Seven Day Rescue Video

In yesterday's blog post about my new vlgo, I mentioned that the Rescue 10X is the 7 Day Rescue ten times in a row. Here is more info on the 7 Day Rescue:
https://youtu.be/AqgYL1mujUA. The first couple of scenes that are interviewing with Rip and Jane Esselstyn is in as at Hyland Software which was one of the two location Engine 2 conducted their programs in a non-immersion environment.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #28

UPDATE: I have now I idea how this got published with Verse 26 and 27 in it instead of Verse 28. Verse 26 and 27 were already posted here. I am updating this post with Verse 28.

What a busy week this was! We finished the Engine 2 Seven Day Rescue, at work we did planning for the quarter, worked with one of my teams to do an agile assessment that should help them create their OKRs for quarter one. I subbed at Hyland for the wonderful Colleen Alber on Tuesday night, had dinner with a friend on Wednesday night, taught my sober yogis class at Soul Stretch Yoga on Friday night, and Fitworks on Sunday. I got home late Friday night having a long talk with one of the people who came to the yoga class and discussion our. I overslept and missed Marni's class but I made it at Cleveland Yoga on Sunday morning.

But Tuesday and Thursday were the days I was really jazzed about. On Tuesday, some participants got their "after blood work done and we met at lunch for the results reveal.

Here we are with the peace sign of Rip's "Peace, Engine Two, Plant Strong" mantra. Can you see who joined us for the lunch? Yup, Jane Esselstyn of Health Care is Self Care and Rip's sister, more importantly my friend.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #26 and #27

So I missed a week. Thank goodness it wasn't an resolution for this year or I would have already failed. Luckily, I don't really do resolutions anymore. I am going more for intentions. A friend of mine shared hers with me they were really well constructed. I still am working out doing mine right. For now they are more like a task list. I will share them in detail at some point, just not today. They are all centered around two main things with a little 12 steps stuff. Those to main things should not surprise you if you know me; Yoga and Whole Food, Plant Based eating.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #20

So this was a "long" weekend since it was Thanksgiving. I subbed on Wednesday night at the Highland Heights Fitworks which was pretty fun. For Thanksgiving, I pretty much cooked all day long and took it all down to Mom's apartment and Judson Manor .and we had a really good time. We had an extensive conversation with Mom about how she is struggling with the transition to her new abode. As nice at it is it's not the house she lived in for 25 or 30 years of her life. It was really good to get "real" with her.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #19

Started the weekend off doing a triple upping the ante from last week. I took a class at work and then two at 3 Sisters. Taught my class at Fitworks and spent most of the day reading and planning for Thanksgiving. Sunday Morning I started re-reading the Big Book after 20 something years. I recently finished Yoga and the 12 Step Path by Kzcy Hawk. Then later Sunday morning I went to my teacher's, Marni, class at Cleveland Yoga.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #16

I spent my weekend volunteering at the Engine 2 sponsored 2Forks Weekender here in Cleveland at the Downtown Marriott hotel. The amount of information was absolutely staggering. There were times that I felt such a disconnect to the rest of society, that such critical, lifesaving information is not more widely known. There shear amount of data demonstrating the overwhelming benefits of a whole foods, plant based diet is almost overwhelming.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #12

So Friday night I taught my first Community Class at 3 Sisters Yoga + Fitness and had my first class as the "permanent" yoga teacher at Fitworks in Highland Heights. Spent the rest of Saturday cleaning out closets and getting rid of clothes which is what happens when you lose 50 pounds in two years. Sunday was a fun day with a Marni class (of course), lunch with my friend Jenny, and trying my hand out at Lentil, Chard & Sweet Potato Curry from Forks Over Knives. It was delicious!

Welcome to this week's Tao Te Ching verse. See here for what this is all about. 

Verse 12

Colors blind the eye.

Sounds deafen the ear.

Flavors numb the taste.

Thoughts weaken the mind.

Desires wither the heart.

Memorial Day Weekend 2016

Had Caitlin Hawkins​ and Barbara Hawkins​ over yesterday for Memorial Day, my birthday, George Hawkins’​ birthday, my graduation from Marni Task’s​ Jivasara Yoga Teacher Training and Caitlin's graduation from grad school at Case, the finding of an apartment, and landing a job here in Cleveland!

