Happy Thanksgiving

     The last couple of days have been outstanding. My mom has seemed to be more with it, despite the fact that she still has no idea who I am. She has been sleeping better, and not trying to start arguments. I haven't really done anything different, so I think it is more on account of her, than anything I have done. Either way, I'll take it.

     

     Our Scotch Bonnets are getting bigger, and I believe that they will start turning soon to their final color of yellow. When they are good an ripe, I'll pick them and eat them. I did buy a few orange habaneros at the store this week, so that I could get used to a little hotter pepper. I shared the first one with my mom, and she liked it, but said it was hot. I thought the first one we had was a bit mild. It was hot, way hotter than what I'm used to. I got the hicburps, right away. Yes, I said hicburps. That is what happens when I have a hot pepper. I hiccup which is interrupted by a burp. It's' very weird and painful. Despite all that, the pain wasn't too bad, and went away within 10 minutes. I thought I might have gotten one on the lower end of the scale. Orange Habs are anywhere from 100,000 to 350,000 on the scoville heat unit scale. that makes it anywhere from 10 to 30 times hotter than a jalapeño. The yellow jalapeño I had recently seemed like it was hotter than that one, so today, I had a whole one to myself. It was much hotter, but I wanted to test myself, so I had no water or anything to eat until the pain subsided. I passed, with flying colors. It took about 20 minutes, but i made it. It started off tasting sweet right before the heat kicked in. It started on my tongue and then spread to my cheeks and finally to the back of my throat. The hicburps started immediately. It lasted a good 2-3 minutes, then my eyes and nose began to water. That went away after about minute 10. The heat took the rest of the 20 minutes. I finally had a small drink of water, when my tongue had a light electrical tingle in it. I was a little surprised that I handled as well as I did. I was apprehensive right before putting it my mouth. I knew pain was coming, and my body was telling me that I didn't want to do it, but if I'm going to get the benefits of super hot peppers, I have to build up a tolerance, and this is the only way. Yes I know I could do it over a longer period of time with much smaller pieces, but what's the fun in that. Those Scotch Bonnets are supposed to be on the same scale as the orange habs, but a buddy of mine said that they were higher. I'm hoping and dreading that they are higher. I want higher heat, but I don't want them. Here is the question though, would you like to see a video of me eating one of these hot peppers? I can imagine that it would look pretty funny. I know that when I watch videos like that I can't help but laugh at the persons self inflicted pain. Let me know.

     I posted that picture on Insta and Facebook yesterday. That is my little cherry red tomato plant. It has 8 or 9 pea sized little tomatoes growing on it. I was shocked to see them already. I was also super excited about it. We should be able to eat those in a couple of weeks. I'll definitely let you know how they taste. Which reminds me. I noticed today that one of my orange habs has a tiny little pepper on it. It's a little early for that one, and I should pull it off to promote more growth, but I really want to see what happens with it. I have 3 other plants that are doing just fine and have no flowering as of yet, so I will use this one as an experiment, and the others as growers. It's the same with this cherry red. I should pull those tomatoes off to promote growth, but I really want to see what happens if I just let it do it's thing. I did sprinkle blood meal all over today. That gives the soil nitrogen and promotes growth, flowering, and fruit production. Everything in the garden got some, even the flowers. I want full luscious blooms on those as well. Bigger flowers attracts more bees, more bees creates more pollination, and more pollination creates fuller more productive plants.

     I didn't get a picture of it, but I did some remodeling on the garden today. I took all the grow bags out of the fenced area, and moved them to their own area near the fence by the pull-up area. I had to make room for more plants, since a buddy of mine is giving me a ton of seedlings. They are mostly peppers, if not all peppers. Several different varieties, from mild to super hot, so it will be a fun experience. 

     I have to say, that it is so fulfilling growing this little garden, and seeing it begin to produce. Over the last few days I've begun taking down some of the bamboos stakes, since the dogs have been ignoring the garden. That was until this morning. Morty took a run through it, and trampled a couple of plants. I was furious, and as I was telling him not to do that anymore, Baby Girl began rooting around in it. I was beside myself. I had two plants that were near death, and I brought them back to life. One was the one he trampled today. The African Marigold. That little plant has taken so much abuse from Morty, and has managed to hang on, and until this morning was beginning to thrive again. It was heartbreaking to see it with a stem leaning over on the ground. I propped up with bamboo, and I'll get back to work on rescuing it once again. I don't know if it's possible to be successful a third time, but I'll give it my best effort.

     Back to the moving around of the garden. The area I put the grow bags, I'm planning on eventually digging all up as well, and planting a bunch of fruit plants there. The grow bags are there now, simply to protect the soil from the sun and wind, since I don't have enough mulch to cover that area. There is this one plant I would love to grow in that area, and it's called a Himalayan Honeysuckle. When you hear it's nickname you will fully understand why I want to grow it. The nickname is Purple Rain. Yes, you read that right. It's flowers fall in a cascading fashion and go from purple to brown. It produces a berry that tastes like sweet caramel and cocoa. How great does that sound? I'm going to have to grow it from seeds, so It's going to be a long time before you will see any pictures of that. I also have to get the seeds first. It grows best in the pacific northwest, but it supposedly can grow in the zone that I'm in, which is 9b - 10. I'm going to give it my best effort, because I need a plant called Purple Rain.

     Oh, the night time meditation went well, but I switched back the next morning. The problem was, that I fell asleep before the end of the session, which is great, because I was content and relaxed, which is what you are supposed to get out of it, but I didn't get to enjoy the afterglow of joy that I get from it. So, it looks like morning meditation is what works best for me.

     I'm slowly getting back to my cardio after the tendon strains in my knees. They felt pretty good yesterday, and I took another rest day today before I start back with 10000 steps tomorrow. It has sidelined me in my effort to not miss any days, but I think it's going to be better in the long run. 

     I better stop now before this gets any longer. It is Thanksgiving today, so Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Peace in and goodnight.

We Need More Gratitude

    There are several things I could talk about tonight, but they all boil down to one simple thing, and that is our interaction with people and how it affects society. Yesterday I took my mom to visit an old friend of hers. It is a woman that lived next door, but due to health problems she is in a home. She is bed bound because of breaking the same hip twice, and she can no longer walk. It was immediately evident when we walked into her room, how it lifted her spirits. She told her story, about how she has been bedridden for 3 years now, but she is working to get out of bed so that she can go home. She has to hit a goal of being able to sit on the edge of her bed unassisted for 30 minutes. She is currently at 17. It did appear that our visit may have motivated her to work even harder. We told her about the garden area, that they could both sit in when she finally made it home. Truth is, she may never make it home, but she was given something yesterday that is very powerful, and that is hope.

      Today, I took my mom to the movies. The plan was to see Frozen 2, since that is what she wanted to see. She likes animated movies, because the bright colors stand out. She doesn't see very well at all anymore, so bright colors are a big deal. When we got to the theater, I misread the times, and it would have been an hour wait to see it, so we went for the second choice, and that was A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood. The Mr. Rogers movie. It wan't what I expected it. I thought it was going to be all about Fred Rogers, but it was more about his interaction with one writer. This writer was sent to do an interview of Mr. Rogers for a small piece in their heroes addition. He didn't want to go, and he had some troubled relationships, but through the process of interviewing Mr. Rogers, he s tarts to see a different view point. He is skeptical at first, but soon realizes that Mr. Rogers is for real. He is flawed like all of us, but it is how he addresses those flaws that makes him the best of humans. By simply listening to people you learn, and through learning there is understanding. When people have an opportunity to tell their story, they feel better. They lift pressure from the weight on their own shoulders.

