It's hard to say how I feel about the way this challenge turned out. I realize I still have two more days to go, and I did not successfully write 30 blog posts. I don't believe I will either. At least not within 30 days. As I usually tend to do, I started losing sight of the point early on. Particularly on those nights when I was forcing myself to type out a few words before midnight to keep the challenge going. There were times I enjoyed writing a post, and there are times when it felt forced. That, I did not like. Of course, in the beginning, I wasn't clear on what I wanted to get out of this challenge. I wanted to improve my writing skills, no doubt. I think I was also hoping for a therapeutic effect from a daily catharsis. Maybe to heal a little bit by opening up to the world. None of the posts have been cathartic. I am so restrained in what I post that I spend more time writing about the meaningless goings-on of my day than anything of merit. I'm not going to actually write about my feelings or my position on any issues. I'll save that for pen and paper where it is not exposed to the entire world. There was a time years ago when I did something like that and it turned out what I thought was funny and satirical others thought to be very offensive. Lesson learned. Now, I try to be objective and avoid topics or wording that might offend. In doing that I'm inhibiting the possibility for that catharsis I hoped to achieve. So, what's the point then? If I'm not getting what I want out of this challenge then why do it? I am getting something out of it. I'm getting writing practice, which is good, but the content of my words feels so empty. I'm sure I over estimate the amount of people who would read any of this. Something this challenge has made me realize, is just how introverted I am. In the world of computer mediated communication it can be so easy to post a picture or even a video of you being yourself. However, when it comes to putting your thoughts and feelings into words and posting that, it is not so simple. Truth be told, I rarely ever posts photos or videos of myself. Maybe it's hard all around. Though there are folks that post constantly and more power to them. Maybe that's what has made this such a difficult challenge. I'm forcing myself to put something out there and hoping for something good to come of it. Probably not the best approach. Not to mention the fact that I have a difficult time staying on track and have a tendency to hope from thought to thought like i'm stepping over cracks in the sidewalk. Speaking of which, I'm going to go to bed so I can wake up and eat again.
Moka Pot
Each day I wake up I look forward to that first cup of coffee. I've talked about coffee before, and I'm going to talk about it a little more. I've never tried using a Moka pot to make coffee but tomorrow will be the day I try. The only real problem I have is that I do not have any coffee beans. I have some pre-ground Starbucks I intend to use. I realize this is already a mistake but it is what it is. I have no fresh roasted beans. I have no mill grinder. So, I have to use what I got. There aren't any coffee roasters around this town for 80 miles at least. If I want to get freshly roasted beans I have to order them and be very particular about that process as well. Actually, in the store yesterday I noticed there were only two types of coffee in the entire store that offered a "whole bean" option. It was Dunkin Donuts' original flavor and Starbucks Pike Place blend. Both of which are okay, but nothing compared to beans freshly roasted. Usually, I keep a bag of beans from Barrett's Coffee Roasters in Austin. Their coffee is not like any I have ever tasted before. They roast the beans there at the shop just off North Lamar and it knocks my socks off with each cup. Imagine having to put socks on twice each morning. For the longest time, I thought I knew how to brew a decent cup of coffee. In truth, not only was I brewing bad coffee I was disrespecting the beans. Thanks to a TikTok famous barista I have been schooled in the ways of coffee brewing. Where I once was a fan of overly strong drip coffee, I now prefer a pour-over method with freshly ground beans. I also drink a lot of Keurig coffee. Simply because of the speed and ease of use. It's not bad. It's not my favorite either, but sometimes I don't have an hour to spend brewing coffee. I am also a fan of the french press. One thing I learned to do from watching the TikTok barista is to let the coffee bloom. I had never heard of this process until this year. Ha! There's something good that came out of 2020. I learned how to bloom coffee.
ASMR
I started this just before midnight on 11/19/20. So, I’m counting it for the 19th. Even though I didn’t get it posted until 12 am. I had to take a couple breaks to nurse my injured pup.
