how they love when the data of a system comes together to paint a picture of what is going on.  When they get into explaining what that data looks like, or how they put the puzzle pieces together, that's when they start to lose me.  

SO there are a few things (you will hear more about in future posts, but I'll tease them here), that I have been digging deep into, because I think they might be right for me and that is Crossfit and the Ketogenic diet.  I'm not going to be trying them all at once, I would probably turn into a monster for a few weeks having to transition from basically inactive and somewhat paleo to high intensity, constantly varied, functional movement (kick your ass into shape) type workouts and a diet that consists of high fats, low carbs, and moderate proteins in a hyper regulated fashion.  

I am still more excited about why I am going to do both things, but because I am actually doing the research about what I'll be doing, how I'll be doing it and what kind of results I can expect (details!!) I am even more thrilled to start trying these new things.  

So back to the question at hand.  Why have I been so willingly distracted from the things that I know would  help my financial, physical and marital health??  I have been asleep.  It is becoming easier and easier to distract myself with little things here and there so that I can avoid addressing my real life major issues like debt, fitness, or growth (personally and professionally).  It's self sabotage.

Playing games on my phone and watching tv is the easy way out.  It's lazy, and I'm tired of dedicating hours of my life to them.  It reminds me of that saying, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people".  It's not these apps, movies, tv's shows, fantasy football teams, or podcasts that are causing me to ignore my issues, they are merely the vehicle I am using to ignore them with.  Once again, much like in my last post, It's me!  I'm the one who is choosing a phone app over learning more about healthy eating or connecting with my wife.  I'm over here watching Pokemon when I could be learning Spanish so that I could understand how much crap the kitchen staff at work is talking about me (That's my main motivation behind learning Spanish).

So as of today, I'm waking up.  I think this awakening started with this blog.  I made time to actually pursue something that I know I love doing.  It's time to wake up and get healthy.  I needed to nurture my creative health.  Thank you for reading these posts.  Even if you don't comment or like it on Facebook, know that by reading any of my posts, you've encouraged me to keep on doing this.  You've encouraged me to keep writing, keep pushing, and to put my stupid phone down.

I promise this won't turn into a Crossfit or healthy diet blog; it will probably just be what it's been so far;  me telling you stories (I have considered doing interviews and posting them on here... let me know if you'd be interested in that type of content.)  Thanks for the encouragement.  Thanks for the wake up call.

Time to get to work.