      Through that understanding and interaction you can learn gratitude, and through that you can change, well if not the world, the world around you. That change will ripple out like a pebble in a puddle. Right now the world feels like it is approaching a breaking point, and it is because we are doing a whole lot of talking, and very little listening. Less gratitude and more frustration. That frustration brews hatred, and we need to avoid that.

     Gratitude is something that I've actually been working on, with my practice of meditation. I did my 7 day update on the 100 days yesterday, and that is one of the things I pointed out. Meditation is changing me for the better, and gratitude is a big part of that. It's something I never really put any thought into. I never felt like I had a reason to specifically thing of what I was grateful for, and through this practice, I am doing that. Here is the thing that was most surprising about it all. Through this practice of gratitude, I actually feel better. I have been meditating each morning for 20 minutes and during that a portion of it is spent on gratitude, and it puts a smile on my face. Tonight is the first time I'm trying meditating at night. I wanted to switch it up to see which one is a better fit for me. I really enjoyed doing it first thing in the morning. I set my mood for the day, and how can you argue with starting each day with a smile. I will see what happens tonight and see if I like it as much.

     Before I wrapt his up, and I will be finishing on a point about gratitude and understanding, I wanted to get to Favorite Thing of the Week. This is a video that I just watched before writing this, and it is pretty amazing. It also fits in with interaction and gratitude. Yes, that may be a stretch when you watch the video, but if you really think about it, it is all within the circle of what I'm talking about. The creator is Jared Dines, and he sees it a little different than I do. He sees this as people creating without ever being in contact with each other, but what it really is, is people coming together that probably never would and creating something incredible. Here is what he did. He put up a post on social media telling everyone he wanted them to create music with a tempo of 180 and a key of A minor. Those were the only stipulations. He then took all the videos and simply put them together on the timestamp to see what would happen. His fear was that it would be a mess, what actually happened was far different. Watch the video to find out just how incredible this is.



     Now, here is what I want you to do. Thanksgiving is this Thursday, and a lot can happen when family comes together, and many times it doesn't end well. I want you to be the one that listens. Set yourself aside and listen to what each person is telling you, then look for the small kernel of gratitude that comes from that moment. Then I want you to make a list in your head right before falling asleep. List 5 things that happened during the day that you were grateful for. It could be the simplest of things. You were grateful for the cranberry sauce, the turkey, the football game, anything. No single thing is trivial if you are truly grateful for it. By the time you get to that fifth item, I promise you, there will be a smile on your face. That is a pretty spectacular way to end a day. No image starting each day that way. You could change the world. Peace in and goodnight.

It's Been A Long Weekend

     This weekend has been extremely long. My mom is still on her downward trend, and has lately decided that she doesn't want to eat. Today she had a couple bites of bacon, a couple bites of eggs, a piece of toast, three strawberries for breakfast. I knew she was going to have a rough day when she woke up last night as I was going to bed, and it appears that she woke up during the night at some point as well. When she gets a full night of sleep, everything goes much better. I can't say what she had for lunch because she was out with a family member, as for dinner, she had a few spoonfuls of ground beef and fried brussel sprouts, and refuse to even try the prosciutto wrapped asparagus. It's super frustrating. I managed to get another family member to call her and take her mind off of things, because she was trying to start a fight with me. All I can do in those situations is walk away, and let her cool off and forget about what was going on.

     The other problem is that she has been ultra fixated on two things. Saturday, which is the day she goes out with that one family member, and lately they have been putting it off until Sunday. That really messes with her, and plummets her into a depression. She has also been fixated on visiting an old friend of hers. I made sure to set it up with my neighbor for her to go with them to see this old friend. She is going tomorrow, but she of course forgets when she is going, and only knows that she is going. That leads to her either asking when she is going or telling me that she is ready to go, and she is going to walk next door so that she can get the neighbor to take her. I've managed to talk her down each time, but it has been getting increasingly harder. Tomorrow is the day though, and she is in bed now. I only have to get through tomorrow morning, and then I will see what new set of problems this visit creates.

     I have been rehabbing my shoulder. It is still sore, but a little different this time around. I was able to work it yesterday and relive the pain for most of the night, but it was back by the morning. I'm resting it today, since I had a pretty hard workout last evening. Been working with the resistant bands, and learned and came up with a few new ways to use them to hit natural body movements with resistance. It was an awesome workout. I need more bands. In time though. Oh, when I say I need more bands, I mean I need stronger bands with more resistance. I'm out growing these pretty fast. Who says you can't gain strength and size doing keto? There was a point late last week that I couldn't raise my arm over my head without help from my other arm. That's why this isn't the usually pain I thought it was. I'll get through it, and It isn't slowing down my plan for losing weight. I'm still on track. I weigh in tomorrow, and will do a write up for the website that will be up when I'm done with it. No schedule for these.

     I did falter on my 10000 steps. I had one day where I only hit 8400. I don't think I will make it tonight either. The tendons in my knees feel very strained lately when I hit my cardio, so I'm taking the day off for recovery. The end goal of 100 days is to create new healthy habits, and I'm hoping that I will still do that, even not hitting my daily goal. I do feel bad about it. Oh, and the drawing is definitely being added to the next round, since I missed back to back days on that. I have two already picked out for the next round. I think I'm going creative outlet for the next one, so drawing and the other one. I'm not going to reveal it this early. I'm only a week in on the 2nd round.

     I'm going to be working in the garden most of the day tomorrow. I got the rest of the pavers, to put down, and my car was dragging tail. I don't know how much each one weighs, but It has to be at the very minimum 35 lbs. I had 18 of them in the back of my car, so I had that Cali sag going on big time.

     The top one is them all stacked up on the cart, which was a bear to push. The second is half of them in my car. I was surprised they fit so well. Little Honda Fit came through again. This is still the best car I've ever owned. It will be a sad day when I give it up. The last picture is them stacked up under the pull-up bar. I put them there for two reasons. The first being that they are out of the way there for where I have to clear the area and level the land near the garden. The second reason is, that I wanted to see how they fit there. I'm thinking of sticking with the 16 in., which are there now, or going to a 12 in. The 12 in. are $2 cheaper per slab, so it is a very appealing idea. I would of course need more 12 in. to fit in the area, but they will fit. The down side is that it would be a smaller area of coverage. The downside of the 16 in. is that I couldn't do a checkerboard pattern with them. in the 12 in. the red and white ones are the same price, but the 16 in. I believe are more for the red stone. I'll have to check to be sure. Technically I could just add more 12 in. to the area to expand it out to the same dimensions as the 16 in., but that would defeat the purpose of saving money. Regardless of which way I go, It doesn't matter if the 16 in. don't fit in properly once I have the pavers down for around the garden. The corners will overlap a bit in that area, so it really all depends on how much room I have to work with. I do want it to be balanced, and the beams sitting right in the middle of the width. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you when it's all done. It's going to be a great little workout area. Yes it is a workout area. With the resistant bands I can do much more than simple pull-ups with that one apparatus. I may eventually do a video about the whole thing, but I have to have that area looking up to par when I do it. Can't have it looking like rubbish now.

