It Is Finished

If you are new to the Blog please read the following:
This post is to let people know that the content of this blog is finished. If you are new here, you need to scroll down to the very bottom, then click on the older posts tab (you have to do this twice to get to the true start of the blog) and go to the bottom of that page to start and work your way up from there.

This blog was built chronologically so if you start here at the top you will be going backwards :(

One final piece of review information is a follows:

15 grams of carbohydrates = 1 carb

Men are allowed 5 carbs per meal and 1-2 carbs for morning and afternoon snack

Women are allowed 4 carbs per meal and 1-2 carbs for morning and afternoon snack

Salads are considered free! No carbs and the more of them you eat, the skinnier you will be.

H20 is also your best friend... when in doubt drinks some more water. Pop is a killer.

Feel the Heat

So here we are in the heat of the summer at last.

My body actually likes the heat much better now that I am a skinny dude.

Maybe being in Hawaii beforehand also has something to do with it.

Ive also noticed that my appetite is more suppressed in the hot weather, which is a good thing.

I would like to stress again that you all get plenty of high quality H2O in your system on days like today. Sipping on ice water all day long works well and try to avoid a lot of sweet drinks or lots of caffeine or pop. Water is really the very best way to go!!!

Keep up the good work.

I pray that you will prosper in all things, be in good health, even as your soul prospers!!

Act Alive Promo

On today's blog I would like to Promote to you guys Dr. Tim Hindmarsh's Act Alive Event.

Dr. Tim has been very outspoken and a leader in diabetes prevention locally in our community. This year he is doing multiple sporting event on the 4th of July to raise money for education about diabetes and also to promote awareness. I love the intensity that this man has for life, God and his fellow man!!!

He also provides opportunity for folks to participate in running, walking and bicycling type of events. If you live locally I would like to personally invite you to get involved and participate in 1 or more of the events offered. Unfortunately for me, I am on duty that day so I won't be able to be there.

Here is a snippet from his web site and a link to register to participate

http://www.samhealth.org/hospital_foundations/lch/actalive_registration.html

America has a problem. Over the last two decades we have ballooned. We have an obesity rate of almost fifty percent. We have become spectators of life rather than participants. This is causing serious health effects.

There are nearly 21 million diabetics in America. Diabetes is a disease with devastating consequences. It is the most potent risk factor for heart disease, stroke as well as kidney failure and nerve disease. That’s bad news! The good news it that it can be treated and in some cases cured simply with diet and exercise.

In 2005, I wanted to bring attention to this problem and raise money for diabetic education. I started an event where I do 10 action sports in one day. I named this the “Act Alive.” The event starts with windsurfing in the Columbia River Gorge, then skiing and snowboarding on Mt. Hood, waterskiing, barefoot waterskiing, wakeboarding, motocross,cycling, skydiving, and running.

Check out the site,we will keep you posted on up coming events.

Remember, to feel alive you first have to act it!
Dr.Tim Hindmarsh

http://www.actalivenow.com/Site/Welcome.html

Guest Speaker on the Blogaroosky

Tonite I have invited a guest speaker to the blog. Welcome and Kudo's to Michael Bradley. He has agreed to post some information about his weight loss journey. Tonites is just sort of an introduction with more to follow in future posts.



Heeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaars Michaeal.



"Hello. My name is Michael Bradley. Bob has asked me to share with you my personal journey of weight loss.

I am 34 years old. I have always been in the restaurant industry and usually management. This has meant meal benefits which can be good or bad.

I was always a very small kid and young adult. When I got married almost 16 years ago I was 155 pounds. I stayed around there for almost 13 years of marriage then seemed like next I knew I was 240. Over the last six months I have lost 74 pounds.

That is the short version. I will share in later posts how I achieved this weight loss along with muscle gain."

Building Upper Body Strength

So we haven't talked about building upper body strength yet. And yes-sir-eee Bob it is high past time that we do something about that.

For some reason yours truly has been a little lax in this area. I have been focusing on Cardio and core strength while being very hit and miss in building arm and shoulder strength.

This week I have made the commitment of getting more serious upper body and have been doing push ups and triceps pull down and extensors. I am doing 3 sets of 30 push ups daily, with the goal of getting to 3 reps of 50 in a few weeks.

Ladies, you too can and should be introducing upper body work outs to your routine as well. You can do modified push ups and lift light weights to build muscle tone without bulking up the biceps.

