Team Topologies

Today I finally finished Team Topologies. Really good book, kind of dense even though it is relatively short and very well written. There is just a lot to unpack. I'll do a brief overview here which will not do the actual content justice.

The basic premise of the books starts with Conway's Law

Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure.^[2][3]

— Melvin E. Conway

The idea that Unfortunately, organization structures do not necessarily make the best design. In fact the first chapter goes into why that's true, the second chapter goes into why Conway's Law matters. The third chapter discusses a team first mentality. The rest of the book talks about what the authors are proposing as the fundamental team topologies and what goes into making them successful.

Vegan 21 Day Diet

Starting on November 1st, I am following the 21 Day Vegan diet as outlined in Sharon Gannon's Yoga and Veganism book. I will be making some changes to it as I don't think it contains enough greens. This post will outline what I'll be doing from November 1st until November 21st. I'll first review what Sharon recommends in her book, clarify how I am adapting it and why.

The 21 Day Vegan Diet as outlined in Sharon's book is fairly easy. There are only really two meals per day, not limit on how much you can eat at those two meals. However, what you can eat is limited.

Congratulations Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Today, AP and the networks finally called the election as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won Pennsylvania and subsequently Nevada. I don't know enough about how this works but they all called it even though the vote count isn't finished. We also know that the current resident of the White House will fight it in the court system, and considering how close the votes actually are that make sense. As much as I dislike them, if I'm them I'm forcing re-counts at a minimum. But of enough of that!

Biden and Harris are the next President and Vice-President of the United States!

Hallelujah!!

The amount of damage this current administration and its GOP enablers in the Senate is unreal and the absolute lack of ethics is truly astounding. I hope everyone involved in separating children from parents are indicted on crimes against humanity.

But none of that will come easily. Biden will be in full rebuild unity mode, understandably. However, it is always the democrats that are being open and compromising while republicans never do - and we slide further and further right.

Georgia senate seats are up for runoff that if the Democrats can win will split the Senate 50-50. That will be a better outcome than the situation President Obama had during his administration.

Celebrate this weekend, Monday get to work to win Georgia.

Yoga Sutras; Svadhyaya, Satsang

I've enrolled in an Embodied Philosophy 6 week workshop studying the Yoga Sutras with Edwin Bryant. I actually began reading his book The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali earlier this year in cominbation with two other versions (The Heart of Yoga by T.K.V. Desikachar and The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Sri Swami satchidananda) and I found Bryant's the most accessible to me. I also liked the Heart of Yoga which is more than just the Yoga Sutras. The last section of that book includes Sri Deskikachar's translation and commentary on the sutras so when I got their I decided to take do a comparison reading

What I'm Reading: Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You

I started a new book this last weekend It is called Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You with a subtitle of Retrain Your Brain to Conquer Fear and Build Resilience The author is Marcho Schoen, PH.D with Kristin Loberg. The link above takes you to amazon.

Premise of the book is that our flight or fight instinct that is controlled by the limbic or reptile brain is increasingly causing us to experience health, mental, emotional, and physical problems even though we are increasing safe and lead a live of relative ease and comfort. Many of our modern chronic diseases have at its root our survival instinct kicking in when we don't need it.

Well that's a loose summary, I'll let you know how close I was.

The Kid is using Krita

So back in the day when all my machines were Linux, our family were heavy KDE users. Used it for years and years never really liking Gnome. However, for photoshop type of work we generally used GIMP. Come to find out that my son, now 25 years old and an illustrator is a proud user of Krita. I was like, wait a minute I've heard that name before. Well, I looked it up and sure enough it was the same software from KDE. And I thought damn, ain't that cool!

Well I also found out that around 2009 after I had pretty much stopped using KDE and KOffice by that time largely because I wasn't on my machines as much by that point, that Krita changed direction and became a "painting" app. Which is exactly why my son switched from Gimp (on Windows) to Krita. He finds it much more useful and intuitive to use (he showed my the one exception) than GIMP so that's what he's using.

Open Source is still a cool place to be!

Bike Ride with Elly

I am currently in Washington DC to spend time with my daughter before driving us both back to Cleveland. Elly brought her bicycle from Japan so I brought mine from Cleveland. On Friday we were going to take a ride down to Mt. Vernon but due some other circumstances we were not able to do that so we just walked around DC.

This morning though we were able to go out for a ride which was fun. We rode around the Mall, rode through China Town which reminded me of all those Cavs vs Bullets games back in the Gilbert Arenas days. We stopped by the Supreme Court and rode by Union Station. Adding a few pics below.

Starting with Tiny Habits

A friend of mine mentioned to me the power of tiny habits. Simplifying the concept it basically means take baby steps. Yes really, really small baby steps. For example if you want to get into the habit of brushing your teeth after every meal, don't start with all your meals and brushing all of your teeth, start of with after one meal brush one tooth. It'll take you a second and your done.