I'm amazed by YouTube. The catalog of videos on YouTube boggles the mind. There are 576,000 videos uploaded every day, 500 hours per minute. That is incredible, but what really blows my mind is the types of videos uploaded. I just watched a video of a guy getting the most violent head massage I've ever seen for 11 minutes. It has over 5.5 million views. Not only is this guy getting his head rubbed, but he is also getting his wallet rubbed too. It's hard to imagine someone making a living from YouTube these days. I'm certain it gets harder to do each day. Not to mention they change the rules continually to fit their ever-growing community. For instance, I started a channel to broadcast WTC Sports. It took me 3 years to get 500 subscribers. Not that I was trying to drive those numbers very hard. However, when I started I was able to live stream multiple games at once using iPads. That only lasted for about a month before YouTube updated their rules in which they don't allow mobile streaming unless you have over 1000 subscribers. I get why they did it, but losing that ability was a hard pill to swallow. Recently they made another change that inhibits one from streaming with a Sling Studio so easily. It wasn't that big of a deal. A little change in procedure fixed the problem. Yet, I wonder what will come next. I'm afraid there will come a day when YouTube makes another modification that renders my Sling Studio useless. The ripple effect of these changes builds waves that crash on our shores when it comes to streaming on a budget.
Horse
Fell off my challenge horse. I missed Friday and Saturday. I had company and was enjoying the hell out of the visit and forgot all about this thing. It was nice. Friday, I didn't think about it at all beyond 1:00 pm. That was the day I realized I'm not drinking enough apple cider vinegar. Or I'm consuming too much dairy. Both of which are likely true. Especially since I've been at it again, cooking my own yogurt. I've perfected my recipe. This last recipe didn't turn out as well. Probably, because I was not watching it as carefully as I should've been. It did not set up and thicken in the initial 6-hour incubation. It took an additional 8 hours and some more live cultures to get it to firm up enough to be strained. Even then, it would not strain to my desired thickness. I left out the rennet this time and I believe that to be the cause. That flavor is still there. It may be a little runny but the flavor is still good. On a sore note, my big boi Hobart is having a lot of joint pain. He already has a bad leg and the change in weather is really working him over. Today he has been having a particularly difficult time. I hope it is not something more serious, but I fear it could be. Big dogs have big problems with their joints and hips and bones. More-so those already with pins in their arm and a bad hip. Hobie has been through a lot and when the cold fronts come in I can see it in his movement or lack thereof. Fortunately, we still have some pain meds left for him so he is able to rest. Tomorrow is another day and we will see how he feels. In the meantime, I will give him all the affectionate scratches and pets I can.
Drone Footage
Ever notice how everything looks better with drone footage? Ever go to someone's house and they have YouTube drone footage playing on the TV? I got to edit some into a project recently. It makes all the difference. It makes me wish I had tons of it to produce one of these 4K videos people put on their TVs while drinking micro-batch brews and listening to Miike Snow. Whoa! I have some playing in the background here and 4k at 60 fps is exquisite. Switzerland never looked so good on an American screen. I have a theory. Most music will blend with footage shot at 60 fps. Especially 4k 60 fps. Maybe it's a timing thing but it seems no matter what genre of tunes I play while watching it all seems to fit so delightfully.
Evidently, there are feature films shot entirely by drones. I'm trying to imagine a storyline where constant drone footage would be the most fitting. Perhaps a film about a long-distance chase? Or Maybe a film about clouds? I suppose it would have to be entirely ADR also. What's the need for a sound director on set with the constant buzz of drones. I can't imagine a more frustrated, dejected, seething with firey anger person than a sound director movie shot entirely by drones. 1st AD: "Sound...?" SD: "Yeah, sounds good... wait lemme check again. Yep, just the invariable hum of multiple drone propellers. Why am I here?!" I've not been on many film sets, but when they say "Quiet on set," everyone gets quiet. You think they even say that on a set with drones?
My only experience with flying a drone was when I flew one into a pond. It wasn't a big loss. It was a very cheap drone. I didn't even have to pay for it. It was given to me by someone who no longer wanted it. Like I said, not a quality piece of equipment by any stretch. It didn't have any sensors or navigational systems. Once you got it up in the air, you were doing well to keep it there for more than a minute. Still, it has kept me from trying again. That and it's not exactly a priority purchase. I feel like drone footage will continue to grow in popularity and features. How about some drone footage of unexplored caves? That would be neat right? Spelunking drones? Maybe find that treasure that what's his name lost. Or my keys!
