juicing

Well it's only 2 more days until my consultation with my bariatric surgeon and I'm SO ready. I've been doing some reading on how to get back to work ASAP after the surgery and came across a blog about Juicing and the amazing vitamin punch it packs. So I jumped on Jack LaLanne's web site and ordered a Power Juicer Pro. The next day I got a mailer from Macy's with a listing of Juicers so I cancelled my LaLanne and ran to Macy's (why wait for Jack to ship to me when I live 20 minutes from Macy's)? And the sales lady said I had 6 months to bring it back if I changed my mind.

I bought the Breville Juice Fountain Plus (same price as the LaLanne) and hit the closest produce isle on my way home and dropped another $40.

My first juice cocktail was:

• 2 beets


• 1 orange


• 4 carrots


• 1 kiwi

It was actually pretty good, next time I may put alittle salt in it though. Every thing went fine, I got down about 12 ozs pretty fast. BUT, about 2 hours later I'm in the car on the way to meet a friend and out of nowhere my stomach is in knots and I'm in a panic for a bathroom. I pull into a Taco Bell and as I step out of the car to make a run for it I SHART (half shit and half fart). Oh my god, the cramps are terrible. I make it to the bathroom and thank heaven's it's a private john and I can lock the door.

15 minutes later, I'm cleaned up and sacrificed a brand new pair of boxers. The cramps are over just like that. Now I'm heading back home to recover and by the time I get home I'm ready for the bathroom again.

Next day, all is well (although did I mention that my urine is DARK orange/yellow? GROSS!

I go back to the blog that turned me onto juicing to begin with and see a note about Beets. Go easy it says, they are very strong. RIGHT

I decide to try it again last night for dinner and this time I try:

• 1 beet


• 3 oranges


• 1 cucumber


• 6 carrots


• 1 head of celery


• 1 kiwi


• 1 tsp salt

It taste great! I even get my son to drink a glass. The cookbook that came with the juicer also had recipes for the pulp that is the juicer by-product. So I used it to make a meat-loaf for dinner. It was 1 part pulp with 2 parts ground beef, egg, milk and spices. It was fantastic and will be the only way I make meat-loaf from now on (alright, I don't make that dish very often but when I do this is the way I'll do it). And best of all zero bathroom issues.

So I think I'll be juicing for a while. I am really excited about seeing if I can feel a difference anytime soon.

What a weekend - Sunday

I got to sleep in very late today and it was SO nice. I got up about 10am and decided to catch a noon movie - Defiance. What a choice after finishing The Reader. This movie was really amazing and is really not getting the attention it should be. To think that this group of brothers saved 1200 Jews by hiding them in the woods. I love the part where the guys is saying to God "we don't want to be your choosing one any more. Pick someone else".
This is a great movie to see and is a true testament to Faith.

What a weekend - Saturday

I really enjoyed my extra day off yesterday but now back to work.
So today I'm at lunch with a client who is telling my about her "online dating saga". She had been chatting with some dude who "looked ok but not hot" for a while and when she talked to him on the phone she really liked his voice so they decided to meet. She gets to the restaurant first and is waiting at the bar for him. And she says when he walks in he is HUGE (now as she's telling this story she is looking down and picking at her plate. BUT - has she says the word HUGE she slowly looks up at me and then down to my belly and quicker than shit starts back tracking). She says "not that I have anything against fat, I mean heavy or overweight people. Honest, I'm not that shallow (yes, she actually said she's not that shallow). But he said in his profile that he likes to ski, long walks and ride bikes and there is no way someone that heavy could do those things".
I know how people feel about fat people (trust me your no harder on me than I am on myself), but how big of an idiot do you have to be to say those things to another fat person.