Now that brushing your teeth example is a little silly, but that's the idea. Start small and go from there. If it is small enough it won't create the resistance to it that you naturally feel. If you are consistent you will gradually get there.

I have been trying to get back to blogging for years but never quite make it. I'm gonna try tiny habit, so my posts may be more like tweets than blog posts.

This is one

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.

My Engine 2 Rescue 10X Journey Channel

I will be vlogging about my Rescue 10x hosted by Plant Strong by Engine2 on Youtube. I intend to embed the videos here on my blog to keep all my content in one place. This is new for me so the learning curve will be steep. It's not very good yet, but I published my first one.

I need to work at getting more natural at talking in front of the camera. I speak too fast, and not clearly enough. But I got the first one under my belt.

Lawn Chemicals

If you ever wondered why we seem to have more cancer, more digestive difficulties, more autism, more everything bad, look at the picture. You put toxic chemicals, strong enough to warrant a warning sign that says kids, dogs and adults should stay of the grass because it's been chemically treated. And it's like on every other lawn. Think people.

That shit also goes straight into our water system too. Granted, our water treatment centers run by our utilities do a fantastic job of treating our water before it comes to that, the reality in big storms they just open the valves and all the crap goes right into Lake Erie. I am not ripping the water department, I'm ripping the people that think dark green grass is more important than our collective health which costs well over a trillion dollars a year in the US.

Meet Debi, a husky formerly known as Queenie

This last Friday night, Arisa and I did a rash thing. We adopted a dog from a local rescue, the Berea Animal Rescue Fund. We had gone to visit a German Shepherd, which I love, but came away with a Siberian Husky instead.

Having moved to the west side, we had finally decided we’d get a dog. I’ve wanted one for quite a while but with the long commute it didn’t make any sense - 8-10 hours is way too long to leave a dog home alone in my opinion. Now, however, being just a 10-15 minutes away, we can come home at lunch, we are leaving later to get to work, and we are home sooner. So maybe 4 hours at time alone during the week, broken up by walks at lunch.

So we’ve been looking at websites like Adopt-A-Pet, Petfinder etc. and visited both the Berea facility as well as they Cuyahoga County shelter at least three times. We never quite found the right dog. We were also looking at puppies but couldn’t find the right one, or they were too far away.

Friday night I wanted to head to Berea Animal Rescue because they had a German Shepherd I wanted to see. We signed the waiver that’s good for letting us see animals for 24 hours, and as we were walking out to meet Paulie (the shepherd, they way they were putting away the other dogs made it clear this dog reacted to other dogs. In the neighborhood we are in that’s not going to fly, and it was a *big* German Shepherd, we probably would have had difficulty stopping it if it really wanted to do something.

“Queenie” caught our eye as she was the dog they cleared out from the cage we were going to see

Paulie in. Her tail was so far under her rump, she was clearly terrified. In the end, we didn’t even stay to see Paulie, went to the Cuyahoga County shelter didn’t find anything we wanted. On the way home, we talked about various dogs, and what we were looking for, etc, and we kept coming back to the husky. So we decided to go visit the husky one last time since BARF was open until 8pm on Friday nights. And we found Queenie, aka Debi, sitting in fear in her cage.

We did a meet and greet with her, and decided that we were going to adopt. Arisa in particular really wanted to get her out of that shelter. We decided after some discussion to take her home that night even though we weren’t prepared in order to give her some time to adjust to her new home before we had to leave for a work day. So we took her home Friday night, complete spur of the moment decision.

She is still really skittish though she has begun to eat and drink water, sometimes in front of us. She’s great on walks but is afraid of everything, or any loud sound. She shrunk away from a sewer in the street because the sound of the water scared her. She shrunk away from a tree with several loud and chirpy sparrows. Needless to say she is skittish around us as well.

We are looking forward to seeing her come out of her shell and show us who she really is. Already I can tell she is a chewer, and when she is really comfotable playful. I am also guessing that she is going to cause havoc. She already chewed up one plant, and was playfully jumping around last night. I plan to keep a running “diary” here: Meet Debi

2019 Intention - Summary : It's a Matter of Balance

This post will recap all three of my 2019 Intention posts, wrapping them all up in a nice little theme. And adding perhaps one or two more intentions for the year. I also intend to keep the door open for some additional goals and/or things I may want to add as go through the year. To start with here are the links to previous 2019 Intentions posts.

2019 Intentions

Part I Journaling #journaling

Part II Meditation #meditation

Part III Reading #reading #spiritualreading

Part IV Yoga Studies #yogastudies #yoga

As you have already guessed from the title of this post, this year will be about regaining balance or perhaps establishing balance. Let me explain.

2019 Intentions - Part 4 ; Yoga Studies

This post is number four in the series of posts I am making with regards to my 2019 Intentions. So far we have covererd

Part 1 Journaling

Part 2 Meditation

Part 3 Reading

Today's installment is to talk about my intentions to apply discipline and rigor to my study of Yoga. This post will cover a relatively wide range of topics that all fall under this category.