Air Fryers
Have you heard the good word? I have been newly introduced to the magic that is the air fryer. This big beautiful device cranks out delicious meaty morsels like a 2020 wizard box. I've only used it for meat obviously, but the potential for amazing dishes seems to be endless. The first thing I prepared in an air fryer was meatballs. 2 Pounds of Ground Beef 2/3 cup powdered parmesan cheese 4 egg yolks 1/4 cup water (or beef bone broth) 3 tsp salt 2 tsp pepper I mixed this up in a bowl and formed... I think nine fat meatballs. I set the air fryer for what I'm guessing is the "Steak" symbol. (20 min @ 370) They were wonderful. I've made them again several times, trying different seasonings. I even got fancy and threw in a handful of shredded mozzarella the other day. The basic one above is still probably my favorite. The meatballs go well with a sauce of dijon mustard, egg yolks, and butter. There's nothing special about that sauce either. I just put those things in a bowl and stir it until it's all smooth. Then I graduated to bacon. Bacon was a little trickier than meatballs. The economy of space inside the air fryer is not accomodating to long strips of bacon. The first time I just cut the slices in half and lay them out in the slotted bottom pan. Can't get a lot in there, maybe three slices worth. It turned out well. The bacon was crispy but not burnt. I kept a close eye on it because I was worried about this. I can't speak for the temperature or the length of time. I believe I cooked it at 350 for less than 10 min. The bacon was thin so it was touch and go there for a bit. The second time I cooked bacon, I had a plan. I decided to roll the bacon up into very narrow pinwheels. In my mind, they would look like bacon roses, but that didn't happen. Although, they were good. They did not have the crispy texture of bacon. They were a little more toothy but still very bacony. The last time I cooked bacon in the air fryer, I used thick-cut bacon. Still, I cut it in half and cooked it in batches. The thicker bacon made for the best texture of the methods I had tried. Cooking as many as I could fit laying flat at 350 for 8 minutes proved to be the best timing. The bacon was firm enough to scoop scrambled eggs and not bend or break. Delicious! Finally, tonight I completed the trifecta by cooking steak in an air fryer. I got a thick cut filet and coated it with bacon grease and a hefty coating of coarse steak rub. 15 min at 370 produced a medium-rare steak I would've been impressed with at a steak house. I ate it alongside some crumbly aged cheddar. Then I got steak happy and threw in a couple of New York strip steaks an inch thick. I cooked these a little longer, thinking they would need it as there was more meat in the tray. This was not true. 18 minutes at 370 gave me two well-done NY strips. The flavor was still there though. Everything that comes out of this fryer tastes good. Tomorrow is a new day though and I have ribeyes on the thaw.
Consumerism
I realized today that I probably only watch an hour of Television every five days. Yet, I still feel the need to purchase a new TV. Is that because the marketing of TVs is so good? Or because I have always been amazed by electronics and like bells and whistles? Who knows. I saw a commercial for a new TV the other day and I found it ironic that the advertisement for a 4k UHD TV was coming through a channel that still broadcasts in 480i. How are people supposed to know the level of picture quality when it is filtered through a resolution from decades ago? TVs continue to drop in price so it makes it more appealing to everyone. Technology for entertainment moves at breakneck speed. For less than $200 a person can get a TV so fancy it can learn your viewing habits. However, if you need to buy a pickup truck, you better have a six-figure income and what Dave Ramsey would call, "Sterling Credit."
I wonder sometimes why the value of trucks only continues to rise. I've been seeing a lot of new trucks across Texas and the first thought that always pops into my head is, "What are the payments like on that?" I do like trucks and sometimes I like to see what's new. What is being made? Big monthly payments, as it would seem. As of February 2020, the American light-duty pickup reached an all-time high with an average price of $51,700. I know there are usually a lot of incentives and rebates and deals offered that knock the price down a few thousand dollars. Yet even in most of those cases with interest, you're still paying over $48K. Not to mention the insurance. I spoke to someone last week that told me his truck payment was $1050 a month, and his house payment is $850 a month. This was surprising to me, but maybe I'm the one who is out of touch. We are in a time and location where people pay more to have a nice set of wheels to drive around than they do to have a place to live and raise a family. I mean it's a nice truck but you can't take a shower in it. I suppose if your income is high enough it's not a big deal. Still, $2000 in payments going out each month is more than many people have coming in monthly.
And there it is... whenever I think I want something like a new TV, all I have to do is take a little thought foray into American consumerism. Then I realize I don't need any of those things. A new TV is not going to make things better. It's just going to be another way to waste the time I should be using to learn to write better blogs. What I do need, is sleep. That will make things better. As the turtle said, "Good night, Ned."