Since it was Memorial Day weekend, I wanted something "traditional". So I decided to try carrot dogs as a replacement for the typical hot dogs. To be honest, I was skeptical. In addition to the fact that I'm not really a fan of trying to recreate "meat" foods with veggies, since that's like an alcoholic drinking near beer (not really a good idea) I'd rather just go straight for a new thing altogether.

Much to my surprise, though, it was actually really good. The liquid smoke I think is really what makes it, but I topped it with arugula, mustard, Ketchup and caramelized onions.

I also tried out two new recipes this time from the PlantPure Nation Cookbook. Three actually since one them called for Tofu Cashew Mayonnaise also from the PlantPure Nation cookbook. The first was a Thai Tofu Wrap which was only okay. It'll be good if I can figure out something else but it needs a little more moisture, more of a kick, and more peanut butter maybe. It called for Sriracha which we didn't have so I used Cholula which we did, but probably not enough.

You can see the wraps on the plate covered in saran wrap. There's a pun in there somewhere.

The second recipe used a quarter cup of the Tofu Cashew Mayonnaise. For my fellow no oil friends, this recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of tahini. I bought tahini that had no extra oil added but it was still quite oily. I like the flavor of tahini I just don't want the oil. But for yesterday I used 1/2 teaspoon of tahini.

Other than that though the tofu cashew mayonnaise was fantastic. Here's the recipe

Recipe

1/4 raw cashews soaked for 2-3 hours

7 ounces extra firm tofu

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (I used less)

1/2 teaspoon tahini

4 teaspoons lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard

2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I bought the Braggs because of Theresa's comment at the last PlantBaseCle meeting)

2 1/2 Tablespoons Agave Nectar (I only used 2, but will probably use 1 next time)

2 Tablespoons Water

1/4 teaspoon xanthum gum (I didn't have any so I used potato starch as a kind of binder

Tweak to your heart's content, particularly perhaps just grinding sesame seeds up yourself will reduce the oil.

I used this mayonnaise for the Eggless Tofu Salad. For what it is worth I never really liked egg salad so I don't consider this a replacement :-) The Tofu Salad was fantastic, the dill adding it the perfect flavor. The bowl bigger bowl in the picture to the left is a Quinoa salad my wife Arisa featuring Chayote.

I used my friend Lori Palmer’s (website) suggestion to make "chips" out of Engine2’s Sprouted Ancient Whole Grains Tortilla (you only need to bake for maybe 5 minutes, I had mine in a just a little bit too long), and used them to scoop the tofu salad. Thanks Lori that was a fantastic suggestion!

For scheduling reasons we started earlier than we would have normally and we finished earlier as well. Which was just as good because by the time we would have normally just been settling in to eat we were inundated with rain.

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Links For A Friend

I have a friend that recently disclosed that they experiencing some issues that sound to be dietary related. Or perhaps their cures are. The person is seeing a nutritionist that I know so I'm feeling good about the information they are getting. I did want to provide some links as well and decided to do it via this blog so others might see it as well.

In general, I strongly recommend nutritionfacts.org. This site contains work by Dr. Greger to review various scientific data "so you don't have to". You'll get that if you watch this behmoth of a video which is over an hour long. And the content, oh my. It's incredibly informative, but it's long. The video is called Food as Medicine and was released on August 23rd, 2015.

Plant-Based Lifestyle

So a friend came up to me recently and asked me how I did it. It, you ask? The implied question really was on multiple levels. The first implied question was how did I lose the weight that I've lost, was it really only diet and which one. The second implied question was about my diet and how I stay plant strong, plant perfect or what have you. At the time I answered it well I think but upon thinking about it could have put more thought into answer better.

This post will attempt to describe what has really made me successful up til now - and hopefully out into the future.

2015 Year in Review

If you have been in and social media site in the last week or so you have been probably been bombarded with year in reviews which randomly select pictures you have posted over the last year to create a montage of the last year. So you know it's that time of the year again. You would also know it is that time of the year again since I have started posting on this blog again. :-)

In January of this year, I posted my goals for the year, here. I did not say resolutions because that seems to imply binary, yes or no. You either did it or not. Resolution doesn't need to be binary but that seems to have become the norm. So in my post I called them targets. So let's review them to see how we did.