     More garden news. The runner on my Junebearing strawberry plant has a runner from it. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. I'm going to get 3 plants from that one in no time.

     What I'm holding is the runner. That is a whole new plant attached with an umbilical cord. The whiter part is the root growth. That little shoot coming off of it, is the umbilical cord for the other runner. I have a matching one on the everbearing that I got the other day. I could have 5 strawberry plants by the end of the year. That's insane considering I started with 1 and only bought another one recently. I'm seeing a lot of strawberries in my future.

     Oh, a little bit of a rant about one of my neighbors. Not the one right next door, but it has to do with him. This morning I was outside around 9 am with Morty and Baby Girl. The neighbor dog Libby was out, and I always enjoy that, because she barks at Morty, and he eggs her on. She is wagging her tail the whole time, and clearly likes him, and he does her. Baby Girl has even shown signs of affection towards Little Libby. Anyway, I noticed a police officer over at the hose this morning, and as she left, Morty of course barked at her, and then my neighbor called Libby in. He proclaimed, as he was getting her in, "My dog is in the house now.". I immediately knew that it was because someone called with a noise complaint about Little Libby. That had me perturbed, but when I found out what the call was, I was genuinely pissed. The complainant told dispatch that the dog had been out and barking for 3 days straight. They were trying to claim animal neglect and abuse on my neighbor. I can tell you, that he loves that little dog, just as much as I love Morty and Baby Girl. I was furious about that. It's one thing to complain about noise. I can understand that, but to outright lie about it is egregious. I really want to find out who it was and just scream in their face. Maybe for 3 days straight. I can tell you, that Libby is never out before 8 am, and is always in by 8 pm. She is not left outside all day. The 8 am is before my neighbor takes their grandkids to school, and Libby comes in before they leave. She is back out around noon, and then later in the evening. So she is generally only outside 3 times a days and maybe an hour at a time. She is a barker, there is no doubt about that, but she generally only barks when Morty or Baby Girl is close to the fence. There are a few times when she will see a person out not the sidewalk the will get her barking but that is it. I just can't believe some people.

     One last thing before I go. I made those alternate plans for my mom, and took her to the Farmer's Market at the plant nursery that I go to. it was quaint. They didn't have all the veggies available that are in their email, but that had some good stuff. There was one woman that was selling homemade sausage and sauerkraut. I let my mom taste a sample of each. I didn't because I don't eat between meals. I don't want to spike insulin, so I had to go on my mom's recommendation. She really liked the sauerkraut. I'm always on the look for good sauerkraut, because it is great on Keto. I'm not a fan of it, but I eat it. I tried this sauerkraut with dinner last night, and it was out of this world good. If I had known sauerkraut could taste like this, I would have been a big fan. I will only ever by this fresh homemade sauerkraut ever again. This was a dill flavored one, and it is all natural with minimal ingredients. That means no sugars or preservatives.

     This is a very good example of why you should support local business. This is better than any store bought sauerkraut, and it was a little more than what I would pay at the store, but it is 10x better for you. I will be polishing this off during the week. We just got our meat shipment, and I went back to the beef and pork box, so I have two big pork loins, and a rack of baby back ribs, that will pair nicely with this kraut. Oh, I guess I should say why it is great on Keto. Here is the thing, not only is it cabbage, which is low in net carbs, it is fermented which is exceptional at creating good gut bacteria. Goo gut bacteria means better digestion, better digestion means more absorption of the macro and micro nutrients in your food. It is all about good and proper digestion. I don't just eat for fuel, I eat for a healthy gut biome as well, and it has made a huge difference in my health. A healthy guy biome is imperative to good health. It has recently been found that your gut biome is greatly linked to not only your bodies health, but your brains health as well. Healthy gut, healthy brain. It's a real thing. Eating healthy leads to good things, but none more than keeping you from degenerative brain diseases. This is part of why I'm feeding my mom the way that I am. It is all about giving her a little piece of her mind back. This all goes back to the phrase I picked up a while ago about fixing your health so that you can lose weight. You don't lose weight to get healthy, you get healthy so that you can lose weight, and that all starts with the gut. Well it all starts with the choices you make for what you put in your gut, but then it is all up to the gut. Please have a healthy gut.

     I believe I've rambled on too long tonight, so I'm calling it. Peace in and goodnight.

The Pain Is Killing Me

     My shoulder is killing me. I don't remember if I ever mentioned it before, but a very long time ago, I partially tore my anterior Deltoid in my left shoulder. It never healed properly and when the weather gets colder, like it has this week, my shoulder screams in pain. I have trouble even lifting that arm, and it is getting in the way of my workouts. That means I have to just take it easy for a little while. I'm bummed about it, because it not only affects push-ups, which isn't too big of a deal since I can still do dips, but it's killing me on pull-ups. This is a bit of a set back that I hadn't anticipated, since it has been a while since my shoulder felt this way. I will get through this though, and end up stronger on the other side of this.

     I did finish a 24 hour fast today, and it felt great. This was the first time fasting since my 72 hour fast last month. I had my normal Wednesday meal which is my breakfast salad with my Sun Warrior Warrior Blend, and Collagen mix. I really love that meal more than any other.

     I did order some new Warrior Blend, and it came in today. I got the vanilla and the natural flavor, so it's going to be a new experience for me. I'm sure the vanilla is going to be good, but I have no idea what the natural flavor will taste like. I'm going to find out tomorrow morning. The great thing about the natural flavor is, that it has 0 net carbs, and 18 grams of protein per serving. That is incredible. Just to give you an example of how great that is. The Chocolate, which I love has 2 net carbs, and only 16 grams of protein per serving. 2 grams my not sound like a huge difference, but in the protein and muscle building game, it's a big deal. Protein absorbs at different rates depending on the source. Some is more soluble than others, and when you are active and trying to build muscle, you need about .8 grams of protein per pound of body weight. That means that based on the weight I started this latest push for 145, which was 153, I need 122 grams of protein. There will be people that will tell you that you don't need that much protein, those people are wrong. They base protein needs off a sedentary person which only needs .35 grams per pound of body weight. Big difference. That would put my protein needs around 65 grams, and that isn't enough. Don't believe the fairy tales about proteins. They will also tell you that you can't digest that much protein, and that is why you should limit protein consumption. The human body can process 50 grams of protein per meal. Since I spread my protein over 3 meals, I'm far below that 50 gram mark. There is also the fact that I use pea protein as a major source of my protein, and it is highly digestible and is slow absorbing. It takes more time and utilizes more of the protein than most sources. Make sure you know the facts when it comes to health.

     Time to get off my high horse now, and back to earth with some gardening news. I made a few additions to the garden today. I planted a little herb garden area.