Loss
The devastations in 2020 continue to pile. A dear friend of mine experienced a tragic loss over the weekend. I only heard this morning and my heart is broken for them. Losing a loved one is one of the hardest things we can experience in life. The more you love a person the more painful the loss. The effect changes us indefinitely. It changes how we identify ourselves and leaves scars on our souls. Still, time heals most wounds. I wish I could say it heals them all. Maybe it does, or maybe it just never stops ticking away. The world continues to turn. The sun rises and sets. Along with many other concepts, time is beyond our control. There is comfort in knowing it will not stop because it gets easier as we put more chronological distance between ourselves and the ordeal. The fond memories will remain and those memories become priceless. That's why making good memories is important. Good memories are an elixir for the soul. Love those close to you. Invest time making good memories with them. One day that may be all you have.
Compound Fractures
That was heartbreaking, was it not? In today's Cowboys vs Giants NFL matchup, we saw a gruesome injury to Dak Prescott. It was an all too real reminder that beyond concussions and CTE, football is a dangerous sport. A dangerous job. I try to remember that each time I hear how much these guys get paid. How much are your bones worth? There have been times in my life when I saw no value in my bones or body. It's an awful position to be in, but when you're there it's hardly noticeable. You only seem to realize after the fact. Not today though. On days like today, everyone realizes. My heart goes out to Dak Prescott. Hope the surgery goes well.
...and all subsequent surgeries after.
And now... a moment of silence.
Saturdays
This again will be a short one. It is weird that Saturdays can and sometimes do become my busiest days of the week. I’ve been thinking of posting some of my previous journal entries as blog posts. Especially on days like this when I’m tied up from dusk till dawn. But… I feel like that would be cheating on this challenge. The idea is to sit and write a blog post every day for 30 days. I’ve been able to do it so far, but I worry about days like today. Sometimes work takes over and I lose track of time. Now it’s late and I’m rushing to get something out before the buzzer. It may be cheating to repost something I’ve already written, but it’s also not doing justice to the process. If I want to get something out of a 30-day blog challenge, perhaps I should put more in to the 30-day blog challenge. Until then, this is all I have to offer for Saturday the 10th.
Fridays
Boy, is tonight going to be a short one. I work nights on Fridays. It makes it hard to meet the deadline of the daily blog. If I don't get it done before my evening shift. Today I did not get it done before the evening shift. I chose to go to the gym after work to continue the workout program I started on Monday of this week. If I thought the high reps of this new program were hard the first two days, the third day was brutal. Today was leg day and there is a special kind of burn that comes from 30 reps of squats. After that, I had a chance to eat one more meal of ground bison with fried eggs. A meal that took me back to my first days of eating Carnivore. Then it was back to work for a few hours. So now, rather than go on typing a few moments before midnight I'm going to wrap it up and go to bed. See you tomorrow.
Sleep
It has only been within the last year I have understood what it means to get a good night's sleep. For so long I devoted such little effort to my sleep. The effects of such poor sleep habits took a hefty toll on my life. I had all sorts of problems with fatigue and depression. I didn't realize the awful sleep I was getting was one of the main contributing factors. I still struggle with depression as I know most people under the sun do, but it's not as bad as it once was. Not by far. In the past, I would never really prepare for bed. I would just "go" until I eventually got tired and crashed. There wasn't any proactive effort to improve my sleep patterns other than taking Ambien, which in truth was more about the buzz I got than it was about falling asleep. The sleep you get from Ambien is not restful. It's like your brain just shuts off but your body can just keep on tossing and turning. Ambien was also a contributor to the depression. In addition to poor sleep, my mood always had a difficult time recovering the morning after taking Ambien. Forget recovering, my mood was horrible the next day. I've been keeping a journal for a while now and when I look at the entries from the mornings after Ambien it is painfully clear the negative affect it was had. In retrospect, I wonder why it took me so long to realize how it was affecting me. It could be because the Ambien was prescribed to me by my psychiatrist. Surely, they wouldn't give me anything to worsen my depression...would they? Either way, I no longer take Ambien and encourage people to avoid it. All of that aside. I made many more changes to my sleeping habits that have had a positive result. One simple change I made that I also encourage others to do is to set the "Nightshift" setting on my phone and computer. This lessens the blue light present in those devices which reduces the strain on our eyes. I know it's best to avoid all screens before bed, and I try to as much as possible. These days it is a little harder. If