Information About Your Personal Dietitian

You may have read about celebrities and wealthy people having their own personal dietitian. This person is the one that has all of the perfect nutritional answers for their lives. They must be an expert with vast amounts of knowledge and motivational presence to propel the client to the perfect look.

That all sounds nice for the rich and famous, but the reality is that everyone breathing air on the planet has a personal dietitian.... that being.....themselves.

Everyone that doesn't have a personal trainer chooses what food they are going to put into their body. I know this may not sound very profound... but revealing this may help you to make GOOD decisions about what you eat on an ongoing basis. You are the one responsible for your actions.

I have shown you how to count carbs and helped you to discover ways to reduce your carbohydrate bank account. By now you should know your total carb count at any point of the day. Now it is up to your personal dietitian to motivate you to walk the walk.

This morning when I woke up and was fixing breakfast, those chocolate covered Macadamia nuts were on the counter next to me staring me in the face. It would have been INSTANT gratification and I could have easily eaten about 10-15 of them before my eggs were done cooking. So I chose to resist the temptation and enjoyed my eggs and a banana INSTEAD. When I make decisions like this...

I WIN THE GAME!!!!!

Aloha I'm back from Hawaii

Greetings fellow bloggers.

I am officially back from vacation.

We had a great time on Oahu, I think I could get used to the place!

Nutrition was pretty tricky though as we ended up eating out a lot and I lost my green edge during that time. But that is perfectly OK with no guilt and now I am back home and resuming my regimen.

I gained about 3 pounds and found out that I just love chocolate covered macadamia nuts and Bailey's Irish Cream milk shakes from Haagen Daz. Throw in a few Pina Colada's and my carb count was pretty ballistic.

But I did work out every day, I ran in the early morning, then went swimming and worked out my core, I also hiked Diamond Head crater with my daughter Gina.The view from there was incredible. We also did a lot of beach stuff, and we snorkeled with the big sea turtles which was really cool.

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We also did eat at home some as our condo had a kitchenette so I did some experimenting with yogurt. I still like to do the Nancy's plain yogurt with no sugar and I didn't have any applesauce to add to it so I added some coconut syrup and strawberry jam which were both very good. I also just added a little splenda to it on one day and found the taste very acceptable.

If you are keeping up on the plan and want a one more little trick to help you lose those extra stubborn pounds I would highly recommend eating plain yogurt with splenda added for both of your A.M. and P.M. snacks this week. That will shave 1 carb off and will still be very filling and satisfying.

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Also love goes out to my wonderful wife as today is our 25th Anniversary.

Heading out

Well sports fans I am grateful to announce that my wife and I and our children are heading out on a family vacation tomorrow. We are headed someplace tropical...

It's Hawaii... We are going to the island of Oahu, staying in Honolulu for 4 days and doing all of the touristy stuff. Then we head to the north shore of Oahu for 4 more days of just relaxing and enjoying the quiet pace.

I'm going to try my hand at surfing and I'm going to do the aerobic hiking thing on diamond head and Koko crater. I am also going to eat a whole lot of fresh pineapples. I will probably cheat some on my diet and get some Hawaiian shave ice.

Anyways I won't even be thinking about stuff to post in the blog during this time so consider this blog hiatus with no postings until I return to the mainland.

This window of time would be a good opportunity for you to go back into the archives and review all of the prior stuff that I have posted for you.

Aloha,

-Bob

Arby-Que

Last night I had a hankering for some red meat. My wife was over in Albany and she called me and said she could pick up something for dinner. So I replied that I wanted an Arby's roast beast san.

I haven't had any true junk-fast food in a long time so I thought I would give it a try for some novelty. So the next question was what size? I thought I would just go for it and get a big one. When she brought it home I was quite surprised at the size of the wad of meat in that sucker. To think that I used to eat one of those things with a large fry and coke now is pretty ghastly. The san is just bread and beast meat. No tomato or lettuce or onion. So what I did was peal off about 2/3 of the meat and added romaine lettuce and some horsey sauce and that was totally filling.

The moral of all of the previous story is that when you end up going out for cheater fast food, you will do well to limit the portion size of the offering. The other moral of the story is that Bob rates Arby's a 2 stars out of 5. You could do worse... but not by much.