So hold onto your hats! Here we go!

2019 Intentions - Part 3 Reading

My continuing effort to clarify my intentions for 2019. This is the third post in the series and I'm guessing that there will be may 10 posts all told to clarify my intentions for this year. If you were curious, I do have a bullet list of handwritten goals and/or intentions for this year but writing these out help me clarify what I'm actually trying to achieve with each of them. In some cases writing them out is simply that I already know what I'm intending. In other cases I have an very general, vague idea of what I want to do and the blog posts will help me figure out the details.

Next up are my intention for reading in 2019.

2019 Intentions - Part 2: Meditation

updateI started this last week and am finishing it today. Just so you know.

This morning I'm hanging out at Starbucks while I wait for my Mom's testing to get done. She has about two hours of testing with the Neuro-Psychologist to see where she is at. She has already had some preliminary tests done with the neurologist and a MRI scan of her brain. We have a wrap up meeting next Wednesday with the gerontologist again. We should have a good baseline of where she is at and can more accurately evaluate any steps we need to take.

so while I'm waiting I thought it would be a good time to start my post for my next set of intentions for 2019. As I mentioned in my Part 1 post, I have about 10 goals for this year that I want to try and achieve but some of those are the same as last year. Overall, they are all related to making lifestyle changes that I hope make me more mindful, kind, and healthy in mind, body and spirit. Even if I don't achieve them all the goals and the journey are worth it. As mention in the previous post, my dabbling in journaling over the last year and half led to a some benefits, realizations, and ah-ha's that motivate me to make it a more consistent, bigger part of my lifestyle. Similarly, many of the items that are "rolling over" from last year have provided some benefits or enough of something to think I want to keep trying. Some I did fairly successfully, some I failed at. In this and upcoming posts I'll take about what I'm trying and why.

Following journaling first up is Meditation.

2019 Intentions - Part 1: Journaling

Like every year, I hope to get back to blogging more. I'll touch on the why of that for this year in a later post - assuming I ever make more than one or two posts. This post is intended to be a post about just one intention or goal I have for 2019. I have about 10, many of which are interrelated. I am hoping that by delving into each one I'll get a little bit more traction towards accomplishing them this year.

So my intention is to journal every single day of 2019. At least once a day. Now, I'm not going to freak out if I miss a day, I've done enough all or nothing resolutions to know they don't work if you are really trying to create a change. My focus is to set an intention(s) or goals that I want to achieve by the end of the year. So when I say I'll journal every day I mean by the end of the year journaling on a daily basis will be an establish part of my day-to-day activities.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Week 33

Happy New Year!!!

May your 2019 be the best year yet!

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

"Annual" Day After Christmas Post

It appears that that I post the day after Christmas every year. Most likely because I am not going to work and I have some time, plus it is that time of year to reflect on the year, and think about goals and aspirations for the upcoming year.

2018 was an interesting year for me. In some ways very successful, in others not so much. But isn't that true every year?

I started out the year trying to get up earlier in the morning so that I could get in a consistent yoga, pranayama, meditation, and reading practice to start the day. The difficulty of that is that I need to be in bed earlier in order to get enough sleep. I found that it was too difficult for a variety of reasons. Regardless of those reasons the reality is that it was beyond me this year to go to bed early enough to make getting up at 4-4:30am feasible. When I say it was "beyond me" or "not feasible", I realize that for the most part that comes down to my own discipline. And that's okay, I'm okay for not being up to the challenge this year.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Post - Week 32

So it's been exactly a year since I posted the last Weekly Tao Te Ching verse. Gonna see if I can start getting back into it in 2019. "It" being posting to my blog more consistently. I'll go into more about it later but it is something I want to keep up, probably more so as I think I'm going to start ramping down social media interactions. More on that later too.

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

Weekly Tao Te Ching Post - Week 31

As you can tell by the fact that I am only on week 31, I have not been posting regularly. I am okay with that but I hope to continue more consistenly from here on out through 2018 at least until I finish the book. Over the next week or two I may be posting a tad bit more than normal(which really isn't that hard, lol).

If you have followed this blog at all over time you will have noticed that around the end of the year into the first part of the new year I look back on what I have accomplished and make plans on what I want accomplish.

It's that time of the year again.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #30

A very long time has passed since I last posted at Tao Te Ching verse. Time to get back to that so I can finish it - start finishing and stop starting!

Since we (meaning me, myself and I) last chatted was in late April. As you can imagine quite a bit has happened since then. For one the YTT class I had been attending graduated and some are teaching, some have participated in a meditation challenge I started, another a book club discussion I started. At PlantBasedCLE we started our restaurant take over, I started teaching at Stat Crossfit on both Sundays and Wednesdays, picked up a second class at Fitworks. I started reading Banish Your Inner Critic and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (for the book club ostensibly).