I got home alittle late but still had time for a glass of wine before meeting friends for dinner. We had a fantastic time on our date night (we try to get out once a week without the kids). So we went out to a local Italian restaurant for food, drinks and lots of kampy boy talk.
Was home by 10pm and hit my lazyboy to finish a book I was reading. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. I've been on a kick of reading books that are current movies or tv shows.
This book was really something and I consider a must read. It spends so much time getting you to hate one of the leads but then BAM all of a sudden you are crying over it.
It really is a great book.

What a weekend - Friday

I'm setting here watching the SAG awards wishing I had brought in more wood for the fireplace before the snow hit.
I had a GREAT weekend and I'll start at the beginning.
Friday - I took the day off work to work in my potting shed. I've been trying to get the converted over to a growing shed and I realize that it will be another project that just never ends. I have a largish wooden shed in the back yard this is only a few years old and very solid. It has no windows but does have 2 south facing sky lights. I spent about $100 insulating 70% of the shed and ran out of insulation so I'm trying to bring it up to a temp of 60F (if possible then I won't bother insulating the remaining 30%. If I can't then another trip to Home Depot. I've got 2 125W heat bulbs and the temp only got about 10F higher than the outside temp., so last night I put an electric oil filled heater in and this morning the temp was up to 55F. So looks like I'm off to a good start. I've got full spectrum lighting over my 3 seed trays and have them setting on a tray heater that is supposed to raise the soil temp another 10 to 20 decree's above the air temp. If all works as planned I should have sprouting seeds by the end of this week or next week at the latest. I've started a couple different types of tomatoes, peppers and lots of different herbs and flowers. I have room for 1 more starter tray that I will start soon.

Amazon Kindle

Disclaimer: this is in no way a sale pitch for Amazon. It's solely a testimonial for the Kindle from a guy who loves to read.

I want to talk a bit about how much the Amazon Kindle has made my life better. This thing is just amazing. If you've had the pleasure of playing with one it's easy to see why Oprah picked it has her favorite new thing of 2008. If your a big reader then the Kindle is a must have.

I've been an avid reader for most of my adult life, reading 1 to 2 books a month. Since getting the Kindle in May of '08, I'm reading 2 books a week. I'm never with out a book to read and almost always have my next book purchased and downloaded. People are always telling me about a great book they read and recommending that I read it. With the Kindle, when ever someone recommends a book to me I right away turn it on and to to Amazon (right from the Kindle) and buy and download the book. In the old days I would try and right the name down and look for it later (often forgetting). It's just so amazing.

So far the only draw back I have encountered is that you can not share a book with a friend. I do miss passing on books to others but even with that said I can say that I have stacks of books setting around the house that for what ever reason just never got passed on..

Let me list a few of my fave things about the Kindle:

• It feels just like reading a regular book (many times I've caught myself reaching up to turn the page).


• Zero to little eye strain. Nothing like reading on your computer


• Stores hundreds of books (thousands with a $15 media card), so I'm NEVER without a book to read.


• Amazing search features. You can search all the books on your Kindle for something you remember reading about earlier. You can search the internet.


• Built in dictionary, you just highlight the line your reading and with one click get fast definitions for the words in that sentence.


• You can highlight a single word or several sentence's, clip and save along with any notes you wish to make. Great ideal for book club members or students.

This is just a few of the great things about the Kindle. I can't wait to hear from others with one.

