Trader Joe's in the neighborhood

First time visit to the new Trader Joe's on Voss, yesterday. So much better than the Trader Joe's on Shepherd with lots of space, wide aisles, friendly and helpful employees, great selection of stuff that you can't get anywhere else. Quinoa and black bean tortilla chips with fresh salsa, anyone? And items like real wild rice, almonds and Trader Giotto's Olive Oil for a whole lot less than at 'Whole Paycheck'.  I also like the tricolor quinoa, veggie burgers, organic tempeh, canned soup, excellent value table wine and I am sure that I will be finding some new stuff in future.  Just a great little shop for vegans and vegetarians.  Yes they sell meat and other stuff too but the pre-prepared food section is just bursting with non-meat items, as is the meat-alternative section (tofu, tempeh, no-meat sausage etc).

When we couldn't find some item a store employee escorted us around the store to two different areas personally, and the checkout process was quick and painless.  No stupid card needed for discounts, and best of all they don't try to 'force' you to check out yourself, one of my pet peeves.  So sayonara Randalls and Kroger, with a Trader Joe's less than 4 miles from my house, you are fresh out of a long-time customer.

DietBest progress:  Down just one more pound to 181, very close to goal!  Will have to be extra-diligent this week to maintain at 181 in order to get my $25 back.  Which I will likely use to enter another DietBet right away! 

Dropping some elbees

A combination of 'no S diet' and increase in working out and mountain biking did the trick this last week: down a total of 6 pounds for the first 14 days on the DietBet.  Need to shed another 3 lbs over the next two weeks to get my money back.  Definitely do-able unless I fall into a big pile of donuts or a bacon and cheeseburger trap.  :-)

Really enjoying the mountain biking as a sub for running.  Still hopeful that in time I will be able to resume running, as plantar issues seem to be receding every so slowly.

Drove by a guy yesterday who had crashed into a metal retaining barrier on the trail, seemed to have badly hurt his shoulder.  Indirectly this was caused by a vandal who had knocked down a trail sign (warning of sharp S curve and steep downhill).  What a shame.  Even so the bikers need to take it easy on this mixed-use trail.  There is no need for excessive speeding and certainly not around blind corners.

This week my goal is to post 5 consecutive Green days on 'No S', could not get beyond 2 last week. 

Put some money where your weight is

Well, on to another chapter in the seemingly never-ending struggle to keep the pesky unwanted extra pounds at bay.  Still looking for those elusive abs which made a disappearing act in the 1980's and which have not been seen since.

This time around, I am combining the tried and tested 'No S Diet' (no snacking, no sweets and no seconds on all days except those starting with 'S') with a Diet Bet.  Check it out: Diet Bet website

The deal is you 'bet' a pre-specified amount such as $25.00 either in your own competition with a few friends or family members, or you join a larger group of people, each having contributed or 'bet' the same amount.  If, by the end of 28 days you reach your target weight loss (4% of your total body weight) you get your money back PLUS whatever amount was forfeited by players who did not make the goal weight loss.

Right now I am at the end of Week 1 on aFitFluentail bet with a total of 564 players.  So the total pool is $14,100.  One week into the game a total of 1,283.00 self-reported pounds have been lost, which represents an average weight loss of 2.2 pounds per person.  Pretty impressive!

On the No S front I am doing pretty well, but just can't resist the temptation for some late-afternoon snacking (usually hummus dip with chips of one kind or another).  For this week my remedy will be tea:  a fresh supply of oolong and white tea is at hand, so at the first pan of a snack attack, will fire up the tea pot and have some calming, soothing low-caffeine tea instead.  White tea is naturally extremely low in caffeine.  Oolong have more caffeine, but I was told that if you let the first brewing steep for just 30 seconds and then discard the tea, some 80% of the caffeine is gone.  You can still brew the same leaves 3 to 4 times after that.

Running?  Not at all.  My left foot plantar fasciitis is no longer chronic (i.e. I have no pain upon waking up or any time during the day) but as soon as go on a run or even do a long walk, some discomfort re-appears.  I will likely have the podiatrist do an MRI soon to see if they can figure out what the problem is.