you're like me you usually have to use your phone as an alarm so you will inevitably be looking at before bed. This little trick is something simple everyone can do and it does make a big difference. So long as you're not laying in bed scrolling through social media until the moment your eyes shut. Even then I think it would make a noticeable difference. Another thing I've done is to keep a lamp in the bedroom with a red bulb. At night I only use the red light and steer clear of any white light. Truthfully, I purchased a full spectrum LED bulb from Amazon. With this bulb I can control the color of light it emits from my phone. I believe you can even set it to a schedule, but I haven't gone that far yet. It has been surprising the magnitude of the effect this has had on my ability to fall asleep. There is no more laying in bed awake with my mind still running like a TV that was left on. That is something I used to do as well. I used to set a sleep timer on the TV and let it lull me to sleep. Little did I know it wasn't doing anything but inhibiting my ability to get into the first stages of sleep. I keep a few things next to my bed: a pair of headphones, earplugs, a sleep mask, and books. I use the headphones to listen to sleep inducing audio like ASMR or brown/white/pink. I'm sure you can find audio like this on most streaming services, but I use YouTube more than anything. My favorite as of late has been the Brownian noise videos. The deepness of the brown noise compared to the higher-pitched pink noise seems to work better for me lately. Another favorite listen is the ASMR shoe shine videos from Angelo Shoe Shine or Jason Dornstar. I've never once had a shoeshine, but now I feel like I would be unconscious before the shiner got the laces out of my shoes. The books are there just to seal the deal. I keep a wide variety of uninteresting books, but not boring books. Books that are just intriguing enough to keep me from wandering off in my thoughts. With the combination of the red lights, the sleep audio or earplugs, and the sleep mask, I never get farther than a couple of pages. Kidding, I don't pull down the hood of the sleep mask until I'm fading out. The sleep mask is self-explanatory. One final thing I do to get the best sleep is to make sure I haven't eaten before bed and that I do not eat anything if I wake up. This is something I used to do and it is one of the worst things anyone can do for their sleep.
Time
The past few days I seem to be running short on time. I realize I'm not alone in this. Time is fleeting and we have so little of it. My biggest problem is that I've never valued my time. This is because I've never thought of time as something I own. Time is a construct of humans and time does not pass. We pass. This week has passed exceptionally quickly.
Today, Wednesday is all but over and I didn't complete even half the things I wanted to finish. I started a new workout program this week. For the longest time, I've followed a basic minimum 3-day a week workout plan, on a push-pull split. Every now and then though you have to change it up. So, I found one that is different from anything I've tried in the past. The biggest difference is the number of reps. I didn't realize it before I started but the rep count for some of the lifts is around 150. That's right, 5 sets of 30 reps. This has me using a very low weight for each lift. Bench press for instance, I used 100lbs for a total of 122 reps. I couldn't make it to 150. I also couldn't finish the workout. With that many reps and sets for each of the lifts (there were 8) the workout was taking a lot longer than usual. I made it through 5 of the lifts before leaving early because I still had things I needed to get done. Things that I planned to do while watching the debate, which had already started.
I have tried moving my workouts to mornings in the past with little success. I know the benefits of physical activity in the morning are numerous. However, each time I have tried it, I end up pulling something or hyperextending something else. I'm sure this is the result of poor stretching and poor motor skills at such an hour. I have a high chance of spilling an entire cup of coffee every day just because I will knock it over when grasping clumsily. I need time for the sleep to fall off me like a weighted blanket. Still, I may give it a shot once again to see if I can make it work. In which case I will have to bump up this late-night blogging as well.
Eddie Van Halen
Today we lost the great Eddie Van Halen. To quote my dear friend, "2020 is a fat @#$%@ %$&@$." Yeah, it's that bad. There is no doubt this year has been rough. On top of a pandemic and the nightmare that is the US political landscape, we have lost some of America's greatest treasures. Chadwick Boseman, Regis Philbin, Rep. John Lewis, a host of others, and now Eddie Van Halen.
Eddie Van Halen was one of the greatest guitarists to ever pick up the instrument. His influence on rock and roll can be heard in songs from every genre. I remember watching videos of the Van Halen song "Jump" on MTV when I was a kid. I was mesmerized by his signature guitar, "Frankenstrat". David Lee Roth's air splits were okay, but no one could make a guitar sing like Eddie. When "Van Hagar" came to town I was the one to buy the "Balance" CD. I loved it. I loved For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. I loved most of Van Halen's album's but checked out before Cherone checked-in as the lead singer.