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #29

Hey friends, it's been a while. I got out of the habit of doing the blog posts, not sure why. I am here to try and rectify that because I think it is important for me to have some discipline and rigor in my life. My goal for this blog, I guess, is to be a record of some of my thoughts and activities. Not earth shatteringly important to anyone other than myself maybe and that's okay. This blog, dear reader, is really for me.

The last time I posted we had just finished an unofficial Engine 2 Seven Day at Hyland. Well, coincidentally we are on Day 5 of our second Seven Day Rescue! And we have two more coming up, one in May and one in June. It's pretty awesome that Hyland stepped up and added it to their currently wellness initiative called the "Whole Hylander". It looks at wellness as more than just diet and excercise, but also community, mindfulness and financial well being.

I have also taken up a larger role in PlantBasedCLE as the previous President stepped down. She stepped down for the best of reasons, she is a victim of her own success, and Engine 2 where she works is giving her more and more responsibility. Which unfortunately for us means she has less time to dedicate to the organization. I have stepped in as President with my high school buddy John as Vice President. We created a new board of directors and re-started monthly meetings and activities which we had paused over the holidays.

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 #25

Happy New Year!

So we have entered 2017. I will continue to post once a week until I have posted all 81 verses.

This last week was slow at work due to most folks haven taken PTO to spend time with family and friends over the holidays. Due to the fact that Arisa and I used most of our PTO on going to Japan this year we worked most of the week. Which was kind of too bad since my oldest, Elly, is in town for the week.

Luckily I was able to find time to organize with the Dietitian at the Hyland Wellness Center an plan to participate in the Engine 2 Seven Day Rescue. We'll be starting it a little after the official start simply due to the corporate calendar. We'll start with a "launch" on Jan. 5th, and the challenge will begin on the 10th. For those opting to, we'll have biometric screenings with simple blood work at the start and end of the challenge. It should give participants a good snapshot of how quickly a plant-based diet can improve your health. The really great thing is we already have 20 people signed up and this is with most employees out on holiday. I am confident we'll get to close to 25, maybe more. Which is pretty darn amazing since it was all planned at the last minute.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #24

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hannukah, or Happy Kwanzaa. Or whatever other holiday floats your boat this time of year. Although I no longer consider myself a Christian, I do celebrate Christmas since I was raised Christian and family traditions around the Christmas Holiday.

I taught my last "community" class at 3Sisters at least on Friday nights because it will conflict with my Sober Yogi class I teach at Soul Stretch in Westlake. I also taught my weekly Fitworks class as well as subbing on Wednesday night. I am now over 50 hours of teaching since getting certified. Still have a long way to go as a Yoga instructor but so much better than when I was first certified. Still need to find my voice in terms of expressing and talking about themes. Well themes with a spiritual bent anyway.

The Fourth Limb of Yoga - Pranayama

So this year I have been slowly reviewing the the 8 Limbs of Yoga in order to figure out what my intentions for 2016 are going to be. Clearly, since it is already November, this process will transition to preparing for setting my 2017 intentions. As we get closer to the New Year's or early next year I'll review what I had defined, what I achieved and see where we end up. But let's keep moving forward.

Which means, next up of the 8 Limbs is the fourth one, Pranayama.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #23

This weekend started off with my Sober Yogi Hour followed by a Life Is Good discussion. After YTT Anatomy weekend last weekend, I was back to teaching my class at Fitworks. I also subbed at Stat Crossfit at 8am on Sunday before heading to my weekly infusion of Marni Goodness. Went grocery shopping and Christmas present shopping then spent the rest of the day cooking, watching football (Browns, ugh).

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #22

This weekend started off with my Sober Yogi Hour followed by a Life Is Good discussion. Spent most of the rest of the weekend taking Gina Schatz's Anatomy class for Marni Task's YTT program. I skipped out early on Sunday to take my fellow YTT grad Kim Hackman's restorative yoga class at Confluence. I may or may not have snored.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #21

This weekend started off with my Sober Yogi Hour followed by a Life Is Good discussion. Took my weekly infusion of Marni Task goodness on Saturday morning before teaching at Fitworks in Highland Heights. Sunday I headed out early to take Lori Palmer's yoga class at Soul Stretch in Westlake.

Sober Yogi Yoga at Soul Stretch Yoga in Westlake

So if everything goes according to plan, Soul Stretch Yoga in Westlake will open its doors for business this Friday Dec. 2nd. I am also happy to announce the inaugural Sober Yogi class on Friday at 6:30pm where we will begin the journey of exploring the integration 12 Step programs, the 8 Limbs of Yoga, and a whole foods, plant based diet in recovering addicts lives. After 60 minutes of an All Levels Vinyasa flow we'll have an hour long Life is Good discussion recapping all the good things that have happened in the last week because we are sober.