Moderation is the Key?!

So one of the comments I hear from people when I respond to what I eat is that my diet is so extreme. Actually I hear that from my family, particularly my Mother. They believe that moderation is the key. For those people, check out the following video which is relatively old news but I keep coming back to it. The shear number of usable quotes, data and information is amazing. It is a *long* video of 1 hour 15 minutes but it is so worth watching.

December Challenge and the Holiday Hold

Happy December!

With Thanksgiving behind us, and the evil black friday, it is time to get on with the Christmas season. Arisa wasted no time in decking the house out in boughs of folly. No, holly. If you ever struggle with a present for Arisa, a Christmas ornament will always be acceptable.

Per my Holiday Hold post, the goal is to maintain or lose weight through this Holiday season. I weighed in at 167 (clothes on at weigh in for the Hyland Holiday Hold) on the 24th of November. This morning I was 160.4 just before jumping into the shower, so I'm guessing 164 clothed. But I have been at this weight for the last couple of days. Which is a little frustrating. Well, just a little but perhaps more pressing because I am so close to the 150s. I've seen it a couple of times after losing water weight from a workout. But not at a legitimate weigh-in.

Random Thoughts - Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge

So as I mentioned in a previous post I finished my Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge with some really nice results. This post is just a few random thoughts I had that are prompted by participating in the Challenge.

I really don't have anything planned to say this time around so we'll see what happens. We'll all be surprised.

So let's start with something thought provoking: my farts stink.

How's that for a starting topic?(!)

Seriously thought they stink. Actually I should stay the smell is different. Clearly it is from the change in diet and the substantial increase in the amount of beans I eat. Black beans, kidney beans, navy beans, beans, beans and more beans. But it's also because I am eating more vegetables across the board. I bring this up because while I remember thinking about it during the challenge, this morning my wife, Arisa, told me that smell of my breath was different. She didn't say "bad" she said different. And I asked for the clarification. Twice.

Progress to Celebrate - Kinda Sorta

Last night we had great Thanksgiving dinner. We had traditional Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes covered in gravy. We added some #plantstrong dishes as well. I added the Sweet Potato Bowl from the Engine 2 Diet. I also saw some really good looking recipes on +forksoverknives (Forks Over Knives Plant-based Thanksgiving Recipes post). I was going to make a couple of them then realized we had way to much food so I just picked the Brown Rice Casserole with Lentils. So we had that for dinner.

And So It Begins [28 Day Challenge]

Happy Sunday, Go Browns!Welcome to Day 5 of my Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge.
I as I said in my last post I am taking the Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge. I started a hybrid version prior to kicking off on last Wednesday to get in the mindset and learn how to prepare some of the meals so the challenge wouldn't be such a shock. Actually, in the 28 Day Challenge there is a Firefighter version and a Fire Cadet version. The Firefighter version is cold turkey immersion into a plant-strong lifestyle for 28 days. The Fire Cadet version is for those fainter of heart and removes various things over the first three week. For example, the first week is no meat or processed foods, the second week implements no dairy, and the third is to eliminate extracted oils.
What I did was similar in that I drastically cut back on everything - I haven't really had milk that much if I had soy milk around. Even had some of the Engine 2 meals for dinner which means I wasn't having meat. I didn't really do the regimented way of eliminating the E2Diet non-compliant foods but cut way, way back on them replacing them with fruit and vegetables.

28 Day Challenge

Beginning on October 22, 2014 I will start the Engine 2 Diet's 28 Day Challenge. Arisa is going to do a modified version, but already there is no meat other than fish in the house!

Okay, so the last time I posted on my blog was almost a year ago and this my first post of 2014. My last post was about the Holiday Hold that I did last year through the New Year. I actually did lose weight an ended up under 170. At least for a short while anyway.

Well, it's October a year later and the news isn't so good. I ended up putting back almost all the weight. While my official "Holiday Hold" weight was 178, prior to that I had been as heavy as 190 pounds. At 5'5" that made me obese. (Using BMI of 32 to mean obese) So when I say I put almost all the weight back on, I was 5 pounds short of 190. When I hit 185 again I decided I couldn't wait anymore, so in late August I started making changes.