Oktoberfest

Nutritional Biochemistry resumed on Friday. So we got our tests back and I did pretty well. And way better than the average. So that was nice. Got into more cycles of energy molecules. Krebs, Cori, Glycolosis... ect. Lots of very detailed, foundational material, but nothing you really use as a nutritional counselor. Luckily, I happen to find the foundational molecular stuff pretty interesting.

For dinner we went to Karen's mom's house, and helped move some furniture and work out some computer problems. Saturday was a full day of cleaning and general maintenance stuff like getting a hair cut. But Sat. night was Oktoberfest, 2 blocks from my house, so we went and hung out with friends, listened to um pa music and watched stein holding contests.

Sunday morning we attended a "meditation group" which was interesting. The weather was the best, and it was something I might do again, but perhaps earlier in the day and closer to my house. We'll see.

Then got in a ride with Carter and a guy named Nate, who had a single speed stiff (no suspension) bike, who left Carter and I in the dust. It was fun(ny) trying to keep up. Good times. Ice cream with Kiki after the ride was perfect and then a relaxing dinner and silly movie with Kaz filled Sunday night. Doesn't get much better than that.

Banff Mtn Film Fest Class Canceled

I had set my alarm for class and woke up ready to go, but as I was getting ready, I got an email from the professor that class was canceled. I was looking forward to going because we were to get our test grades back, and I was thinking about staying after class and checking out the schools big gym facility. Oh well. So I had an extra 4 or more hrs to do whatever I wanted!

I took Maddog to the disc golf course first, and we had a great time. The weather was just incredible. Cooler but sunny. Awesome. Dropped Maddog off back at the house, and hopped on the Blur for a ride around the city trails. Clocked a little over 14 miles in 2 hrs. Pretty good time for me. And still gorgeous weather!



Made a Trader Joes run and stopped by Performance Bike shop and got some more chain lube and cleaner. Dinner and a movie with Karen was a great time. Saturday we went to the Farmer's market. Always good stuff there. And looked at the art festival. Couldn't afford to get anything there. Oh well.

Banff Mtn Film Fest was on Saturday night. We were rushing around trying to get there by 6:30, and ended up being about half an hour late. When we walked in, we were pleasantly surprised that the show started at 7, and we were exactly on time. Awesome!


Sunday I got a little reading in for school and a little clean up around the apartment. Not nearly as much as I should've for either, but still working on it. Decorated the work cube wall late last week which I'm really liking. Just some 4x6 pics of recent trips and memories.

Pictures from around the neighborhood

So the last couple weekends have been a little more tame. More biking around Richmond, and hanging out with friends. Seeing a movie here and there, and more relaxing. Here's some pictures I've taken from around the neighborhood, usually while walking Maddog.

Nutrition school is going pretty well. I'm still researching long term goal paths though, because the RD path is long, arduous and doesn't pay anything while doing a year long internship. That doesn't sound very appealing. Hopefully more updates on that soon.

Still working on a name and a scheme for the new blog. Hopefully that'll be up and running soon too. Until then, be well.

Vacation +

Couple weeks behind now. Karen and I went on vacation to Maine in the middle of August to escape the VA heat, and visit a place neither of us had ever been. It was amazing! There were a few hiccups along the way including a whale watching tour that sent both our stomachs for a loop, and getting rained out of Baxter St park and Katahdin Mt. and sleeping in the "boat house" aka a shed. But we were on vacation and in Maine, so it was great! We visited some great people along the way and got some bike riding in and had a great time together. Here's a picture link if you haven't seen them on Facebook or Google+ yet.

Coming back to work is always a rude awakening, but we're back in the swing of things now. And new swings too. I started class last week. One class on Wednesday afternoon and another class Friday morning. Nutritional counseling and Nutritional Biochemistry. After one class of each, so far so good. They will be interesting and helpful.

Here's another call out to see if anyone has any suggestions on blog names for my new blog. Karen and I have come up with several good ideas, but I just wanted to throw out a line and see if anyone else had any good ideas.

This past weekend, after my Friday class, I dropped off Maddog, and headed up to Northern VA. Scott and I went to the shooting range and also had a great mountain bike ride at Fountainhead park. What a great trail! And then I finally saw "The Avengers!" and what a great movie! Saturday night I caught up with an OLD friend on the phone on my drive home and then met up with good people at Avalon. Sunday included some clean up and then some school reading and hanging out at Karen's in the afternoon and having dinner with her and her mom. Another great weekend!

Birthday bash!

Lots of fun was had this past weekend. Friday we had an unofficial softball party, with a few players and special guests. Always great food on the grill, like chocolate spiced chicken, grilled veggies and hot dogs. Painkillers, mojitos, chips and salsa and good people. Not to mention it's walking distance to my place, and can take Maddog to play with his friend. "Take me out to the ball game" on the accordion also happened, along with a lesson if you wanted one. What else do you need on a Friday night?