The class is a donations based class, and we are suggesting a $5 donation. All donations received during the month of December will go to The Lantern Center for Recovery in Cleveland (http://www.thelantern.info/) . The Lantern Center's mission is to provide quality sober living to chemically dependent men and to educate and assist people with recovery from drug & alcohol addiction. So if you want to donate more please feel free!

I am a recovering alcoholic of 21 years, a recovering smoker of 4 years and a SAD (Standard American Diet) recovering addict. My class is open to addicts of all persuasions with the only caveat that your are committed to your recovery process.

I do get a lot of questions about classes for friends and family. While the Sober Yogi class is for recovering addicts only, the Roots of Recovery classes are open to everyone impacted by addictions - friends, families, and the addicts themselves. Check the Soul Stretch Website or Mindbody for the schedule details.

If you know someone who may be interested, feel free to share this post.

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 #18

Started the weekend off doing a double at 3 Sisters followed by Marni on Saturday morning. Taught at Fitworks after Marni's class at Cleveland Yoga then subbed for a friend at Stat Crossfit in Avon.

In the afternoon I was Metrohealth auditorium for PlantBasedCLE's screening of Food Choices. And we had a great panel discussion including Dr. Pam Popper, Jane Esselstyn, Brian Hart, and Patricia Slimbarski.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #17

I spent my weekend volunteering at the Health Care is Self Care's Wrapping Our Heads, Hearts, and Hands Around Plant Based Eating - Holiday Edition workshop at The Knob. If you have an interest in a plant based lifestyle do yourself a favor and head to the Knob for one of these workshops. It is well worth it! Check out my photo album of this weekend: https://goo.gl/photos/2XjtMAp53iAu3Xid9

The Third Limb of Yoga - Asana

In two previous posts, I reviewed the first two limbs of Patanlji's 8 Limbs of Yoga, Yama and Niyama. Those two limbs contain the equivalent of the 10 commandments; the first five focus on how to treat others, the second five on how you and your actions. The third limb is the one most people seem to consider Yoga until they really begin to practice. Actually for many people this is all there is even knowing seven other limbs exist. And that's okay, but the goal I set at the beginning of the year was to be more yogic.

So we need to dig a little deeper and understand it in context of all 8 limbs.

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 #15

So I started off the "weekend" doing a yoga triple, one class at work and then two at 3 Sisters Yoga + Fitness; one class was with one of the sisters (Courtney) the other was a community donation class with Jen teaching.

I taught one of these classes a few weeks ago and will be teaching it again. It's a great opportunity offered by 3Sisters. We get practice teaching, people get to try yoga very inexpensively (for free if you don't donate), and any funds raised get donated to a local charity. What a great win-win opportunity. Thank you 3 Sisters.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #14

I had a great weekend attending Marni Task Yoga Jivasara Yoga Teacher Training. I graduated in May of this year but Marni welcomes back alumni to participate in the teacher training. It's incredibly generous of her!

I can tell you that I feel like I am learning even more than I did the first time around. That actually cannot be true since I pretty much didn't know *anything at all* last time around. That's also why is almost seemed overwhelming. Last year I had been doing yoga for only a year, where as now I am a grizzled veteran of practicing yoga for two years.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #13

On Saturday I was having trouble figuring out what do do with my day (too many choices leading to indecision) when I randomly posted a question on PlantBasedCLE's closed Facebook group if anyone had any recommendations for a spiralizer. The response was great with some great recommendations and a link to one site's ranking of spiralizers.

More importantly, though, one friend (thanks Victoria!!) reached out and mentioned that her friend's dad had one he wasn't using. So I jumped at the chance and Victoria offered to deliver it that same day! Thank you universe.

Sunday was also my first staff meeting for Soul Stretch Yoga where I will be teaching Friday nights at 6:30. I missed the Browns game which isn't so much a loss but was bummed the Indians game was rained out.

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

Verse 13

Success is as dangerous as failure.

Hope is as hollow as fear.

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.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #11

This last weekend I was able to get three of my teacher Marni Task http://www.marnitask.com/ classes in! And don't tell anyone but we bought a car.

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

Verse 11

We join spokes together in a wheel,

but it is the center whole

that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,

but it is the emptiness inside

that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house, 

but it is the inner space 

that makes it livable.

We work with being, 

but non-being is what we use.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #10

This last weekend I spent Saturday volunteering at Health Care is Self Care's Wrapping Our Heads, Hearts And Hands Around Plant-Based Eating at "The Knob". Fantastic learning experience and love the #hcisctribe!

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

Verse 10

Can you coax your mind from its wandering

and keep to original oneness?

Can you let your body become

as supple as a newborn child's?

Can you cleanse your inner vision

until you see nothing but the light?

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #9

I had an incredibly full weekend of volunteering, attending yoga/spin studio openings, my first staff meeting at 3 Sisters Yoga + Fitness, the one year anniversary of starting Marni Taks's YTT program. Oh yea, and a little yoga here and there.

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

Verse 9

Fill your bowl to the brim

and it will spill.