We've been losing a lot of celebrities, musicians, activists, etc. in 2020. I know this is not something that will stop any time soon. It is 2020. A lot of these people have been around for a long time. Carl Reiner died and he was 98, RGB 87. Cancer is so common 40% of people will be diagnosed with some form in their lifetime. It's projected more than 600,000 people will die of it in 2020. This year alone, it has taken Boseman, Preston, and Eddie Van Halen. Not to mention the growing number of those dying of Covid-19. Death happens and it sucks. In a time when we need good news, we're faced with the sad news. It's been a bad year.
It's hard to imagine 2021 being much better. Our widespread social communication platforms have produced more public figures than anyone could've imagined. People aren't going to stop dying next year. It's part of life in this era. More people means more deaths. Countless media platforms mean everyone will know when it happens. The best we can do is love each other and proclaim that love as often as possible. It might be a little weird to say it aloud, but it's better than leaving it unsaid.
Coffee
If there is one thing I crave as much as dairy on this WOE it is coffee. I've been able to stay fairly disciplined with my coffee intake according to time of day. I never drink coffee beyond noon. However, I will have up to 3 cups before then. Drinking 3 cups of coffee is rare. To be more specific I will have about 20 oz of coffee in the morning. Two back to back 10 oz servings of coffee and no more until the following day. How do I take it? Well, I fill my Waterpik with it and floss my teeth. Straight from the Keurig. I have 2nd degree burns all over my gums. No, not really. I do like it black but I still put in some additives. Usually, I do a teaspoon of powdered beef collagen, two drops of Lugol's iodine, and two pinches of pink Himalayan salt.
Why the collagen? Well, I wish I could say it is because I believe it does something magical for my skin or my hair. Like a magic powder that tightens the loose skin one gets from weight loss. But, it's not and I can't say I believe it does anything like that. What it does is provide the coffee with a smooth texture and mellow flavor. To me, that is. I don't want to anger any coffee aficionados. It seems less acidic with the collagen. I don't know the science behind it, but I like the way my coffee taste with a little bit of powdered beef collagen in it.
Why the iodine? Something that came to my attention after I was on this WOE for a few months was the danger of being iodine insufficient. Iodine is important for our bodies, and without it, we become prey to all kinds of side-effects. That's why it is in most salts. It is not in pink Himalayan salt, which is what I use for salt most often. Two drops of iodine in my coffee is mostly unnoticeable and way for me to get that needed daily dose. The worse side-effect I experienced was strange and chronic fatigue but also an inability to get good any decent sleep. Just 4 drops total every morning and I haven't had any more of those problems.
Why the pink Himalayan salt, you ask? There was a time long a go when I enjoyed sweet coffee. It was very long ago, like when I was a child. I began drinking it black solely because I thought it made me look tough. Stupid, I know, but it wasn't long before I realized I like coffee black. You get more out of the taste when you aren't making it with copious amounts of sugar and creamer. Every bean is different and different roasts produce different flavors and there are different roasting methods and so on. Each sip can have a completely different bouquet of flavor. I use the pink Himalayan salt to enhance those flavors. It brings the notes to the front and I can finally understand what the tasting notes on the bag are all about. As I mentioned above, it is the salt I use most. I also drink it mixed up with water in between meals. It helps to keep the electrolytes up. I could drink coffee all day long, but though I love coffee, I'm afraid of caffeine. I've become much more sensitive to caffeine since beginning this WOE. So, much like the yogurt, I treat myself with coffee once a day.
My skyr turned out amazing by the way. If you've never made your own yogurt or skyr, then you are missing out. It's very easy and delicious beyond imagination.
Dairy
One thing I struggle with in this way of eating is dairy. Now, dairy is from animal so technically it is okay to have things like cheeses, cream, and yogurt. The problem is the amount of sugar in dairy. Heavy cream for instance has 1 gram of sugar per 2 tablespoons. Additionally, food labels are allowed to be off by up to 30% so there’s a good chance you are getting around 1.8 grams of sugar per 2 tablespoons. I know a serving of heavy cream is 1 tablespoon but who the hell uses 1 tablespoon of heavy cream for anything. If I’m breaking out the cream I’m using at least half a cup. I love it. I’ll put it in a glass tumbler and sip it like a 30-year-old scotch. This is not good because I’m getting around 20 grams of sugar a day just from the cream.
