Monday, April 16, 2007

6 months and holding...

This week marks six months of my restoration program. After shedding about 30 pounds during the late Summer and early Autumn, I held stable at 210 pounds, give or take a couple, for 4 months. This was a benchmark for me, as I have not been able to do this before. What's astonishing was that I was in every non-dietary situation I could have been in: A two month studio project where the only food was the adjacent sports bar; a Latin music tour; Christmas at Mom's; New Year's with my girl; My Birthday. I attribute this to both the "zone" diet and working out, to some degree or another, at least 5 five times a week, alternating between mountain biking and punching a 110-pound bag.

This year I started doing more long rides and have as of the past two weeks been finally down to an even 200 pounds. I'm not sure if I'll stay at this weight or not since I'm not concerned with it as a goal. I'll likely bulk back up a bit, but to be down 40 pounds feels great.

6 Month Stats:

April 16, 2007

Weight: 200 lbs

Waist: 36

Wrist: 7.0

% Body Fat: 19

Pulse: 78 (Mid-Day, slight stress)



Goals met:

Moved most of my weight up so that now my ribs are visible again.

I'm very close to my long-term goals. Although I'm not officially training with a teacher, I have been doing martial arts drills and at this weekend's Spoke[n]Art tour, I ran in the informal races afterward, placing in the upper half in the sprint and dead last in the distance run [next time I won't be exhausted before starting the tour and will bring a lighter road bike...]

Monday, October 16, 2006

En la Zona: Nopalitos! Or, Love my cactus!

Despite a crazy month and a half of gainful employment I've managed to stay reasonably within my Zone diet while shedding another 5 pounds. This is a little tougher, since according to the Zone literature, I've had to raise my protein intake by one block. I've basically been eating lots of steak to make up the difference. Woe is me ;)

I do half of my work at home and the other half is split between travelling to festivals out of town and mixing in studios around Hollywood. I've managed to get into a groove of working out for half an hour twice a day while at home. So between martial arts training, mountain biking and running up the stairs of amphitheaters I'm averaging an hour of hard workout at least 5 days a week. So with the diet to reduce and workout to tone up, I'm slowly getting to where I want to be with my health. In two months of progress, I can already tell a difference when I kneel or genuflect, a very good thing considering how often I have to do both. I'm down to around 210 lbs and my waist size is now a 36, down from 40...

Despite my progress, another difficulty has been the recent contamination of bagged spinach, a staple of Zoners.
Being a Mex-"I Can", I've found an amazing replacement - Cactus.

What?

That's right, cactus, or Nopalitos is a high fiber, low carbo vegetable which, like spinach, can be eaten in massive quantities with negligible impact on the Zone diet. Fortunately, I can walk to the back fence of my yard and harvest enough nopalitos to make myself a feast in the morning so it works perfectly for me.

So, here's a recipe for Bistec con Nopalitos [Steak with Cactus]:

Ingredients:
2.5 cups of Cactus Leaves [Nopalitos]
5 oz Beef Tenderloin "Milanesa"
2 Tomatos
1 Tortilla
.25 cups Mexican Onions


Begin by cleaning and removing the needles from the nopalitos.

DISCLAIMER: Cacti have needles. If you're not comfortable cleaning the cacti yourself, use canned 'cactus leaves' from Freida's or Goya. Otherwise, If you want to do it the old-fashioned way, follow this method, but don't sue me! With that out of the way, let's continue...

Carefully lay each piece of cactus flat on a cutting board and using a sharp knife, cut the outside edges off, while holding the base of the leaf against the board with a finger, taking care not to impale yourself with any needles. Next, scrape the wide sides of the cactus with the knife untill you have thouroughly removed any traces of needle. They actually come off easily, as they're designed to do in the soft part of your Gluteus Maximus. Once the leaves are free of needles, rinse and dice them. Dice the onions next. If you don't have access to Mexican onions, green onions will do.

"Milanesa" is a thin, lean Mexican cut of meat. I prefer to grill meat, but in this case I'm in a hurry so I fried it. Next the onions and napolitos are sauteed with a wee bit of olive oil 'til the cacti are cooked all the way through. You can tell they're done when the 'gooey' soft inside is hardened.

Lightly toast the Tortilla on a griddle or tortilla warmer, slice the tomatoes and serve something that looks like this:



This is approximately 5 blocks for you zoners out there, and even if you're not dieting is an easy way to serve something exotic for dinner.