     I got some ordinary and not so ordinary herbs. Starting at the bottom right and going clockwise; Thyme, hot & spicy Oregano, Chamomile, Spearmint, and Chocolate Mint. I tried the Chocolate Mint and it actually tastes like Chocolate mint. It has that wonderful minty flavor with a slight hint of cocoa. I can't wait to use it in some drinks. Don't get carried away, it will be water or tea. I also got an everbearing strawberry plant. Did I mention that the runner on the junebearing is beginning to root. I should be able to replant it in a few days, and have me 3 strawberry plants. It also looks like a runner is beginning on the new plant. I did pull some fruit off the new one. It wasn't going to ripen or even grow any bigger, plus I don't want it fruiting just yet, I want it to grow. It's not a very clear photo, but that's a tiny strawberry right there. I'm really looking forward to having some fresh home grown strawberries. I'm actually looking forward to eating all of the home grown fruit and vegetables. The Brussel sprouts are growing like bonkers. They aren't anywhere close to producing yet, but I think we are going to have a good haul when they do.

     Thats the current layout of the garden. The grow bags in the fencing are the Brussel sprouts. There were the size of those little pepper plants next to them when I got them. They have quadrupled in size since I planted them. Oh, the everbearing strawberries are in the garden cart on the left. They are in there with the Cherry tomatoes. I have them in there for now, so that I can move them around to get more sun during the day. I'm planning on getting more pavers for where the wagon is, and when I get those, all the grow bags will go down on the pavers around the garden. That will open up about a 4 square foot area of the garden for planning. The herbs are right in front of the Brussel Sprouts. The large plant in the back is the Scotch Bonnet, and if you can zoom in on it, you will see 4 good size peppers on it, that would be ripe in a week or two. There are two other tiny ones that are growing as well. My mom is looking forward to them, because she likes hot peppers, but she has never had peppers that hot before, so this should be an adventure. I told her I would only give her a tiny piece before letting her get at it. She went a little bonkers from that yellow jalapeño my buddy gave us. Granted it was hotter than your normal jalapeño, but it wasn't the hottest I've had, and she used to love Sriracha, so I was a little baffled by her reaction. 

     I got to tell you. I'm in love with that little garden. It brings me so much joy watching it grow. I love that it is fully biodiverse, with vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowering plants. There have been recent studies, that gardens that have biodiversity grow better than specialized growing, so I'm all about that biodiversity. Think about it. Flowers bring bees, bees pollinate plants, pollinated plants grow better, that means bigger and more fruitful growing plants. What about the herbs? I'm glad you asked. The herbs are there to detract plant eating bugs. Those bugs don't really like herbs and tend to stay away from gardens that have them in them, hence the reason for the tiny herb garden in the overall garden.

     While we were at the nursery picking up the herb plants, we took some time to look for some vines. I found  few that I liked and thought they would be really pretty growing up the posts for the pull-up bar, but then we went to look at the fruit bearing trees, and came across grapes. They had three different types of grapes that could climb the posts, so we are leaning towards growing some grapes on the posts. True, grapes aren't keto friendly, but a few a week wouldn't hurt, and I can give a bunch of them away. Just the thought of growing grapes is pretty exciting to me. We are going to get them in a couple of weeks, so you will see some grape vine pictures soon. Once more, biodiversity. We don't discriminate on what we plant in our garden.

     I guess the video of the disco garden never loaded up. Too bad. I could try again, but I'm pretty sure it won't work again. I don't know why. Full disclosure, I just tried to upload it again, and it failed. I don't get it, it's only a 4 second clip.  I could upload it to YouTube and then embed it here. I'll have that up and ready by Sunday. Seems like a long way to go, just to show you a stupid little video of lights going around the garden. Oh well, the things I do for you.

     Ok, I should just stop writing, because I realize this has gone on for a while, and you need your time, and I need to get to drawing. I've been keeping up with everything, and the drawing has a long way to go, to get back to where I was, but I'm on top of it. Oh, and 10000 steps is crazy hard, but I'm doing it so far. Peace in and goodnight.

I Got Flowers

     Today was a good day. It seems that lately, my mom's mental capabilities were going downhill. Today she was a little more herself again. I'm not completely unsure that my carb weekend had a say in that happening to her. Since I was carb friendly for a couple of days, I gave her a few more than normal, as well. It could be the difference, but she started a spiral downward a few days before that. She did get more sleep last night than she had been getting, and that could be because of our day at the lake yesterday. Got a lot of walking in, and it wore her out a bit, so that she did have a good nights sleep. Never underestimate the power of a good nights sleep. Anyway, with her being in better spirits, I got a lot done today, but I guess I should share the lake with you first.

     That little guy was at the final dock that we went to. The lake has three small docks and a boat dock. I took my mom around to each one, since she didn't get to go by the river this weekend. It was a much further walk than I remember it being. Oh, and my step tracker didn't measure any of them, since I was going so slow. That cut into my 10000 steps for a day, but more on that later. It was a little chilly yesterday, so I didn't expect to see any wildlife, but when we got to that final dock, there was a turtle hanging out in the water. You can see him at the tail of that gator. Out of nowhere, that guy popped up and hung out just for us. When he finally went under, another turtle showed up and both of them started swimming towards the dock. I'm guessing people feed them, so when they see people there, they think they can get fed. We didn't have anything for them. Needless to say, my mom had a great time out there.

     Before we hit the lake I had to spend some time in the garden. I water the garden each morning, shortly after sunrise. I noticed that one of my Orange Habaneros was flowering. I was freaking happy about that. I didn't expect that to happen for at least another month or so.

     That just gave me more hope that I'm going to get these little suckers to fruit. I planted the Scotch Bonnet and the Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and they are doing really good already.

     You can get a slight glimpse of the Brussel sprouts there on the right side. They are growing fast, and are looking really good. They might be the best growers in the bunch. I did move the strawberries over with the blackberries for the time being. Oh, I was getting my hopes up today, that I could take those bamboo stakes out soon. Morty and Baby Girl Gauge hadn't even bothered to look towards the garden in a few days, so I was thinking that by next week, they would be so used to not going into it, that I could take those down, and they would just simply avoid it, but as I was holding the door for my mom to come out to see the new addition to the garden, I looked over and Baby Girl was half in the garden stepping all over my Dwarf Tibouchina. So much for my idea of being able to take out the stakes. Oh well.

     As I said, I did make an addition to the garden today. I had some solar rope lights that I have been holding off on, putting out in the yard. I was saving them for the right thing, and I got to thinking. The garden is perfect for them. I took them out and weaved them through the little fencing all the way around. I kept my mom up, so that she could see them, and she loved them. I was a little worried, but now we have a disco garden, and that is so rad. I shot a little short video of it for you to see.

     I also did a little more work around the pull-up station. I added some earth and packed it down. I don't have a picture of that for you, but trust me, it's looking better. I came up with a pretty interesting idea for it today too. I'm going to get a climbing vine type of plant, so that I can have them growing up each beam. It will make it look like part of the garden, and blend in really well. I'm leaning heavily towards putting in pavers underneath it, but that won't be for some time. I still have to extend our patio area around to the front side of the garden before I can do that. I have to know what kind of area I have to work with first, and then it's game on. I know I'm going to have to come up with a creative way to set the pavers. I might have to find some 4 inch thick bricks to put in the middle and then pavers in the front and back, It should make it look really cool.