Craaazzzy Skinny

OK so I stepped on the scale yesterday and I was a little shocked to see the number. It was 151 WHAT 151???.....

That means that I have lost an additional 7 more pounds by doing the Daniel Fast again with you guys. I have now lost 28% from my peak weight. GREAT SCOTT...Marty!!! 1.21 GIGAWATTS.

This is just crazy nuts. I can't believe how trim and strong I am feeling at this point in time. So from my perspective this weight loss thing is so stinking EASY!!!!

If you will only chose to follow what I have laid out in the totality of this blog, there is absolutely no way that you can't end up in normal BMI range!!! The only possible exception would be if you have a medical problem such as ovarian fibroids or brain cancer that prevents this from happening.

Some of you may be thinking, gee Bob that's great for you but I don't think I could do it. It's too complex and hard for me. I have to lovingly and boldly tell you that this thought process is a bunch of hoooey!!!

If you have followed this blog, you now have all of the information that you need to be successful. The head knowledge is there.

You just have to decide if you are going to implement it or not. I have no other magic bullets to give you.

But Bob isn't there anything more that you can teach me? Yea there are a few more tidbits that I can continue to give you. But as to the core strategy, it's all been laid out and all I can do at this point is to keep harping at you to embrace the power of the St. Patty's green. Keep doing 1 salad per day 90% of the time and 2 salads a day 50% of the time. Watch your Wells Fargo carb budget daily and go low fat with your meat choices. Consistently exercise building endurance and you WILL BE SKINNY!!!!!

Move Betty IRL

So here is a heads up for any of you in the local Lebanon area. There is a great opportunity to get a cardiovascular workout this coming monday June 8th.

We are going to help a sweet little old lady named Betty move all of her belongings starting around 4:00 p.m.

Ladies can help too! We are going to meet at the River Center. Please send me a comment or an email if you can be available to help. bdiddy2330@yahoo.com

Marathon Granny

Yea we're talking inspiration here.

I just got the progress report from my Marathon Granny friend.

She did the Newport marathon over the weekend. She reported that it was just fantastic. She was able to run the whole way, the scenery was beautiful and she completed it in 5 hours and some change.

Now she can check off that marathon thing from her bucket to do list.

She trained well for this event by going on long runs every Saturday around 18 miles worth. That will certainly do some great things for you in a cardiovascular perspective.

I would not recommend that you all go out and run 18 miles this Saturday, but if you get off the couch and get out there and start running or even walking you will be doing yourself a big favor.

Way to go Grandma Joan!!!

What about Panda Express?

So we went out to eat at Panda Express last night. To be honest its not my favorite as there seems to be a coating of grease on everything they serve.

But you can still stay with in our Wells Fargo Carb budget there so I will give em 3 stars.

I would recommend that for the side you get the vegetable medley instead of rice or noodles. I know that sounds kind of heretic like by not eating rice at a Chinese place, but again remember we are in waistline war mode.

Also for your main courses you should get the ones that have veggies mixed in with them like green bean chicken. Please avoid the deep fried ones with no veggies like won tons.

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Since it's Monday and we have started a new week, I would like to give you your next assignment. I would like for you to ramp up your existing abs workout by doing more reps. After 3 weeks you should be feeling stronger in your core and be ready to increase around 25%.

I would also like you to extend your walking or running or what ever you are doing for your cardiovascular exercise. Again I want to emphasize that both cardio and dietary combined is what is going to give you a winning game plan.

Super Fantastic Buffet

Thanks to those of you who responded to the progress report. Keep up the good work and your goal will get closer and closer to obtain. I hope you are finding that those 3 carb meals combined with consistently eating green salads are becoming part of your permanent life choices.

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Now for Bob's super fantastic buffet style restaurant. You may already know about the place but maybe not. I would like you all to go there to experience it if you can. It's called Sweet Tomatoes!! They are a chain located on the west coast and southern USA. There are 3 locations in the Portland area. One is located just off I-5 in the Tigard area. Another at Clackamas Town Center.



Why is this place so special and good? Because about 80% of the food choices there fit perfectly into our life plan. That's awesome in comparison to most restaurants that offer 90 to 95% not so good choices and you have to be tenacious to order the one thing on the menu that works.