PEACE

G

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Gonna Climb a Mountain

There’s an old saying often used for those trying to recover from years of slothfulness:

No Pain, No Gain…

As a colloquialisms go the phrase is overdue for retirement but the message remains timely. So after about three weeks of blissful easy reduction, I’m down around 12 lbs and purchased size 36 jeans for the first time since 1994. This was a big thing for me, given that I was filling up a size 40 a year ago. Of course now the real work starts. I’ve begun riding the mountain bike daily, trying to get in a dozen+ miles a week. Wary that I am of injury I’m setting very small goals for myself rather than try to knock myself out. In addition I just hung the 100-pound bag with which to resume martial arts training. Quite a trip it was to dust off my boxing gloves again. ‘Though not quite as fast, the jab-hook-cross that is my family trademark is still there.

The interesting thing about boxing and biking is that they both involve rhythmic breathing. As obsessed as I am with breathing in my esoteric studies, I’m finding that it’s really enhancing my training. I had some of my first Gnostic experiences while distance running and these days it easy for me to go there while biking up to the Angeles Crest. Getting Practice in with my training is time well spent.

What I am learning is the interesting role pain plays in the transformational process. The first weeks of any serious workout routine are always the most painful. I'm getting a good taste of the ‘dark side’ of Abraxas in the midst of all this. At the risk of sounding inappropriate, I'm experiencing quite a bit of transcendence from pain lately and I find it intriguing. Mind you, I still prefer trancing out in ways that don't hurt me, but there is something to be said about what pain can remind the soul...


...and on that note, I gotta go get my gloves on so I can "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee"...




...stay tuned I have some recipes to share soon...

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Before...


Okay, by request here's a picture taken on my Ordination to the Sub Deanconate, about a year and a halfish ago. I'm at 250 lbs, hair pulled back, other health stats through the roof. I have since lost about 25 lbs and have my coronary system somewhat under control...

Friday, August 18, 2006

No Mas Buki

Ever since I was a young boy, the length of my hair has been a symbol of my personal freedom. Having struggled through my adolescence during the ‘70s, freedom meant having long hair. At the ripe old age of 14 I went pro in a business where long hair on men was the norm, so it all sort of worked out. During the early ‘80s there was a brief period where I had short spikey hair, but felt free to dye it bright purple. Wow, those were the days. By the time I moved to LA in the late ‘80s I had the kind of mane everyone on Sunset Strip had. About the time Rock-n-Roll musicians began to shave their heads and invest in prison-style tattoos, I had already been focused on acoustic music, so long hair was still appropriate at Renaissance fairs, folkie festivals and early music concerts. Suffice it to say my hair's been long, really long, for over a quarter century.

I’d gone all the way through the minor orders of the clergy with waist-length hair when, as an acolyte, my sister asked me to be the celebrant at her wedding. Being one of those people in my life who disdains long hair, just for her I had it cut shoulder length. The interesting effect of this was that suddenly I looked like the identical twin of Marco Antonio Solis, aka “el Buki”, which was a great conversation starter in Latino circles. This went on for a couple of years, until this month. After a wave of 110+ degree heat, I decided anything I could do to offset the effect of 5 layers of heavy garments on Sunday morning would be good. I was ready for a change as well so I asked around for advice about where to get a hair cut. A friend referred me to a place less than a block away from where my church had been for decades, that I’d even joked about ‘never ever going in there’. Funny thing about using that word, ‘never’.

So there I am in a barber shop, waiting for a random person to call my name and remove a big symbol of my ego. When at last I sat down in the chair, I was so nervous and excited I couldn’t help but tell the stylist about how long it had been since I’d done it and wasn’t sure what to do.

“It’s hard for me to get excited” she said, “I do this everyday.”

Sorry Honey. I see that Hollywood has been good to you, too. Now the old me would have either used the same vitriolic diplomacy that has earned me a career as an ‘industry person’ or even worse, described in great detail into which parts of her anatomy she should dispense with her clippers. I took a bitter shot of pride instead and just sat there as she began to cut me. No sooner had she begun, my phone rang. Now I am usually repulsed by folks who rudely brandish their cell phones, but the timing was perfect. Sure enough, one of my friends was in the neighborhood wondering what I was up to.

“I’m at Rudy’s barber shop, getting my hair cut off.” I report.

“Dewd! Really! I’m blocks away, I’ll be right over!”