Keep sharpening your knife

and it will blunt

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #8

Happy Labor Day! I teach at Fitworks in Highland Heights this morning but will be back for breakfast by 9.

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

Verse 8

The supreme good is like water,

which nourishes all things without trying to.

It is content with the low places that people disdain.

Thus it is like the Tao

Niyamas

In my last post, I described the Yamas. This post is the Niyamas, the second of Patanjali's 8 Limbs Yoga. These posts are a series of posts reviewing the 8 Limbs of yoga with the purpose of helping my think through my 2016 Intention of being more "yogic".

The yamas, the first limb are focused on how to treat with beings outside of you, with other people. It talks about being honest, not stealing or not being greedy. The Niyamas are more focused on how you should treat yourself or personal actions. Literally meaning positive duties or observances.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #7

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

Just to comment though, for now I am not adding any commentary. I am just going through the verses. At some point, I'll probably do it again but take my time and thinking more about each one.

Verse 7

The Tao is infinite, eternal.

Why is it eternal?

It was never born;

thus it can never die.

Why is it infinite?

It has no desires for itself;

thus it is present for all beings.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #6

Just returned from our two week whirlwind tour of Japan. I'll have at least one post on that experience.

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

Verse 6

The Tao is called the great mother:

empty yet inexhaustible,

it gives birth to infinite worlds.

she welcomes both saints and sinners.

It is always present within you

You can use it any way you want.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #5

Still in Japan, but still not going to miss the weekly post.

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

Verse 5

The Tao doesn't take sides;

it gives birth to both good and evil

The Master doesnt' take sides;

she welcomes both saints and sinners.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #4

So just because I'm in Japan right now you thought I wasn't going to post? Think again! :-)

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

Verse 4

The Tao is like a well:

used but never used up.

It is like the eternal void:

filled with infinite possibilities

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #3

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

Verse 3

If you overesteem great men,

people become powerless.

If you overvalue posessions,

people begin to steal.

Tao Te Ching - Weekly Verse - Week 2

I am currently reading the Tao Te Ching will be posting one verse per week for the rest of the year or until I am through all of them.

Verse 2

When People see somethings as beautiful,

other things become ugly.

When people see somethings as good,

other things become bad

Tao Te Ching - Weekly Verse

So I recently bought Steven Mitchell's translation of the Tao Te Ching. In another life, I think I read this as an East Asian Studies major in college but I have zero recollection of it.

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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Handstand Success

Some times I think it's okay to celebrate, so I'm posting my handstand. It took me 14 months of practicing a little bit pretty much every day. I finally hit it for an extended period of time.

Of course as a yogi I should not be attached to the rewards of my hard work but let's say that attitude is still a work in progress. High fives are welcome! :-)

CNN Reports on GOP Debate

So CNN was reporting on the debate had the following paragraph.

The big questions of the night: Which senator did a better job convincing voters they can best take on Trump? Did Rubio's attacks and interruptions show a new side of himself? Did Cruz do enough to persuade people he's worth another look? Or did Trump's dismissive counters -- Rubio is a "choke artist," while Cruz is a "liar" -- leave him looking like a strongman swatting away the sorts of politicians that turned his supporters furious in the first place?

These are not the questions that need to be asked. What needs to be asked is what has gone wrong with this country that these morons are our Presidential candidates for one of our two political parties.

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.

The Yamas

It So I mentioned in my 2016 Intentions post, my main goal for 2016 is to graduate from Yoga Teacher training with Marni Task. Stemming from that are more specific goals, one of which was to apply more yoga principles to my life. I listed them out in that post and here they are again.

1. Yamas
2. Niyamas
3. Asana
4. Pranayama
5. Pratyhahara
6. Dharana
7. Dyhana

Of course the last is Samadhi or bliss, the final stage which I am fairly confident I won't get to by May or even this year. These are actually from the The Yoga Sutras Patanjali and are described in the 3rd Book.

I did not get into these specifically. Also one of my goals was to blog more frequently and consistently than I have been. So I will use the fact that I haven't talked about these things in detail nor how I will apply them, I'll write up blog posts about that - two birds with one stone 一石二鳥ですな

The first post will be about the Yamas

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.

2016 Intentions

So if you haven't seen my recap of 2015 you might want to read it first. This year goals, targets, intentions, whatever you want to call them are built off the success and failures of last year. Probably the most important of which is the fact that I am in teacher training. The teacher training with Marni Task will be the catalyst for most of my goals.

Another key factor is that weight loss is not part my 2016 intentions as I am at the general weight I want to be.  I fully intend to maintain my weight of in and around 140 pounds. So if I have to tweak what I'm eating to make sure I stay in that weight range I will. Weight loss per se, though, is not important enough to be part of my annual intentions.

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.