Limiting my dairy intake has been very difficult in the past year. I can load up on meats but I rarely feel satiated until I’ve had the fat I get from dairy. I still usually only eat once a day. Typically I consume around 2 lbs of meat, preferably beef, then follow it up with some full fat plain greek yogurt topped with heavy cream. Whenever I skip the yogurt and cream at the end of my one meal a day I end up getting hungry again a few hours later. Something about it encourages me to get it in my head, "You had your dairy, that's it until tomorrow." Capping off my eating for the day with a nice dose of milkfat helps me with fasting. I sometimes wonder though if it is the milkfat or the sugar that is bringing me to satiety.
Today, for instance, fired up the air fryer for the first time and made some meatballs. I used 80/20 ground beef, 3 egg yolks, and half a cup of parmesan cheese. Seasoned them with salt, pepper, little garlic powder, and a tablespoon of stone ground mustard. They were good, very good. This is the first time I've used an air fryer, and I will be using it again ...and again. After eating the meatballs I broke out my go-to greek yogurt, Fage 5% full fat. I pour about half a cup of heavy cream over the top of the yogurt. The yogurt is thick and I'm able to scrap off spoonfuls at the top which is covered with the heavy cream. The combo of flavor and smooth texture is sublime. It's a habit that brings me so much joy. Unfortunately, it also brings a rash on my leg.
Over consuming dairy will inevitably cause my eczema to flare up. Too much cream and yogurt I should say. Ideally, if I can stick to just hard cheeses I won't have that problem. If I cut out dairy completely a lot of amazing things happen. The "Lion Diet" version of the carnivore W.O.E. is the most effective and the most difficult to maintain. I've been able to do this but not for extended amounts of time. Eventually, I break down and reach for the dairy. I do look forward to the cream, yogurt, and sometimes even keto ice cream. I've developed a recipe for keto ice cream that keeps the carbs down lower than typical store-bought keto ice cream. The problem remains however, it is still just a bunch of heavy cream. This time with egg yolks, stevia, pink Himalayan salt, vanilla, and rennet. I made some yesterday that is so good it's a problem.
Occasionally I make my own greek yogurt and skyr. I have a batch of skyr incubating in the oven right now. Tomorrow morning I will pull it out of the oven and strain it through a cheesecloth. Then this vicious circle of dairy consumption will start a new. Perhaps one day I will be able to leave dairy behind. Even then I feel it will be only temporary as I will surely want to treat myself with another dose of milkfat at some point. These days that is the treat I desire most. I wish I had a source for raw milk. The closest dairy I have found that sells raw milk is still several miles away and they sell out fairly quickly. I've never had raw milk but I look forward to one day giving it a try.
Day 3
It must be clear by this point that I am not dedicating a ton of time to these blog posts. This reminds me of those first few days last year. The difficulty of consistency starts to set in after a few days. Doing anything new for a solid 30 days is not easy. Even something as simple as writing a few lines of text each day. It gets easier day by day. Eventually, it will be the portion of the day I look forward to the most. I look forward to it now, but I am intimidated by it. I worry what I choose to blog about will be dumb or unworthy of the effort. That's a defeatist attitude and a habit I need to break. I tend to rationalize everything down until I lose sight of the point. It's not what I talk about it's that I'm talking. The practice is the method.
Today I gave my Golden Shepard, Hobart, a bath. I'm always thankful for his tolerance of my awful grooming abilities. I try to keep him on a schedule of at least one bath a month. I have two other dogs, Lhasa Apsos, and I usually bathe them once every two weeks. Their fur is like a magnet for all things filthy. They need regular baths to maintain proper snuggability. Hobart on the other hand sheds constantly. His fur is less likely to pick up dirt and grime because it is constantly falling out. He is like the earth, his fur is the crust that is constantly being pushed outward from his core. If dog hair had value I would be wealthy.
I bathe him outside in a kitty pool and afterward I dump the water out onto the grass. The combination of soapy water and fur creates a substance not too different from paper mache. Sometimes I wonder if I could use this material of dog fur and soap scum to patch a hole in a roof. I have heard you can use it to make catfish bait, but what the hell can't be used to make catfish bait. Catfish have 10,000-times the number of tastebuds a human does and still they eat the most God-awful concoctions and decaying matter underneath the swamp.
Anyway... more tomorrow.