When you walk into Sweet Tomatoes the first thing that you are exposed to is their salad bar. The choices are practically endless and they give you a big plate to load up on salad. This instantly sets you up for eating a tremendously good meal that's going to be filling and only 3-4 carbs which fits perfectly into your budget.



Next they have a good variety of various fruits available to you.



They also have a soup buffet that is going to offer a good variety of bean type choices for you.



They also have a bread and pasta bar, but it's at the very end of the line and by then you have already made a bunch of good choices so you can just choose to skip these or go real easy with a small portion of these items.



For dessert, they offer fat free frozen yogurt which is about the best possible sweet comfort food you can choose.



With all of these delicious and good choices available to you, Bob rates Sweet Tomatoes as 6 stars on a 1-5 scale!!!

Status Report

So now that the blog has been up and running for a while, I would like to hear some progress reports from some of you that have been participating in the program.

Biggest loser has their weekly weigh in as the highlight of the show. So like wise we need some of the drama of the results from you guys stepping on that scale. Plus I would like to personally know who the "biggest loser" in this program is? I would think that there should be some interesting stories coming to light!!

Open Heart Surgery

I just got back from visiting a very close friend in the hospital. She ended up having open heart surgery that was totally unexpected.

She had only vague symptoms of some fatigue and went to the doctor. They did a stress test that was inconclusive, so he referred her to a cardiologist and they finally came to the decision to go ahead and do an angiogram just to see how her coronary arteries were looking.

In the cath lab they found that all 4 of her arteries were occluded over 90% and they needed to do bypass surgery because they couldn't fit any stents in place. Fortunately all of this was discovered before she actually had a heart attack so she has no heart muscle damage.

We are so thankful because if this had not been discovered she easily could have had a life ending infarction. Praise God that her family doctor was aggressive to not let the vague symptoms stop him from ordering further tests.

Life is so uncertain. So our life choices are important. Loving God, loving others, taking good care of yourself, building margin in health fitness and finances are all areas where we need to pay attention and be wise to do the best that we possibly can.

Flash Back 1973

Speaking about my weight being close to that of my high school days. I thought I would throw in a extremely dated photog of yours truly.

Kudos go out to Paul Reef, my swim coach. He saved a photo album of the Sweet Home swim team all of these years, then searched and found me on face book a few months ago.

Paul was and is a great coach. First of all, he was really hip. He inspires his peeps to always be the best that they can be, no matter their position in life. I wasn't the fastest swimmer on the team but he always inspired me to compete against myself. He wanted me to get faster times even if I didn't finish in 1st place. His positive reinforcement actually helped me to get much better to the point where I did start to finish 1st place some of the time.

Likewise I would like to encourage you to compete against "yourself" to get better at this St. Patty's green. Push yourself to embrace 1 more part of the plan that is being offered to you. Each piece of resistance that you are able to mentally overcome the faster your "swimming" will become.

So What About Supplements?

I have not talked any about dietary supplements so I will spend some time on this topic today.

So Bob do you take any supplements in addition to your St Patty's green regimen?? The answer is.... Yes I do.



There are many different choices out there. Some are very good, others are more in line with the snake oil cure all variety. Having said that, I have limited expertise in this arena, some of you may know a lot more about this than I do. I can only tell you about the ones that I am using. I currently take Reliv Soy protein fiber and energy products. I also take cinnamon capsules to aid in metabolising sugar. The Reliv products come in powder form and I mix them with water and drink at lunch time. They do have some carbs in them (especially the energy drink), so I don't take them every day. The Reliv products are high quality and do a great job of providing increased energy and also aid in appetite suppression as well.



I also take an aspirin daily and coenzyme Q10 for cardiovascular preventative measures.



I don't think like I'm going overboard by doing a whole lot of additional supplements because I feel that the health benefits of being in the green dietary zone is meeting most of my nutritional needs all ready.

Any questions or comments? Email me bdiddy2330@yahoo.com

Down 27%

I stepped on to the scale yesterday and found that I have lost another 4 pounds during our 3 week Daniel fasting time. This is really pretty significant now that I'm in normal weight range. At 153 pounds I am very close to the weight that I was while in High School some 35+ years ago.

My endurance has increased and so has my core strength since taking my own advice to start doing an abs workout daily. I have moved up from doing 90 crunchies a day to doing 120 for a 25% increase in the number of reps.