The Target Goal Is Dead Long Live The Target Goal

I think it is safe at this point to say that I have achieved my initial target weight. I weighed in at 146.8 this morning. I think the scale is a little wonky since yesterday though. Yesterday morning I was like 148.something and then later in the day it was saying I was 144. Right after Arisa had wiped the scale with a cleaning cloth. But also right after yoga so it's not inconceivable. Could have been water weight loss.

Anyway, I think it is safe to say that I have reached my initial target weight of 150 pounds. And I did it while I was still 50, so I finally completed my 2014 Resolution.

Yay!

Okay, enough celebration

There are Numbers

Then there are numbers!

Yesterday, I was finally able to get an updates biometrics test. I was hoping to get it at the same time as the Holiday Hold weigh-in but a change for expanded services in the Wellness Center at Hyland delayed that until just recently. But yesterday I was able to get the test done.

But first a recap just in case you forgot.

Holiday Hold Update

Happy Post Holidays! So how was your Holiday Hold? Here is a quick post to let you know where I am at with mine.

I pretty much crushed it, losing 10 pounds! As I tweeted, I celebrated a little bit this afternoon per the picture below.

Congrats Bro

So my brother was one of nine public officials recognized by Governing magazine for 2014. As you may know he is currently the General Manager of DC Water Way to go bro! We are all, as always, proud of you. George is the one in the upper left corner of the picture below.

Governing Article:

Introducing the 2014 Public Officials of the Year

I went to http://www.governing.com and what do I see on the top page? A big picture of Cleveland! Check it out, it's an article about where people have lived the longest.

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.

Writeslikeshetalks - Senator Warren goes after Walmart

Ah, Walmart. Arisa Hawkins went to Walmart yesterday as final shot at getting some Christmas Ornaments - everywhere else was sold out of the item she was looking for. Yes, she's very picky. Anyway, somebody approached and asked her if she was the one selling food stamps.

Rumors have it the lady really needed to be talking to the Russian mafia since they're the ones selling the food stamps. And Arisa does not look Russian. Chinese or Korean maybe, but not Russian.

Anyway, saw an interesting article by Jill entitled "How Much Walmart Gave To Ohio Legislative Candidates, as U.S. Senator Warren Goes After Walmart". I was talking to someone at work about minimum wages, Walmart and other places that don't pay a living wage. Clearly raised in a "Tea Party" family he very much espouses the mantra that the wages are between Walmart and the employee, that it's a contract.

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.

Wrap Up - Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge

Tuesday was the final day of the challenge so I had my blood test done again on Wednesday morning. The numbers pretty much speak for themselves actually. But I like to babble so you will have to wait. ;-)

So the 28 Day Challenge ended on Tuesday night but Wednesday was a busy day besides getting my blood work done and meeting with the Dietitian. So I treated it pretty much like any other day of the 28 day challenge. Thursday night though we went to Pacific East in Coventry in Cleveland Heights for our year end Board of Directors Meeting for the Japanese Association of Northeast Ohio (JANO). Reality is that I really like sushi and if I had not been mindful I would have eaten way more than I should have.

One of the take aways I have from the Hyland sponsored nutrition classes I took this summer, meeting with the Dietitian, but most of all through implementing it during the 28 Day Challenge is being aware of eating when I am eating. So Thursday night with literally a miniature boat of sushi placed in front of my I started to go into shark mode - a mindless feeding frenzy. Until I caught myself and realized that I was stuffing my face as fast as I could - so I slowed down and noticed that I was actually full. So I stopped eating. VICTORY!

Holiday Hold 2015

Similar to last year, Hyland is sponsoring a Holiday Hold.

Most Americans gain an average of about one pound during the holidays*. While this might not seem like much, they usually don’t lose it, and over time it adds up. Kick off your Thanksgiving week with the annual Holiday Hold!

Obviously the goal of the Holiday Hold is to maintain your weight over the holidays. Of course losing weight is also a perfectly acceptable option. This year at Hyland, we are weighed on November the 24th at work. Since it is at work it means we are clothed as opposed to weighing myself just before I jump in the shower. (Too much information?). In fact, I have seen people, and there are rumours that I was one of them, that did not remove their sweaters or anything else that added a little weight at the starting weigh in- shorts an t-shirts at the ending weight in of course!(sadly, I still failed, sigh.

Also similar to last year, I intend to invite my siblings to participate. Of course *you* dear anonymous user may also participate. Just add a comment to this post on the 24th with you starting weight. Then on January 5th, 2015 post a comment with your ending weight.

Two years ago I failed while last year I achieved the hold. We'll see what happens this year as I am starting just as I finish my Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge so I am the lightest I've been since quitting smoking. The award for succeeding in the Neohawk Holiday Hold is the satisfaction of a goal accomplished. No more, no less.

Well, that's enough for me anyway.

Week 3 Recap - Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge

Happy SaturdaySunday! I spent 3-4 hours shoveling the snow off our driveway(yesterday). May not be exercise from Rip's books but it was a lot of work and sweat. So I'm going to count it anyway.