Our little farm in the city

I grew up in a very rural area about 3 hours away from Memphis (the closest city). I left that hell hole as soon as I got out of high school. I couldn't wait to get out of that place and on to a place that was either big enough for me to be anonymous or big and diverse enough for me to blend in. Well, I've been in the city for just over 20 years and now I dream of being on a farm (although, not in Deliverance). So, a safe alternative is that I have a small farm right in the middle of the city. I really do live in a very urban setting, you have to drive at least an hour to get out to a farm setting. If I tried to pee off my back porch I would hit the neighbors to houses down. That's how close we are to each other.
So about 3 years ago my partner came home from a local farmers market with a 3 day old baby chicken. We named her Peep and she grew up in our home for the first several months of her life. We quickly added a small flock of more chicks, guineas, and a couple of ducks. Well, three years later we still have Peep (Bantam mix), Chicketta (a standard Blue Cochin) and Agnes (a Muscovy duck). All three females and we get 3 eggs aday. We really aren't big egg eaters so we pass them on to the neighbors. These girls really bring so much excitement to my family's lives. Agnes meets me at the gate EVERY day after work and walks me to the back door. If I don't reach down and scratch her breast she bites my ankles. Over the course of the day each of the girls will at some point be at the back door pecking on the glass wanting in. We almost always give in and let them in to roam around for a bit and then they go back to the door wanting out. Our dogs share their water bowl with them with little drama. When you open the fridge you have 2 chickens, 1 duck and 2 dogs begging. We also have a large Macaw and an African Grey. The parrots love the dogs and the dogs love the chickens and the duck but the parrots HATE the chickens and the duck and the chickens and the duck know it.
The weather have been VERY cold here this past week and the neighbors have been calling to make sure the chickens (and duck) are alright. Yesterday morning I went out to check on them and all three were still in their house (it has a heat lamp) and couldn't be coaxed out with scratch.
I'm sure I'll be writing more about the pets as this blog goes on, they really are a major highlight of our life.

Let the Fat man vent!

Let me list a few things that SUCK about being FAT!

• Clothes - there is ONE store where I can buy clothes. Let me correct that, there is one store where I chose to buy my clothes. There are actually several Big & Tall clothing stores in my town but they either sell cloths for young Hip Hop folks or clothes for old fat white golfers. I am a white guy (not ready to say "old"), but not into golf and kids point and laugh if I wear Sean John stuff.
• Getting dressed - If at all possible I just don't wear socks or shoes that tie. It takes me about 10 minutes just to put on my socks and shoes and worse than that I'm out of breath for about 15 minutes after. Putting on my socks honest to god is a huge effort. I own clogs in several colors and styles because they are SO easy to step into. The shoes and socks are really the biggest pain for me as a Fat person. Putting on my belt (lifting my belly out of the way) also takes a minute but I do recover sooner.
• Bathroom - You knew this one was coming didn't you? Let just jump right into it - wiping my ass is a HUGE issue sometimes. I fit on the toilet fine, no issues there. But when I finish trying to get my hand back there to clean up is really a problem. Don't worry I never skip it, but sometimes it's just easier to jump in the shower and hose the damn thing out. I may be fat but I am not and hope to never be a "Smelly Fat Person".
• Eating out - I have broken several chairs in restaurants over the last few years and you just can't imagine how humiliating that is. And you NEVER agree to set outside at a restaurant because you know that they are going to have those plastic stacking chairs that will fold up under you as soon as you sit down. I have only landed on the floor twice but those two experiences will last with me for ever.
• Weddings, Theater, etc. - any where that uses folding chairs. You just can't know the feeling you get when you walk into a room and see those damn folding chairs and you know its a gamble. Do I set and pray? Do I ask for something else to set in?
• Flying - you guessed it - I don't fit in the seat and the seat belt doesn't fit me. I have ordered a seat belt extender that I travel with and it's a huge help. I actually had a flight attendant announce over the intercom that the passenger in seat so and so needed an extender on time. Getting the extender to travel with was a large stress reliever, I still don''t fit in the seats but at least only me and the person setting beside me has to know about.

Here we go -

This is the first entry in my blog. The primary reason for this blog is to help me during the process of my weightloss surgery journey. By keeping it anonymous I hoping that I'm able to be completely honest. I first called my surgeon almost 2 years ago and that time I didn't follow thru with the intake packet. I called back last year June and returned the intake packet within 5 days and then spent the next 4 months dueing the required preresquite doctor visits. I'm now 2 weeks out from meeting the actual surgeon. I'm hopeing to have the surgery no later than this
April and only expect to be off work for 3 weeks.
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