     Ok, I tried uploading the video several times, and it keeps having some kind of error. I'll skip the video tonight, and maybe I can post it up on Thursday, so no disco garden for you yet. Giving it one last time, and if it works, this paragraph is completely useless. I'm going to leave it in for transparency.

     So far, I've gotten everything done in the new 100 day challenge. I'm worried about today though. I decided to sleep in a bit, and I didn't do any morning cardio, so I'm down by about 2000 steps, so I have a lot to go before bed. Part of the reason I didn't do morning cardio, was that my calves felt sore, so I wanted to give them a slight rest. At this point with 5 hours left to go in the day, I have about 6500 steps to go. This could be disaster. I still have to draw tonight as well. Even though that one isn't officially in the challenge, I want to give it my best attempt to do it daily. I better quit writing this right now, and get on with some serious cardio and get my steps up, and over 10000. I can do this. I knew this was going to be the hardest part, I just need to suck it up and get it done. Peace in and goodnight.


     

Pull-ups, Peppers, And Perspective.

     I got to test out the pull-up bar, and it is a true success. I even managed to surprise myself by doing two very clean pull-ups. I honestly thought I would be able to do 1 very awkward one at most. It just goes to show you, that you can only know your fitness level by testing it. I also saw a video that came out this weekend, that gave me a way to improve my pull-ups. It was timely in deed. The guy mentioned using resistance bands to aid you in the early going so that you can do more full reps, that were controlled and clean. I this morning and it worked like a charm. I have 3 different bands, so I can scale it down as my progress improves. I'll start with the 35-50 lbs resistance band then move down to the 20-35, then finally to the 5-15. Then it will be all me from there on out. That is until I can add my weighted vest into the mix. I'm still working out exactly how to dress the floor of the pull-up area, but until then I have some dirt packed to have it level and an old clay put to stand on, so that I can put my foot in the resistance band. Oh, I guess I should explain how to use the bands with a pull-up. You simply tie off the band and stretch it down and put one of your feet into it, so that it will aid you. Simple right?

     Tomorrow starts a new round of 100 days. It will also be the beginning of my final push to 145. I will once again track my macros and go very strict on what I eat. This weekend was kind of a last blast, so I had pizza yesterday and today, (leftovers from yesterday), and I also had that Mountain Dew VooDew, that I was saving. It was good, but I doubt highly that I will ever have a sugary soda again, and I'm definitely limiting the diet ones. It was instant bloat city when I drank it, and I was in pain for about an hour until it calmed down. I had the Zevia, today, and although it didn't fully bloat me, I could feel the carbonation working its way through myself stomach. I much prefer the way I felt on water and tea. It's amazing how you can try something you used to abuse, and it simply wrecks havoc on you. I used to be able to drink 4 or more sodas in a day, and now 1 is a struggle. Believe me, that is a good thing. This has made me wonder what an alcoholic beverage would do to me at this point, and when I put any real thought into it, I realize that I really don't want to know. I won't drink beer, because it will defiantly kill ketone production, and hard liquor will do the same, but it will hit me so much harder than it ever did. Once again, healthy habits are fully ingrained in me.

     I will be weighing in tomorrow morning, to see just how much weight I have to lose to get to 145. I'm planning on documenting everything on a weekly basis. I will also test my GKI before my morning meal, and then check that each week as well. Truthfully I'm not that concerned with my ketone or GKI level at all. I'm sure that I'm out of it right now. I tested last night, and my GKI was over 13 which put me well out of ketosis. My guess is, that I will be back in by tomorrow evening, but I'm not going to bother to test. I'll know by the tasted in my mouth. You get a sweet metallic taste in your mouth when you are breathing ketones.

     Back to the 100 days. I've been doing a test run today. I woke up, and did my cardio, Yeah I only lasted one day of not doing morning cardio. By the way, it felt really weird not to do it, which once again is a great thing. I meditated for 20 minutes, and it was insane how relaxed I got. I will do it each morning this week, and then switch it to evenings for the second week. I'll decide then which one is going to work better for me. I'm sitting at just below 4000 steps for the day, and I will get to 10000 before I go to sleep tonight. I'm sure that I had refined sugar in the pizza that I ate, but I went out and picked up some good uncured bacon. Aldi has a really great price on uncured bacon that used evaporated sugar cane. That is from a natural source, so I'm okaying it. Plus the level of sugar that is used is minimal and fried off when you cook it. You do have to check that the carb reading on the package is a 0 though. When you get that smoked cured bacon, it is loaded with carbs, and sugar, so be careful. I haven't drawn today, which is going to be my bonus affirmation. I do have to get my sketch book out, and have it near the chair I sit in, so that I can sketch a little during the day. I do thing that the most difficult things are going to be the 10000 steps, and the drawing. I have said that the drawing doesn't count on the 100 days, but if I fail, I will be adding it to the next round for sure. I'm going to have to really keep on myself to hit that 10000 mark each day. It's going to be tough when I am in the house most of the day, and really don't get a chance to walk around, so I will be sneaking off to do random ten minute cardio sessions all day.

     This is going to be epic regardless of what happens. What I got out of the last 100 days was astonishing. I really did miss doing my cardio yesterday, and I have decided that there is no set day off, but there will be a minimum of 5 days a week. The plan is to just go until I feel I need a break, and then I will take a day off, and then get back on it. I crave drinking only water and tea, and the reading I haven't stopped yet. I still woke up incredibly early yesterday and read, as well as this morning. I'm truly excited about the next 100 days.

     I'm adding two new plants to the garden tomorrow. I have them sitting in the garden right now, but they aren't planted yet. Today was a dreary miserable day, and not good for planting. I went out and got a Cherokee Purple which is a tomato plant that looks like a regular tomato but is purple on the top and it looks like it is leaking down over a red tomato. That came in a 4 pack, so I'm planting all 4 in the ground tomorrow. The other one that I got was this little gem right here.

     That's a Scotch Bonnet, that is already flowering and producing some peppers. They won't be ready for a couple of weeks, but there are 4 good pods right now. These are some hot peppers, ranging from 100,000-350,000 on the scoville heat unit scale. That means they are 10-35 times hotter than a jalapeño. I'll be an idiot and will eat those raw when I can harvest them. There are at least 4 other tiny pods that should grow in the next couple of weeks. If you want some Scotch Bonnets, let me know. I'l share if you dare. That one will go in the ground tomorrow as well.

     Oh, the plant I thought was dying is actually doing really well. The only one that seems in jeopardy is the African marigold. It has seen better days, which were before Morty trampled it. I'm going to fight for it though. The leaves are wilting a bit, but there is new growth on it as well, so it may just be suffering from the trauma and transplanting.