Now I have lost about 27% of my body weight from the days of pudgy Bob. This percentage loss is equal to or slightly better than some of the finalist competitors on the biggest loser TV show. Now understand that those contestants were extremely obese to start with so the ability to lose a higher % for them is much greater than where I started from. So I would say that overall my weight loss is on par with the top flight contestants.

I am sharing this with you, not to brag on myself but rather to help instill confidence that if you follow what I am doing, you can have outstanding results too. You can be on par with some of the best in the nation.

I know that I have been pushing you all very hard and have compressed things into a very high paced regimen. But I have done this for a purpose to help instill vision of success within each one of you!!! If you are having trouble keeping up that's OK just keep on doing the best that you can and don't give up. ("Never give up-- Never surrender" and "by "Grabthar's Hammer I will avenge thee")

I think that one of the most important parts of all of this has been to shock your taste buds and palate into a different beast than it was before. I am at the point where I just love the taste and crispiness of a good garden salad!!!! I crave them. I love the multiple colors of green and red and white and orange veggies. Now that I am in this green zone, I never want to go back to where I was before. I will occasionally have something sweet, but I won't go back to being locked into eating damaging malnourishing foods.

H2O continued

So I called my Dr. office and talked to a lab technician about getting tested for possible proteinuria. His reply was that he seriously doubted that I have any trouble in this area. He said that there is very little evidence of potential kidney damage from my current level of hydration. 19 out of 20 doctors would not be the least bit concerned. His assessment of the risk involved is extremely low, and the benefits of 9-12 large glasses a day is very good. So I will stay on track with the hydration thing without urine testing at this point. I will talk with my Doctor further about this during my next scheduled wellness checkup.

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Now back to my post the other day about those of you just reading and watching but not participating. I asked what I could possibly do on my end to get you motivated to start. So here is my best possible advice to you. Go back and scroll down to the bottom of the blog, and start with the week one assignments and get yourself started participating in the program. This may very well be one of the best decisions you will make in your entire life!!!!

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Concerning our long term plan for exercising, I would like you to start to consider making jogging a major part of your cardiovascular workouts. I would like to recommend that you start out slowly and work your way up to running a 10K or even becoming a marathon runner. That may sound way out there right now, but once you get started and set your mind to it you can and should do it. I have a good friend in church who is about 50 years old and a mother of 6 children, she is training to run a marathon race next month in Newport. She is a woman of vision and vision has helped her become extremely well fit. You can do it too!!!

H2O research

So a friend of mine asked about our weight loss plan over the last weekend. He was wondering how safe is it to be drinking that much water.



This has caused me to do some additional research and there is something of a bit of concern in this area. People who drink lots of water may be subject to proteinuria which means that this is abnormal and can cause kidney damage long term.



The average amount of water consumed on the study that I explored was quite a bit higher than what we are doing (almost double of what I recommend) so I think that we are OK, but I'm planning on getting a urine test for this done in the near future. The burning question is how much is too much?



The good news is that if a person has proteinuria you just need to drink less fluids and the symptoms go away. I will be happy to share the results of my tests with the blog, and if we need to cut back on the amount of water we drink each day I will be good with that.



In the mean time if you wish to cut back on your H20 until we know more about this. That's OK too.

What About Them Abs?

So how are you all doing on your abs workouts? Have you all been doing them every other day?



Now were on our next weeks assignments:

1. I would like you to start doing an Abs workout every day this week. How about doing the "standing ABS 10 min workout" video that is available on Comcast TV exercise on demand. This is very low impact and something that anyone can easily do. It is also only 10 min and available any time of day, so there really are no excuses not to participate this week.



2. Continue with 1 salad daily and 2 salads 50% of the time. Keep your egg regimen 2 out of 3 days.



3. Now that you have completed Daniel Fast, consider making your meat choice to be fish for at least 1 meal per week. The Catholics have it right by doing the fish on Friday thing!!! Recent studies have shown this is very helpful in preventing heart attacks in middle aged men. One caution is that I don't want you to get a filet-o-fish sandwich at Mickey Dee's Or Gordon's frozen breaded fish and think that this qualifies. It needs to be some form of fresh fish and not breaded.



4. By continuing to string those 3 carb lunches together and staying a little bit militant here, you are going to continue to shed those unwanted pounds.

In the Game?

Today we are the last day of our Daniel Fasting time for those of you who participated. I hope and pray that this was a highly valuable time for you both on a physical and spiritual level.