Saturday was the 4th Annual Richmond Moonlight Ride. This was my first time participating in this event, but I'd definitely do it again. It was a ton of fun. Just me, some good friends, and nearly 3000 of our riding buddies riding through the streets of downtown Richmond. The streets were shut down just for us. If I was trying to drive anywhere I'm sure it would've been a hassle, but I wasn't, and it was great! We did the 17 mile loop in about an hour, and 9 min and then hung out in the parking lot listening to music, and enjoying some 2 wheel comradery.

Sunday was Kaz's birthday! I brought over some home made breakfast sandwiches to spec. English muffin (gluten free), fried egg, and cheese, with raspberry jam! My first; one of her favorties, and quite delicious! In the afternoon, we went to Ann and Michael's house for some yard games and dinner with friends. It was great! She had a blast and so did everyone else. We had Volleyball, badminton, bocce ball, croquet, ladder ball and corn hole. Along with great food like Kiki's symphony brownies, deviled eggs, and salmon, as well as Jen's famous goat cheese and pecan salad and delicious ratatouille made from home grown veggies, it was a feast. And the best part, it was all a surprise! Thanks to everyone that helped put it together and keep it quiet. Happy birthday Kaz!

Ping pong, dinner, Maine!

Friday night we played some ping pong, and I got my butt kicked. Even after a drink, I lost every time. So we tried our hands at pool, and that was terrible! We both haven't played pool in I don't know how long, and it showed. We are no pool sharks, that's for sure.

Saturday night we went to a birthday dinner for one of Karen's co-workers at Kitchen 64. That was a lot of fun. And then we headed over to Crossroads to hear a band play and hang out with some other friends.

Went for a solo ride on Sunday morning around the city trails from my apt. I felt like I was going slow and had to keep pushing myself to keep going. But I ended up not being too far off a personal best. So that was respectable. Capped off the evening with dinner and planning for Maine! Just a couple weeks (less now). It's gonna be awesome!




If you have any suggestions for the name of my new blog, leave it in the comments. Thanks!

New Blog?

Feedback time. Should I have 2 blogs? One with "what I did over the weekend" and another for "health and wellness topics?" Or keep it simple with one site and include both? Cast your vote!

1 Blog or 2

I'll tell you about today which is both... I'm volunteering at Appomattox Area Health and Wellness Center just south of Petersburg, VA. I've been working on Thursdays, helping out with diabetes counseling, and weight management, which a lot of times end up being very similar recomendations. Imagine that. It's a little tough though, because they heavily promote the DASH diet, and the MyPlate.gov information, which I disagree with. I do need to get better about finding the commonalities, and quit harping on the differences between my reading and their info. Karen has been great about helping with that mental barrier.
It's been really cool though. I've learned quite a bit about how to deal with a tough population, and real world issues, like safety around patients neighborhoods, transportation issues, and money restrictions. It'd be nice to tell everyone to eat all organic, and grass fed meat, and the like, but that's just not physically possible. It's been eye opening and very interesting.
I'll have to wait and see what days I can work there in future after I get signed up for a (couple?) fall classes.

Alright, so that was really just a "what I'm doing" post, but it relates to health and wellness. The meat of a second blog would mostly be article summaries, and why you shouldn't believe the low fat, low carb, low cholesterol hype. Maybe some pictures of what I eat. Like this one. Lamb steak and eggplant; peeled, sliced, doused in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper (a la Karen). Delicious.

Backlog of weekends

Class has ended. No more quizzes, no more reading 2 chapters a day, no more projects. For now. It's my summer vacation, and while the classes were interesting and I think I learned a lot, I'm not missing the time crunch it placed on my life. The summer classes being 4.5 weeks long were very fast paced. We went to the Richmond funny bone comedy club as a celebratory outing which was lots of fun. Saturday was errands as it was misty drizzly most of the day, and then I finally got to hang out with Lamar and family for dinner and see their new place. Very fun.


Yesterday I went on a long mtn bike ride with Carter, and some random guy.  The ride itself was awesome. The random guy, what an experience.... we'll just leave it at that and if you want to know more, I'll tell you in person. ~22 miles, 4:45 hrs (including breaks) later, my legs were destroyed and my butt was angry. My rear tire flatted. Didn't bring enough food. Slow going up a lot of the time. Beautiful weather. Incredible views and the ride down... ooooh the ride down. Roughly an hour of speed induced adrenaline goosebumps, tearing through the woods, forearms get tired from squeezing the breaks so hard, awesomeness! And at the end, a lake to take a dip in, wash and cool off. Excellent! Then it was off to a friends house for a barbque. Although, I got there "late" I was just in time for the food, so that worked out well since I hadn't eaten much other than some bars on the ride. Who was hungry? Yeah. 