     Since I have been going to my local plant nursery so much, the woman at the check out knows how I am now. This of course spurs my brain into that weird area, that since she noticed me, she must like me to some extent. This of course has me setting myself up for a miserable time, thinking that I should ask her out. She did go out of her way to ask me about my gauges and told me that she has been thinking about stretching her lobes. There was a customer behind me, so I couldn't stop and chat with her, but I gave her some advice on a cheap and very easy way of doing it. She was thankful for the advice and even said that it was really great advice, which once again gives me that false sense of hope that I have a chance. This is when I get into dangerous territory and set myself up for failure. Maybe thinking this way is why I fail. I'll just play it by ear. I do find her very attractive, and would love to get to know her, but are interactions of all been the length of time it takes me to check out. Today would have been a great day to sit and talk for a little while, if it wasn't for that customer behind me. I was finally there alone and didn't have to worry about my mom. It's not that I can't talk to a woman when I'm with my mom, it's just that my focus is always on my mom. Watching to see if there are any signs of her getting tired, or anything going wrong. When we are there, that is a lot of walking for her, even though she has her walker with her when we are there. She had her walker the last time she passed out, so I'm always on alert, and talking to a woman that I find attractive would take away from that focus, so I don't do it. Thus is my life now.

     Well, I have a few calisthenic videos to watch, so I have a better understanding of what I can do without weights, and I may do a final meal before tomorrow. It won't be anything crazy, since I don't have anything in the house that isn't healthy at this point, that I would want to have. I'll probably just have a cup of berries and nuts. Oddly enough, it is still keto, but isn't going to fit into the plan come tomorrow, so I may as well, go nuts (yes pun is intended) while I can. Peace in and goodnight.

Up, Down, And All Around

     Today has been a rough day for my mom. I don't know if the new diet is working better, or I'm more knowledgeable in how to deal with these days, but as far as it went, for being a bad day, it went rather well. This is one of those days, where I was several different people, and she would keep talking about going home. Then there are the moments when she talks about how she lived here when she was a little girl and would play behind the shed. It basically gets really weird for a day or so. I'm of course hoping that tomorrow goes better.

      I did get the other beam up for the pull-up bar, and it looks great. I should be able to use it tomorrow, but I have new idea to finish it off.

     I was originally going to make it a pit and then lay down some mulch, but I have new ideas for it that I think would make it look really good. The first idea is to make a raised deck. It would only be two inches up or so, but I would have to build a frame and then cut boards to fit around the beams. I also have an idea of taking all the dirt that's laying around and piling it up a little and packing it as hard as I can. Then I would get some brick type of pavers, to go around the outside borders of it as a step, and put 12 inch pavers on top to level it out. I'm really liking the paver idea, because I can get creative with it a little more. I didn't lower the bar, as you can see. I did a jump test, and I can reach it and grab it. I didn't do a full grab yet, because I need the cement on the other side to set first.

     After that was all up, we headed out to the local plant nursery to just look around. My mom wants to fill some old pots with bushes, and the plan was to go there and just look around. It's mostly a reason to get out and walk around a bit. It challenges her a bit from time to time, which she likes, and it gives her a new environment to see. I got her to go up some pretty steep steps today, and she handled it like a champ. They have this little inside area that has all the wind chimes, garden globes, and this doormat made out of recycled boat ropes, that I want to get for the back door. It's a great looking doormat, and dirt would fall through it, and not collect on it, like the mats we have out that door now. It's a little pricey so I can't get it now, and it isn't a necessity, so it's on the wish list. We did end up buying two plants. They were just too good to pass up. One is a shrub bush that flowers with these amazing royal purple flowers, and the other is this unique plant called a shrimp plant. When it blooms the flowers look like shrimp, so it's really cool. This is what the garden looks like now. The two new plants are on the right hand side. Dwarf Tibouchina (purple flowering shrub) is at the top in a new little area of it's own.

     The bottom picture is the Shrimp Plant. All those pods are buds that will bloom multiple flowers. It does look like one of the older plants is dying. I'm a little bummed about it, but I will just remove and replace it with one that will take better. I think it could have been the soap water mix I sprayed all the plants down with, to get ride of bugs on them. It may have killed that plant. That is the only one that looks that way, although the African marigold isn't looking to great either. That's the yellow flower that Morty crushed. It could be the combo of crushing and spraying. I did remove the broken stem today, so that it can concentrate on keeping the healthy part alive, so we will see if I saved it or killed it. This is all a learning experience for me, and a real fun one.

     As far as the garden goes. I'm done expanding it, for now anyway. I'm going to concentrate on what's already in there, and also on the appearance around it. I'm planning on expanding our little paver patio to go around to the front of the garden towards where the pull-up bar is. It will be a nice little chilly area. I need a minimum of 18 more pavers. Once I get those, I'm going to dig up the area and level the ground before placing them. Once those are in place, that is when I will make a final decision on the pull-up area. It all depends on how far the pavers reach to that area, on what I do .

     I only have one more full day of cardio every morning, reading, and drinking only water and tea. As I said before I will cut my cardio down to 5 days a week, I will still read daily, and I will probably only have a soda every couple of days. I'm going to start the new 100 day challenge on Monday. The guy who created it is starting tomorrow with his new 3, and they are going to be some tough ones. I think mine may be a little tough, but I think I can do it. The toughest is going to be the 10000 steps. I plan on writing the final update tomorrow morning and posting it in the afternoon on the website. I felt it was only fitting that I actually write it on the final day, an not a few days in advanced.

     I'm out for the weekend. I'll see you Sunday night. Peace in and goodnight.

It's Getting Bigger

     This is what the garden looked like yesterday, before Morty got in it, and began digging around. I was only planing on extending the garden by another 6 inches, so that I could plant the pepper plants that my buddy gave me. Since I already had the fencing I decided to just take it all the way out, and it works out great. I can put the grow bags in the fence, and as you can see, I got more bamboo stakes to use as pooch deterrent, which failed. Morty just pushed his way through, got in and roughed it up a bit. He didn't uproot anything this time, which is good, but it doesn't look very nice now. I only put a thin layer of mulch down as a cover layer. That is there to protect the soil more than to look good, although it does look better than drying soil.

     I was asked a question about being able to grow during winter, but since Blogger will no longer let me comment on my own posts, I'll answer it here. Since Florida has such a mild climate, growing is possible most of the year. The plants I have are all hearty winter plants that will survive the winter, and produce in the spring. The ones that I bought were all mid to late fall planters, so they are just perfect for growing this time of year, and as you can see, the brussel sprouts are taking off. I"m pretty sure the Habaneros that I planted are taking off as well. The strawberry, which is June bearing is a slow grower, as is the blackberry bush. It is still very tiny.

     I have the first beam up for the pull-up bar. I cleared an area of land, and flattened it out, so that it was level before I began digging the two foot hole for the beam. I mixed the concrete and got it poured in, and it is stable. I'm going to keep it with supports until Thursday, when I'm going to put the other beam up.

     I made sure that the beam was level on all four sides, and it is holding steady. I do think I'm going to need to lower where I'm putting the bar. I put in the floor flange before putting it up, and I placed it 6 inches from the top. That makes it 7 and a half feet above ground. When I finally got the beam in and looked up, I knew I was going to have trouble. Either I need to make a box, so that I can reach it, or I got to get some mad hops. The real choice is to lower it another 6-10 inches, I can always move it back up later after I'm better at pull-ups.