Speaking of Rip, I finally got my Engine 2 Diet book back from the Hyland dietitian. So the general theme for Rip, as well as his father's, is diet. Make your diet #plantstrong and good things will happen. That is not the only message though, particularly with Rip who as a triathlete knows the importance of exercise in all of this. In fact, the whole entirety of Chapter 6 is about exercise with pictures to help you learn. In fact he has a host of Youtube videos with stretches and then workouts(and #2) to help guide you.

Engine2 Diet 28 Day Challenge Week 2 Update

So if you are following this Challenge (all two of you), you know that last week started of with a power outage at work so I didn't get to meet with the dietician. This week, however, I did get to meet with the dietician so I was able to update her on progress and get my bodyfat % checked with that doohicky. But before I reveal the latest and greatest numbers let me talk a little bit about this week.

So normally I spend my Sunday afternoons on the elliptical watching the Cleveland Browns. I started during last year's NFL season for two reasons 1) to do something other than sitting on the couch and stuffing my face, and 2) to protect my TV - last year's Browns were absolutely pathetic, even though they were better last year than under Pat Shurmur.

Week 1 Recap - Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge

So Wednesday was started Week #2 of my Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge. Normally I would have met with the dietician on Wednesday to review the week and take my Body Fat % measurement with that little gadget she's got. The power company had other plans for us - we were sent home due to a power outage and a failure in the backup generator.

Wednesday is also my spinning class but since we went home early Arisa and I ended up going to Planet Fitness where I did the PF 30 Minute Express circuit for the first time in ages. I really like that workout since you can push yourself as much or as little as you are up to on a given day. And you can see progress over time as the weights or reps increase as you get in better shape. But I'll tell you my arms have been killing me for the last two days because of it! I keep telling myself that old adage No Pain No Gain.

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.

Holiday Hold - From Work To Family

Every year the company I work for (Hyland Software) sponsors a "Holiday Hold". I think a lot of companies implement similar programs whether on a enterprise level or in specific divisions or departments. Some acquaintances have said that their company does it on a departmental basis. Hyland does it on an company-wide basis.

The Holiday Hold is a challenge to keep your weight the same or reduce it over the Holidays. According to the study linked to Americans on average gain only one pound over the holidays - but that pound is a pound that is never lost. So after thirty years Americans on average will gain 30 pounds. Of course I added that amount of weight in two years after quitting smoking.

So this year, both Arisa and I are taking the challenge.

Fuel Right Program

I don't post much about work. And this post isn't really about work but about food and health. It starts off with Hyland though. This last week Hyland kicked off Good Nutrition Month. The basic goal of the month is to give up drinking soda permanently. Basically the idea is that soda provides two and half donuts worth of sugar with each glass (8oz?) and that by giving it up people would be that much more healthy.

Hyland has won company with the best perks in Northeast Ohio for several years running. As part of that Hyland provides free soda drinks for everyone. There is an irony that this month's wellness program is to get people to voluntarily give up one of the benefits. And this month's program so far has been impressive! Today, for example, we got free fruit (see picture above) and a cup for drinking water. The picture below was my take today! Tomorrow I get a free lunch!

But it really kicked off last week when on Wednesday, we had Kristen Kilpatrick, MS, RD, LD Wellness Manager at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Center (website, google plus page (+Cleveland Clinic, +Cleveland Clinic Wellness) kick off the month with a presentation. It was a tremendous presentation with an huge amount of information.

Trip to Jersey

So on my most recent business trip I went to a client with office in Jersey City. After work each day we went to Hoboken, NJ for dinner. Along Washington Street there is a host of restaurants. The first night we went to a Indian restaurant called Karma Kafe which was really good.

The view from our client's offices was absolutely fantastic. I haven't put up all of my pictures yet but the one on the right should give you a good idea.

Google Comments - The Right Way

So I occasionally head over to theciviccommons.com to catch up on some of the conversations and projects they are nurturing.  I like the concept that they are trying to build a community around engaging in civil discussion especially when we disagree.

Today I made a comment on a post and it was cross posted to Facebook by Jill Miller-Zimon. I happened to be logged into Facebook at the time as was pleased to see 4 or 5 comments and responses come in  a short period of time.  All very interesting and informative.  Unfortunately, the comments don't show up on theciviccommons.com.

Google recently announced the availability of Google Plus Comments integration with Blogger, the service I use to host this blog. In a recent post, I tried out this new capability.

グーグル＋コメントをブロッガーで利用可能に

先ほどGoogle+で発見しましたけど、ブロッガーのブログにコメントする仕組みとして今までいくつかがあったのですが、今日からグーグルプラスコメントを利用することが出来るようになりました。このブログに加えました。

このブログには今まではDisqusというコメントシステムを使っていましたが、JANOのブログにはブロッガーに標準についているコメントシステムを使っている。先程Google+コメントをこのブログに有効にしました。