“Saved by the bell” I think. My friend shows up and takes charge, keeping the hairdresser honest by making her cut it shorter and trimming the beard and burns. Before I have had time to think about it, my locks are on the floor and I’m looking at my face in the mirror.

“No mas Buki, eh?” I ask.

“No mas Buki” came the laughing reply.

Now this barber shop is next door to that notorious Gnostic watering hole, El Chavo, so I press the pause button on my diet and buy the first round of margaritas. I’m not sure how many Zone blocks there are in a margarita or the subsequent lemon martinis. Add in the enchiladas al cocinero and I likely would have needed an entire turkey to offset the carbs. What was I to do? I couldn’t let a quarter century pass with a bowl of spinach. Fortunately this all started rather early and I managed to get my requisite six hours of sleep.

The following morning, I don my t-shirt, rabbot, cassock, amice, alb and tunicle and aid in the serving of mass. With my piel Irlandesa [pale, sensitive skin] I perspire if the temperature is over 65 degrees. Despite this, I was actually comfortable in all that fabric. More importantly I realized I’d let go of one of the last major vestiges of my façade. Talk about a rite of passage…

...So after a week or so of this personal transmutation, I have hair above the collar and have reduced my weight by several pounds. Not bad considering I’d slipped big time on Saturday. I’m sure the hair counted for some of it. For me it’s not about the pounds but how I feel. I refuse to be in bondage where food is concerned, so I’ve been keeping to my regimen but not being my obsessive compulsive self about the quantities. Just changing the ratio of what things I eat seems like it might work. I can just start to see the impression of my ribs, so I think I’ll continue.

Next task: Adapting my beans-and-torts Mexican food diet to a low carb/high protein style.

Wish me luck….

PEACE

G

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Restoring a Classic

Prologue

Okay, so as you may have read on my other blog, Rosa de Rosas, I’ve come to the realization that putting effort into maintaining my body might actually help in my quest for enlightenment. Not that I worship or idolize it or anything, it’s just that it’s the vessel (taken here in the vehicular sense) in which my soul will travel in this life. Considering how hard the journey is at times, I figure I may as well “pimp my ride”.


So with the goal of making my physical self like a Big Daddy Roth caricature of a ’62 El Camino, I have decided to do some ‘wrenching”. First off I’m gonna do a bit of chop-and-section work. I’d like to actually see my ribs again, so some body weight needs to go. To this end I’ve decided I will try Dr. Barry Sears’ Zone Diet. I’m not normally the kind of person who would think of trying a diet from the New York Times’ bestseller list, but I’ve actually witnessed the results in other people. One of my circle of friends has tried it and has offered to coach me. She’s an indie film maker / actress / theater person so she was already in pretty good shape but having shed 40 lbs. over the last year looks like a yoga magazine model now. The surprising thing is that she doesn’t seem to have to deal with the drama of hassling every waiter about her diet when ever she’s out with the gang. She can eat steak, drink wine and you’d never know she was dieting.

I’ve already been reducing my weight for over a year now, so this shouldn’t be too difficult. By the way, my Chiropractor /Physical Therapist scolded me for saying that I’d “lost” weight. To loose something is negative – to reduce or shed it is positive. So after some friends persuaded me that my two-pint-a-day beer habit was not exactly a healthy thing, I’ve stopped drinking beer during the work week, from Monday morning to Friday afternoon. Just this one change in my diet has allowed me in 12 months to reduce by 25 lbs, and two inches in my waist line. Great. To reduce any further will require more work, but I’m ready for that, I think. I’ve also decided that in order to repair my body I need to rest consistently so I’m going to make myself sleep an average of 6 hours a night. My work often keeps me from doing this, but I’m going to try to average it out 6 hours/night over the course of a work week.



Starting Out

So to begin here’s what my stats look like:

August 10, 2006

Weight: 240 lbs

Waist: 41

Wrist: 7.75

% Body Fat: 24

Pulse: 84 (Mid-Day, slight stress)

Zone Blocks per Day: 15


My short term goals are to:

See my ribs and move mi pansa north to my chest.

Sleep an average of 6 hours a night.

My long term goals are to:

Resume martial arts training.

Compete in an endurance sport.

So with these rather simple goals in mind I’m going to report my progress here. I’ve already been on this program for a few days while setting up this blog so I’ll have a report at the end of the week.


PEACE

G