     I had another person recently tell me that I shouldn't lose anymore weight. I fell for that once before, and it ruined me. I will never let anyone else dictate how my appearance should be. People tend to believe that if you get to a point, where they are happy with your appearance, that you shouldn't change, because then you will become emaciated. That happens when you don't know what you are doing, and as I've said on here, my final number is 145. That number is for two reasons, the first being, that I really do think that is where I need to be, before I begin a maintenance and build phase. The other is the good old, "I want to see if I can get there.", which will turn into  really did get there. I'm stable right now, and I haven't been tracking macros. I finish up my 100 days in 3 days, and I'm going on a bit of a carb binge on day 101. I'm having a full on sugar loaded soda, and a candy bar as a bit of a celebration for never stumbling during this 100 days. I'm beyond proud of myself for that. I nearly messed up today though, but waking up late. Late for me is 5 am. I still got the cardio and reading in, and the water isn't even a second thought at this point. These three things have become habit now. Although I will no longer be doing cardio every morning, I will be doing it 5 days a week. I was doing that before, but my days were all over the place, I will have a 5 day schedule, where I will make sure that I do no less than 5 days during a week. I'm thinking I may even go as far as setting days, such as Wednesday, and Saturday as my days off, but I haven't truly decided that yet. I will still wake up and read every morning though, and as far as soda goes. I will set a 1 diet soda a day rule, but I will more than likely be doing a soda every other, or every couple of days. I'm really enjoying the way I feel right now, and I don't want to mess with that. It will also be interesting to see how I react to soda after not having it for so long.

     That brings me to my foot. I'm at a loss now, and to what it is. I know it's not Planter's faciatis, I'm almost positive that it isn't a Planter's wart. I noticed today that it was developing a head on it, like a pimple. So I did what any normal idiot would do, and grabbed a needled and lanced it. It did have a discharged, that was somewhat solid. The lump got instantly smaller and the pain was minimized. I cleaned it real good, point some Aquaphor on it, and a bandaid over it. It feels pretty good now, but there is still some mild pain. I'll know a little later how it feels doing cardio. Should be fun, but since I managed to do it when it was at it's worst, I think it will feel like I'm walking on clouds now. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, back to the weight loss. I put my first photo next to my latest photo to show you, that I am not emaciated, and very healthy looking. Not only that, but my body looks better than it ever has, and is only going to get better.

     Even though I am much leaner, I see nothing but my flaws in those pictures, and just what I need to work on. Hence the reason why I will drop all the way to 145. At that point, I will adjust my macros and carb intake for building muscle. My carb intake will go from less than 30 to around 50 per day. Still very low carb, and I should stay in ketosis. The goal is to burn body fat, and gain muscle, which I do believe I've been doing for the last couple of months, but when I change my macros and increase my daily calories, It will take it to a whole new level. I want to be at under 15% body fat. I'm right around 19% now, that is down from 39% where I started from. That was before that picture on the left. I was around 29% there. I can't emphasis enough how great this Mediterranean Keto type of eating really is. I eat more leafy green veggies than I ever have, I eat leaner meat, and get my fats mostly from nuts and oils. The best part is, that my energy and overall feeling is way up. I do think that when I finally get to where I want to be, my weight will be closer to 160 than 145, but I need to hit that mark so that I can build myself back up. The reason I say 160, is that I have a lot of muscle to put on my back, chest, and legs. That will add up to quite a bit. The three largest muscles will take up some pounds. 15 pounds of muscle with 15% body fat will look like a huge difference, and that is what I'm planning on.

     There is no Favorite Song of the Week this week, and my garden is my Favorite Thing of the Week, so just take a look at the picture above, and this one below. Pre Morty of course, but it still goes as my FTOTW.

Peace in and goodnight.

I'm An Idiot, And I'm Surprised I Lived To Write This

     Before we get to the tittle, oh, we will get there. It's been an up and down weekend. Did I mentioned that I developed a sprain in the arch of my foot? Well, I think it is a Planter's Wart. I noticed that it is slightly raised and more like a callus then a strain. The good news, is that I only have a week of doing cardio every morning. I will be going to a 5 day a week schedule with morning cardio. It's small but painful.

      I've been dog proofing the garden, with little affect. They still try to get in there and trample around.

     I put bamboo rods all around it. I'm hoping that they will see it and think, "oh I can't get in there, I'll just leave that alone.". Yeah, it hasn't really worked that way. Baby Girl Gauge, sees it as an obstacle that she can overcome. I have kept her out so far, but it's a challenge.

     You can see that I extended it out and planted the habaneros, which I'm still trying to figure out why I planted those, considering, I'm a wuss when it comes to hot peppers. I'm never going to be able to tolerate them, unless I eat them, plus I want all the health benefits that come with spicy peppers. 

     Let's get to that Idiot part of the title. A buddy of mine dropped by, to help me pick up the rest of the items for the pull-up station, and he brought some seeds and plants with him, for my garden. He also brought a bag of peppers as well. One was a Chocolate Habanero. I told him I would try it tonight. He managed to convince me that it would be a good idea, to cut it in half, and only eat the bottom half. That is what I did.

     It was freaking hot, and It think I only had 1 seed. The top half has to be hotter. My buddy just sent me a video of himself eating a Scotch Brain, which is hotter than the habanero that I ate, and now I feel like I need to eat the other half of the pepper. Ok, it's 10 minutes since I wrote that last sentence, and my mouth is still on fire. The heat from the top half of that pepper, was twice as intense as the bottom half, and it turns out that a chocolate Habanero is not like other habaneros. It hits between 425,,000 - 577,000 scoville heat units. That really freaking hot. The hottest peppers I've been able to tolerate before were ancho chiles, and those are nothing. They are right around a jalapeño. The pepper I just ate is 40 times that. I'm a freaking idiot, and I'd do it again. One of the plants he gave me is a Chocolate Ghost Pepper, which is like a million on the scoville scale. If I can grow it, I'll eat it.

     That is what pure evil looks like, but it was fun. Hey, want some peppers? I'm going to have plenty of them in the future. He also gave me to crazy tomatoes. One was a Sunrise Bumblebee. It was grape tomatoes sized and had yellow streaks through it. It was really good, full of flavor with a zing at the bite. Completely fresh tasting. The other was a, I think a Yellow Zebra. It was a larger version of the bumblebee, but it didn't have that little zing when you bit into it, but it was really good as well. I can't wait to be eating my own fruit and vegetables. 

     I weighed in on Friday, as you may remember, I thought I was in the 155 range. I haven't been tracking my macros lately, and have just been eating healthy, in my keto way. That is the reason I thought I would be at that 155 mark. Guess what I weighed in at? Ok, I'll tell you. I weighed in at 151.6. I was only .4 lbs heavier than my last weigh in. That's freaking incredible. Starting next week or the week after, I will be hitting it hard and serious again, tracking everything, so that I can hit that 145 mark. I will hit it, and I will do it faster than It took me to hit 150, for sure.

     I'm going to call it tonight, I'm watching a series of videos my buddy sent me about home gardening. Peace in and goodnight.

The Attack Of Godzilla And Rodan.

     I've been busy in the garden today. I extended it by about 6 inches, with plans to extend it another 3-4 feet. I put in a few more plants, and it was looking great, until Godzilla and Rodan went trampling through it. I have a before shot, so you can see that. I was able to put it back in place, but one of the new plants was partially obliterated.