However that does not mean that I am inactive.  To the contrary: have been doing very regular and very brisk 12+ mile outings on the mountain bike at least 4 to 5 times per week. pushing up my heart rate to well over 130bpm, sometimes over 140.  And have started working out with my favorite PT Amy, this time at LA Fitness just around the corner on Westheimer Road here in Houston.  Beautiful, large and spanking brand new gym with more machines than you can imagine.  I've used maybe 5 or 6 of the 50+ types available.  Clearly there are more muscle areas in the body that I am aware of or have been using. 

DietBet Week 1:  Lost 4 pounds, down from 186 to 182.
No S roundup Week 1:  3 green days, 2 red (snacking!).  

It's been a while...

A lot has happened since my last update.  There's been an election, we're back in a drought here in SE Texas, the Houston Texans football team is 10-1 on the year. The only thing that is still the same as before?  I am still not running.  Seemingly never-ending struggle with plantar fasciitis.  Now in a boot, will give it a try for about 6 weeks and may then consider surgery.  As a result of not running - and a few other factors - my weight has increased quite a bit, to just under 180 lbs.  The mountain biking helps, but you can't go from running 40 to 50 miles per week to zero, and not expect to gain some weight. 

Kath and spent about 3 weeks in South Africa and Zimbabwe in early November which was great - some photographs etc. to follow soon.  However it meant practically zero chance to exercise, and a lot of delicious food and drink choices...

So before things get totally out of hand, I am reverting to the tried and tested 'No S' Diet:  No Snacks, No Seconds and No Sweets on any day of the week except those starting with an 'S'.  Plus I will be a bit more diligent with my exercise routing, add some rowing in addition to the biking, to up the aerobic exercise volume.  Here we go. 

Last chance for abs

Not having run for nearly 8 weeks now has not helped my waistline.  At 171 I’m 6 pounds heavier  than I was at the end of April.  Something has to be done, as I likely won’t be able to resume a regular running schedule until early August. 

I am still mostly following the ‘No S’ Diet, which is no snacks, no sweets and no seconds on any day except days starting with ‘S’ (Saturday, Sunday and ‘Special’ days such as holidays or birthday).  Lately I’ve been a bit slack on the ‘no snacking’ part of the deal, with a few peanuts and some ‘natural’ pita chips and hummus somehow slipping through the blockade. 

So we will tackle this with a renewed emphasis on sticking to the ‘No S’ rules, watching the consumption even on the weekends, cutting down on the fun calories (candy, wine, beer etc. – you know who you are!) and stepping up alternative exercise.  By that I mean some more walking with the dogs, rowing on the C-2 (boring but effective) and working out with a Personal Trainer 2 to 3 times per week. 

To give this a bit of structure and a tangible goal, I will restart my (by now) almost quixotic search for my long-lost abs.  The one or two of you who have followed this blog from when I first started it a few years ago, may recall a couple of posts on this topic.  To the effect that my abs were last seen in c. 1982 and that they have since proven to be more elusive than the last resting place of Jimmy Hoffa. 

Even at 60 I know I have a few of them left.  They have just become extremely shy after so many years in solitary confinement.  Nothing seems to work to coax them out:  I have tried running, working out, boxing, rowing, Swiss exercise balls, barbells and dumbbells, medicine balls and rubber bands. 

So I am giving my abs one last best chance to see the light of day and join the 21^st century.  Everyone enjoys their 15 minutes of fame nowadays, so maybe that will work.  They are going to hate it at first as they are clearly not ready for prime-time yet, but here goes.

 

Update

It's been all quiet on the blogging front mostly because of  my plantar fasciitis.  No running equals no enthusiasm to put pen to paper about much of anything.  After literally months - actually more than a year - of struggling with the PF we seem to have turned things around.  Once I started to sleep with a Strassburg Sock on my left foot and wearing orthopedic flipflops instead of going barefoot around the house, the PF is just about under control, probably 90% healed.  Treatment also included 2 cortisone shots, lots of stretching and icing and - no running.  I hope to be back running by the beginning of August. 

Rwanda and Uganda trip

A lot has happened since my last post.

 

Kathy ran and successfully completed the Boston Marathon so she has her medal and very happy about that.  It was quite an ordeal being very hot (record high temperature in Boston on the day of the marathon) and she suffered pretty badly from heat exhaustion and (suspected) hyponatremia.  Actually ended up in the emergency room the night after the marathon.  A story unto itself but all is well that ends well...