Stoicism
About a month ago I purchased a SkillShare account. I had been encountering some problems at work I thought could be remedied with some specific software instruction. It has helped with those issues to some extent. I find myself spending far more time taking courses on things I’m interested in than those I may need. I really needed some brushing up in Adobe After Effects. Particularly since the classes I took on After Effects in college were performed on version 1.0. I am taking an A.E. course and it’s great. I get a lot out of it. However, I have been spending at least 2 hours each day taking courses on things like productivity, speed reading, and most recently Stoicism.
I had a vague idea of what Stoicism is before I began the class. Most people have at least heard of Marcus Aurelius. In the movie, Gladiator, if nothing else. However, I had not taken a deep dive into the subject until now and I still have much further to go. One quote by Marcus Aurelius that is presented early in the course is this...
“People who are excited by posthumous fame forget that the people who remember them will soon die too. And those after them in turn. Until their memory, passed from one to another like a candle flame, gutters and goes out.”
This quote has been on my mind a lot today after deciding yesterday to forego posting a progress picture on Instagram for starting another 30-day challenge. I have been thinking about the cycle one can get into when playing the social media game. We post things to our sites in hopes it will bring us the cheers and encouragement of those that follow us. I'm just as guilty of it as the next person. My streams are filled with self-serving posts and have been for years. I'm sure if I post things to my social media in the future I will enjoy every like I receive. That's how it's designed. All those hearts and thumbs up are like booster shots to our ego and it feels good every time. It's so good it's addictive.
Being addictive it is also ephemeral. The feeling is good but short-lived. As such it is good to remember things like the quote from Marcus Aurelius. When taking the perspective of the view from above it is easier to see things like this do not provide us with any sort of lasting fulfillment. Likes come and go. It's better to focus on the things that will bring us long term joy. Like "October Horror Novel Month" which I have started with The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. More on that in future posts.
Day 2 and I haven't gotten better at ending posts. I'm still figuring it out. Not giving up though!
30 Days 30 Blog Posts
Here I am on October 1st, 2020. A year ago today I began a 30-day challenge of maintaining a Carnivore style diet. For 30 days I ate nothing but meat, eggs, and a little dairy. Completing the challenge, I decided this would be the way I eat for the rest of my life. I was feeling good, sleeping well, enjoying energy levels, and mental clarity I had never before experienced. It wasn’t an easy month, but at the end of those 30 days, I was better because of the journey. Something had changed within me and I liked it so much I decided to keep it.
Now, one year later, still eating carnivore and down an additional 50 lbs from where I started. I’ve been trying to think of a way to celebrate and commemorate the beginning of that initial 30-day challenge that has now changed my life so much. I thought about posting one of those side-by-side pics to my Instagram account, but chasing likes for dopamine dumps is a dangerous game. I’ve become more and more put off by social media these days. So instead, I've decided to do something different.
If I have learned anything in all of this it is that long term changes require long term commitments. Rather than taking and posting a bunch of pics of myself and my newly visible abs, I've decided to start in the same place I began one year ago. Today will mark the beginning of another 30-day challenge. This time around I am going to follow the lead of Seth Godin and try a 30-day blog challenge. For the entirety of the month of October, I intend to write one blog post per day.
I don't plan to follow any premeditated formula. If you Google "30-day blog challenge" there are countless tips and topics for posts. I may use some of them when I encounter writer's block, but I like having the freedom to chose my topics day-by-day. Additionally, I plan to include some video for a vlog post occasionally.
It is hard to pin down specifically what I hope to get out of this challenge. I know there will be benefits to getting my thoughts out there, as I already do some journaling. Perhaps the consistency of the challenge will increase those benefits and a year from now I will be blogging about my next 30-day challenge. Hopefully, by that point, at least my writing skills will have improved, and I'll know how to better end a blog post.
Jazz in the Boardroom
Last weekend Hansi and I attended a jazz recital hosted by one of her coworkers. The performance was held in the boardroom of their company offices. Not a location in which you would expect to hear some great jazz but not entirely uncommon in the live music capital. I had my cameras with me so I snapped a few stills and got some video.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying close enough attention to my camera placement and my RODE microphone attachment picked up a buzzing noise from a nearby cable box. Live and learn I guess. The buzz goes away when the music starts but comes back with a vengeance when it stops.
Aside from my blunder with the microphone the recital was great. Ben and the Dave Wilson Trio filled the building with the smooth jazz that had everyone tapping their toes and bobbing their heads.
As I sat there I couldn’t help but think of how cool it was that this was happening “at the office” and the atmosphere was one of friends and family. A workplace turned play-place for an afternoon of music.