     See the yellow African Marigold in the back, that's the one that was crushed. and there were telltale signs of tracks leading towards it. The fencing was knocked over, the only plus is, that there was no digging involved. One of the main branches was broken on the marigold, and I stood it back up and supported it, so I'm hoping it will take and not die off. This is so frustrating with these dogs. They know they aren't supposed to go in there, but they still do. I have it looking nearly like that photo right now, but I'm still a little bummed. 

     I put the mulch in to protect the soil, and it also looks nice. In the extended section are 4 habanero pepper plants. Habanero Orange to be exact. If these grow, I will more than likely die. I'm a light weight when it comes to spicy pepper, so these will probably kill me. I had the chance to get some scotch bonnets and ghost peppers, but I chose to prolong my death. I could have also gone with some cayenne and jalapeños as well, but since I knew I could stomach those, there was no real challenge.

The grow bag in the fencing has cherry tomatoes in it, and the rest of the line-up is the strawberry plant, with the brussel sprouts. I have the blackberry bush in it's own little space, and it looks o tiny in the area a set aside for it.

     The dogs haven't figure out how to get in there yet, but they have tried. This little area gets the right amount of sun, so it's perfect for the blackberry bush. I have room for maybe another one, or some other fruit bearing plant. I could put the strawberries in there, but I've learned that they will take over an area and choke it out, if you leave it to it's own doing. It grow runners that will root themselves and starve off the area. That is why I'm keeping it in the grow bag, I will take the runners off and plant them in their own bag as the pop up. Keeping them safely above ground so they can't take off and sprawl. I have another photo so you can see the pepper plants.

     You can also see the marigold pre-destruction. I'm pretty excited about all of this, I just have to keep the dogs out. Is there such thing as a Dogcrow? I need that.

     I'm hoping you all checked out yesterdays post on the website, so you could see me in all my embarrassing glory. The featured photo isn't the only photo there. I also put a side by side by side by side comparison from 175 all the way to 151.2. It does show a definite progression. It is hard to believe that that is a 24.8 lbs difference, but it is. You would think that much weight loss would have bigger results, but that is what people need to understand, and that is why I post the pictures. It takes time and it won't happen over night. Do I wish it were another way? Of course I do, but anything worth having is worth weighting for. See what I did there? It is also worth working for, and that is what I do every day.

     I have my three new affirmations for when the 100 day challenge starts up again. I'm currently on day 92, and I'm just a day over a week away from 100. This has been a fun and worthwhile challenge and that is why I'm doing it again. The three new ones are, to get in 10000 steps every day. Meditate for 20 minutes daily, and no refined sugar. The last one seems like a breeze doesn't it, since I took sugar out of my diet. I do have the occasional sweet treat from time to time. usually it is once a month or something along those time lines, but when I start this challenge, no refined sugar at all. I will only get my sugar from berries, and that is it. I'm also going to throw a bonus one in, but I will announce that on the website when I post the final update for this round of the 100 days. I really do suggest that you give the 100 day challenge a try. It is a true learning experience, and it creates some healthy long lasting habits. I won't be doing cardio every morning, but it is a lot easier for me to do it 5 days a week for sure now. I'll probably only take break when I feel run down, which I do feel now, but still strong. I have developed a sprain in the arch of my foot, and I do need to rest in it order for it to heal, but I still have 8 more days to go. Don't worry, it isn't so bad that I should stop what I'm doing, but I will take a couple days off after day 100, just so that it can get some rest.

     Speaking of my body and health. For the first time ever, I can see the vein in my biceps. That is a huge deal for me, and it began happening when I stopped weighing myself constantly. I last weighed in for when I wrote that post for consistency, and took the photos. That was at 151.2 I have no idea what my weight is now. I would believe that it is higher, more than likely in the 155 range, but I don't know. The thing about that vein popping now, means that even if my weight has increased, my body fat has gone down, and that is the goal really at this point. I still want to hit 145, just to say that I did, but really, I'm already in the maintain and grow mindset. Beside that vein, my vascularity has exploded, in my forearms and legs. The vascularity in my legs is insane to me. I've never seen that many veins popping in my legs, and they are huge. I'm loving it, since that is my goal, to be shredded with veins everywhere. Yes, I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but that is how I want to look, and my opinion is the only one that matters in this case. This all goes back to that woman who told me that if I lost anymore weight I would begin to look unhealthy. I told her that if I did it wrong I would. You have to remember, one of the things that derailed me before, beside the fact that I was doing it all wrong, was when someone told me that I was getting to thin. It hit me pretty hard, and I rebounded to fat old me. This time I dare someone to tell me I look unhealthy. I'm not only at the thinnest weight I've been since my 20's, but I look better and feel way healthier than I ever have. I've told you about how my resent pulse is in the upper 50's lower 60's. I have forgotten to tell you that my arthritis has completely disappeared, If you don't know about that. I was beginning to get arthritis in my index fingers of both hands. At night they would begin to look up and when I would straighten them, they would hitch and then pop. It was an unusual pain that accompanied all of this, and that is complete gone. Another thing, is my nightly snoring, is no more as well. Hey all of you that are using a CPAP, you can get rid of that thing. Deep down, I always knew that my snoring was a side affect of being overweight, I was right, and it is gone. The health benefits just keep coming, and it is all due to how I eat.

     Ok, enough of my bully pulpit. I'm out of here. Peace in and goodnight.

Destructive Dogs

     Morty uprooted another brussel sprout plant, and Baby Girl knocked over the blackberry bush. I didn't realize the hardest part of gardening was going to be keeping my dogs from destroying everything. I was able to replant the brussel sprout, and it's looking pretty good so far. I got to the blackberry bush before Baby Girl could do much more than knock it over. I still have it in the pot, since I haven't decided the right place to plant it yet. I do know, that I have to get some good fencing to put around it when I do plant it.

     So far it seems that the strawberry plant is lagging behind. The brussel sprouts seem to be taking off, despite Morty's insistence that they need to be dug up constantly. The blackberry bush is also a slow burner, but that could be because it is still in it's pot. I'll figure all of this out.

     I posted my feature pic for tomorrows article today, as a Transformation Tuesday sort of thing. I still have another photo that I haven't revealed yet, and that will be only seen on the website tomorrow at 10 am. So, if you want to see it, it will be there. In the meantime, I can show you the other pic.

     The right is of course the most recent photo I have taken. I took it last night, so that it would be as close to a live photo that I could get. I'm not going to change much in 48 hours. The article updates a few things, including my most recent weigh in, and what my new goal is. That goal of course will change when I hit it, and I explain what that new goal will be as well, so you may want to check it out on howuketo.com

     Time for Favorite Song of the Week. I'm throwing this one back a few years. Not a whole lot. This was the last song on STP  No 4, and it may be the best song on the entire album. That is debatable, because there are so many great songs on that album. From time to time I miss Scott Weiland, and think of what else he could have created had he not had a crippling drug addiction. Yes, Stone Temple Pilots still tour, but they aren't the same without Scott. He was the heart and soul of that band, even though the brothers wrote most of the music. It doesn't have the same life without Scott. So here is Stone Temple Pilots with a live version of "Atlanta".



     I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. Today is nearly over, and tomorrow is about to begin, so I'm taking off for now. I'll see you on Thursday, peace in and goodnight.