Just days after we got back from Boson, I was off to East Africa on a familiarization trip with The Far Horizons, based in Kampala Uganda. Great people - really enjoyed working with them and traveling with a small group of other agents and tour operators from Mexico, the USA, Switzerland, Germany, South Africa and Kenya.  

Why Uganda and Rwanda?  Rwanda stirs up lots of questions about genocide and internecine strife, while Uganda is still suffering from the damage done to its image by the despot Idi Amin.  The country was also unfairly the victim of more recent bad publicity surrounding Charles Koni - who has not been in Uganda for many many years.  

Well, the answer is that both Rwanda and Uganda have moved on from those years.  Uganda and Rwanda are very stable and safe countries to travel in; there is a high level of visible security in the urban areas (police and military) and even in the remote rural areas there are regular and on-going military patrols. This was clearly to be seen in the Volcanoes National Park area of Rwanda, and also at Bwindi in Uganda.  Kampala itself is to be avoided simply because it is messy and dirty with bad traffic congestion, but no real reason to stay there: first night could be at The Boma Guesthouse in Entebbe and then move on from there to either Murchison Falls or the western part of the country.  Kigali is clean, modern and actually quite an inviting place to spend a day or two, I would certainly recommend that clients visit the Genocide Museum, very impactful. 

Here is a brief summary of my familiarization trip with The Far Horizons. Also here is the link to Part 1 (of 2) of my Uganda and Rwanda trip report; Part 2 being written. 

http://www.fisheaglesafaris.com/URTrip2012p1.html

There are also links to Flickr where most of the pics have been uploaded with captions, in 4 categories. 
Among the highlights were our stay at Murchison Falls NP and in Queen Elizabeth National Park, particularly the Kasinga Channel boat trip - awesome with lots of birds and plenty of other stuff as well (elephant, buffalo, hippo, crocs etc.). Excellent game drive in the Ishasha region as well although we missed out on the tree-climbing lions (our trip was too short). They are there; visitors should just spend a bit more time than we did!

Of course the primary reason for going to Uganda is the abundance of apes and monkeys: we had some superb chimp sightings in Budongo Forest Reserve, which made up for the Kibale Forest chimp trek which turned out to be rather unsatisfactory with the chimps mostly way up in the trees and moving around.

The gorilla trek in Uganda was good if somewhat tricky: very steep slope, not for everybody! Can't do it without good walking boots. We got very close to the gorillas but photography was difficult: they kept turning their backs on us or dodging behind the vegetation - inadvertently one assumes. I did not have the right photo equipment for a gorilla trek. My 200-400 zoom lens was too much glass and too heavy; I could barely pick it up towards the end. The ideal lens would be a 70-200mm 2.8: will have to get one of those before the next time! Or maybe a 100-400mm zoom.

The gorilla trek on the Rwanda side (Volcanoes NP) was easier although not by much - quite a long walk with some pretty rough spots towards the end, close to where the gorillas were. This time the gorilla family was in a wide open area and I would have gotten some great shots if the weather played along. That didn't happen: it started to pour just minutes before we got to the gorillas and never let up, in fact it got worse. I took a couple of quick shots and then packed my camera and lens away; I did not want to risk potential serious damage to the camera and/or lenses - just too much water around. I am still finding damp money in my wallet.

We did several other fun/interesting activities including a mongoose trek, a long hike through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a couple of cultural excursions, and spent one night each at some fine lodges. A few of them have their limitations, might not appeal to everybody - but what they may lack in luxury they make up for in location. Without exception, we bumped into consistently friendly people everywhere.

In summary I would say the best reasons to visit Uganda and Rwanda are the apes and monkeys with chimps and gorillas at the top of the list; scenic beauty; and then wildlife (mammals, reptiles, birds etc). The people and cultural experiences also rate very highly in my book - some of my most memorable moments were all about connecting with people while running or on activities.

For anyone with more than a passing interest in birds and birding, both Uganda and Rwanda are loaded with spectacular and in many cases endemic or near-endemic species, and notably the rare and exotic Shoebill.

Here is a link to some of my photographs:

Uganda/Rwanda Birds

Uganda/Rwanda People and Culture

Uganda/Rwanda Wildlife and Nature

Uganda/Rwanda Apes and Monkeys

Uganda/Rwanda Camps and Lodges