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For the rest of you that are out there reading the blog but not actually participating, I am wondering what I could possibly do to get you to make that next step?

Do you think that you are going to get in better shape by just thinking about maybe doing this?

So what is it that is holding you back? Are you afraid of being in good health? Are you unwilling to make a few palate sacrifices to accomplish this? I can tell you that you will not go hungry or feel like you are starving to do this plan.

If I could juggle 17 balls at once, would that be good enough to get you to join in? Are my credentials of losing 25% of my body weight and keeping those pounds off not good enough for you?

It's like bungy jumping, there is a huge difference between those who are spectators only, and those who actually commit to strapping on that chord. Only those who have actually done it have the exhilaration of knowing what the leap really feels like.

What will it take for you to get in the game?

Email me bdiddy@yahoo.com and tell me you are now going to start.

Your Own Personal Trainer

OK, so I have a tangible and doable idea to share with you concerning the exercise portion of our system. Are you ready for this?



I went out and hired a professional personal trainer for each one of you. Actually I'm just kidding I didn't hire one, but I have discovered a way to bring a good cardiovascular workout into your living room any time that you want to use it. These workouts can be a little as 10 minutes for those of you that are just getting started or as long as 55 minutes for a more robust level of fitness training.



If you have Comcast cable for your T.V. that is all you need. I'm talking "on demand fitness T.V." The shows are free and you can watch and move along with them when ever its convenient for your schedule. It's located on channel 219.



I have watched most of them and done some of them. Jillian Micheals from the biggest loser has a bunch of them. Dr Laura Schlesinger has some great ones that are tailor made for middle aged women. There are also some excellent ab workouts. I would highly recommend the 5 day fit cardio burn sculpt. These will all make for a good option for you to have a low to medium impact aerobic workout.

Please stay connected to let me know how you are doing.Email me at bdiddy2330@yahoo.com

Biggest Loser Revisited

So I have to tell you that I was quite impressed with the season finale on the Biggest Loser TV show last night. I know that I have been somewhat skeptical that most of the contestants will lose weight in the short term glitz of being famous, then when they are out of the limelight they will gain those pounds right back again.

It's hard to say if that is going to be the case for all of them. I wish I knew more about the nutritional aspect of what they are doing. I don't watch the show that often, but others have mentioned that they do discuss some of the food issues from time to time.

The winners were very inspirational to say the least. There was a 64 year old man that lost over 50% of his body weight.... All I can say is WOW!!! They also seem to be very motivated to keep the program going and stay trim after doing all that work to get there.

Their inspiration is a true example of what folks can accomplish when they have a VISION. So now I must ask you... Do you have Vision Too???????

The Bible says that "without vision the people perish." One translation states "without vision the people cast off restraint."

Can you keep the discipline going that our program is offering you? Are you willing to stay in the St Patty's green zone, count your carbs daily and make withdrawals from your Wells Fargo? Are you willing to get serious about exercising? I am hoping that you are saying Yes and Amen to all of this.

You see I am a man of vision. My vision is to equip you with the tools that you need to be successful in this endeavor.

When I envisioned doing this blog, I planned on it being very interactive. My goal was that we would all become friends and share ideas and challenges and victorys along the way. Seeing the results on thebiggest loser last night reinvigorated me to be true to the call.

I believe that I must get more relational with you in order for this thing to work. When I ask a question in the blog, I need you to RESPOND. I realize that the comment section in here is less than ideal but you can always shoot me an email.

So I think I will start posting my email address in every post, that way you will always have an avenue to connect. I will also give you my phone # so we can talk when ever you need some support. However I will not post my # in the blog. If you send me an email requesting my # I will give it to you. In order for this blog to succeed we must communicate. I can not continue to work in a vaccuum. email me bdiddy2330@yahoo.com

Ultimate Fast Food

OK so you're in a hurry and you are going to go out for the fast food thing. You're trying to be good and in tune with your life track. So where is the best place to go to stay in the St. Patty's glorious green zone?

Here is your hint....5.........

5$..........

.......5$ foot long

Yes... It's Subway. Jared did get skinny for a good reason. He ate sensibly low carb at Subway.