July 5th-8th, Karen and I went to Asheville, NC. What a great little town. Great food, great hiking, and we missed out on the 104 degree weather in Richmond. Score! We stayed in a Yurt for 2 nights and that was awesome! Simple, quite, relaxing. I'd highly recommend it. Did some hiking which was fun too. Here's a few pictures, and hopefully I'll add more shortly, now that classes are done and I have more time to putz around on the computer doing what I want to do. Oh, and I found a squirrel nest in my engine. Thanks a lot jerks!

Got some disc golf in last weekend before the overly oppressive heat set in. Lots of trees were down from the past couple storms. Planned on riding but got rained out with another afternoon thunderstorm. Made some green salsa from the tomatillos in my Farm Table box, and played around with Maddog. I think that about covers the last few weeks. Here's a few more pics. 

Agave: Is it a healthy alternative to sugar?

Agave. All natural, organic, raw... you’ve seen the labels. You’ve been marketed into thinking agave nectar is farmed by humble Mexicans trying to get the good stuff out to the world, and that it’s a healthy substitute for sugar and syrup. We are led astray, thinking we are eating the sap from the agave plant. Traditionally, in Mexico, the plant is tapped for its sap, the sap is boiled for a couple hours to extract some of the water, and the you are left with something similar to maple syrup they call miel de agave (honey of agave). This is what the agave nectar manufacturers want us to believe and have done a good job so far in pushing this idea.

The stuff on the store shelves, is quite a different product than the traditional miel de agave. It’s actually made from the bulb root of the agave plant, which looks akin to a pineapple. The main component of this root is starch, very much like corn or rice, and inulin, which is an indigestible fiber. This root, is dug up and processed in a similar fashion as corn is, when turning it into high fructose corn syrup. They throw in some enzymes and some chemicals to break down the starch and inulin of the bulb, into its smaller chemical parts, namely fructose and glucose. The worst part is that when the processing is done, the end result of the syrup is roughly 70% fructose.

At 55% fructose in sodas, high fructose corn syrup is 15% less fructose than agave nectar. Everyone knows fructose is bad right? That’s why people shy away from high fructose corn syrup and trend towards artificial sweeteners or stevia. But why is fructose bad? Fructose is in fruit. That’s how it got its name. Fructose = fruit sugar. The problem is that while fruit has loads of other vitamins and minerals, fructose in sodas or processed foods is just empty calories. The fact that it’s void of any nutritional value should be enough of a reason to avoid fructose as a sweetener.

When you eat fruit, you get a healthy dose of Vitamin C along with your fructose. Vit. C helps the liver process the fructose more efficiently and reduces the risk of fatty liver disease. Fructose can be detrimental to health when calories consumed are in excess. Sodas and such add extra calories without the fiber, or nutrients of fruit, or the filling feeling of real food, so extra calories are very easy to consume with HFCS.

Agave has even more fructose, and similar to HFCS, adds calories without fiber, nutrients or filling properties, and can therefore easily cause excess calorie intake, increasing risks for obesity and other health issues that come along with it. Stevia, is extremely low calorie, can be grown at home and used sparingly while your taste buds adjust to eating less sweets.

Concert, sushi, and brownies

The storms this weekend were a little much. Thankfully I didn't lose power like some other 3 million people did. There were times I thought it'd go out for sure, but I got lucky this time. Karen and I went to Sushi-O Saturday night and had some really good sushi and sake. We were thinking about going to see a band play after, but the storm rolled in and we decided to call it a night.

Brandi Carlile

Friday night, on one the hottest nights of the year so far, we went to an outdoor concert. The music was excellent and it is an awesome venue, and the freezer packs felt great. Right on the skin, down the shirt, up the shorts; the freezer packs probably felt violated, but it was the only way the heat was tolerable. That and portable fans.

Sunday morning I went on a ride, and put away 3 liters of water in about 2 hrs. I probably sweat out 4. There was quite a bit of damage from the storms on the trails. Took us a little longer to ride it due to breaks from the heat and walking over downed trees. I made some gluten free brownies in my new ceramic pan, which worked out really well. Did some school work so I can enjoy a mini vacation this coming weekend after the 4th. Looking forward to Asheville, NC! It's gonna be a yurt thing.

g-free brownies

Trails torn up

Fires in CO are at least improving. My parents are good to go thankfully. It was about 2 miles away from them and now it's more contained and farther from populated areas. There's also a fire right here in VA burning up one of my favorite mountains, Old Rag. Over 1000 acres have burned already. Hopefully those will be be completely contained soon.

Look for the agave post tomorrow.