So when you go there, the better choices are Jared's choices. But ladies: be careful about the foot long there are 4 carbs in the bread alone so get the 6". An even BETTER choice which I think is the ULTIMATE is to make it a sub salad. They have a wide selection of different veggies that fits perfectly with our plan. Of all of the fast food restaurant salads that I've eaten, Subway tops them all.

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So I hope you are reaching a point where your palate is getting buffed up like I showed on the palate confusion post. It usually doesn't take very long to get there once you make the commitment to do it. Once you have made the switch, you should realize how powerful of an advantage you have over other poor souls that are trapped in the malnourished quagmire.

Disgustingly Skinny

So I had an interesting conversation with one of my buddies at church yesterday. He started by saying Bob you look disgustingly skinny. Disgustingly? That sure was an bizarre word to use. Did he mean it as a back door compliment, or was it a display of a bit of concern of unhealthiness? I responded by saying... why thank you very much, choosing to affirm option "A." Because I really do embrace the fact that I am as healthy as can be. And I plan on continuing to eat properly for the rest of my life.

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So are you getting enough protein in your diet? If you are doing the Daniel Fast, you need to make sure that you are getting adequate protein sans meat. We should be getting a pretty good start with eating the eggs for breakfast 2 out of 3 days. But you still need more throughout the day. Yogurt, milk, nuts, peanut butter, cottage cheese and tofu are good additional sources to get you through the day. I am finding that peanut butter on a piece of celery or an apple slice is working really well for me at snack time.

Core Strength Continued

Good Evening All:


I have noticed a theme building within some of the membership of the blog, that you are doing some of the things that I have to offer you but not all of them. I can only say that if I can help you a little bit by having you follow a little bit then the results you get will be "a little bit."

The more in tune you are to following the whole package of what I have to offer, the better your end results are going to be. Maybe you are just fine with shaving a few pounds off, but I would encourage all of you to take as full advantage as possible for the content that I'm willing to give out to you at no cost. I wonder that if I actually charged a fee for service, if more of you would have extra incentive to embrace more of the program? Not to worry, I'm not going to do that.





So lets talk a little bit more about building up your core strength. I happen to think that the advice I have recently given you about starting to build up your core strength is pretty high up there on the list of things that you should be doing. Crunchies and sit ups are not the funnest exercise in the world, but they will give you some pretty outstanding results. Plus they are not some of the gimmicky expensive equipment hype type of workout. If you are having back issues, you can go out and buy an exercise ball and sit on it and do your crunchies from there.




Actually I would further recommend that you work both your center abs and your oblique lateral (outside) abs. You can accomplish this by pointing your right shoulder towards your left knee as you raise up to work your right side. Then do just the opposite to work your left side.

Your Next Assignment

Greetings again.

Did anyone do the flair quiz the night before last and if so how did you do? Did you get all of them?

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This evening I'm going to bring you your next assignment. This one has nothing to do with your diet for a change. We are going to start working on building up your core strength.

If you have not been doing anything in this area we are going to start out slowly and gradually work our way up the ladder.

I want you to start working your abdominal muscles by either doing some sit ups or some crunchies. If you have back problems then I would like you to do some leg lifts while lying flat on the floor. Do at least 3 set and do enough repetitions to the point where you start to feel some discomfort in your belly. This week you can do them every other day. Next week we will try to do them every day.

This building up of your core strength is going to help you to really increase your vitality. You're going to feel stronger and have a lot more endurance as a result. ;)

Remember the H2O!!!

Greetings again.

So lets talk about water again. Now that we have settled into the Daniel thing and counting our carbs, I have personally noted some easy days and some not so easy days. The days that have been difficult find me pretty munchie-centric around 9:00 p.m.

Looking back on those challenging days, there has been a high correlation between me not drinking enough water during the day and then being hungry at snack times. So I need to remind myself and you to get 1-2 tall glasses with breakfast and 3 for lunch and 3 for dinner. Also it would be good to do 1 glass for each of your snacks as well. Proper hydration will take you a long ways forward here.

Quiz Time

OK fellow bloggers, today is Quiz time. This is to test how well you recall information from prior posts.

But don't worry this is going to be a fun test. You may have noticed that lately I have been adding flair button pics from facebook in my posts. So this is going to be a flair quiz. I will post a bunch of buttons and you need to go back into the blog and find out which episode matches the picture. Sound fun? I hope so. Hopefully this will also serve as a review for you to go back over some of the stuff we have already covered.