Discouraging

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

I bought my new bike wheel on April 13th, I think.  My first ride was on April 14th so I’m going to assume it’s the 13th when I got the wheel.  I have 2 weeks worth of riding in my log which technically is only 3 days per week.  But in those 2 weeks I haven’t lost 1lb.  It’s a bit discouraging when you ride so far and get no results from it.

I guess in all fairness I wouldn’t lose the weight so easily with only 3 days per week but I’ve just stared exercising again so it’s not going to be easy on my legs to just get back into the routine again.  I mean, when I first started riding last year I only rode for half a mile before my legs were just killing me because I hadn’t ridden in so many years.  And it took me 2 weeks just to get to the point where I was riding for 6 miles a day.  Then I went up to 10 miles a day then next thing you know I was able to ride 18 miles.  That of course was only 2 days that I did that.  I knew it was too much so I went back to 10 miles per day.

My point is that I’ve started up again going 10 miles a day instead of easing myself into it.  So it’s a bit discouraging that 30 miles a week gives me no results.

That first week that I was riding Darrin got his check on that Friday so he wanted to go to Hometown Buffet on Sunday for dinner when he got off work.  Then the very next day was his day off and he took me to China Town Buffet.  Oh and plus we went to Taco Bell.  I knew I wasn’t going to lose weight that first week but come on, the buffets and Taco Bell were a bit much for someone who is working so hard to lose weight.

The 2nd week I wasn’t even trying hard enough to eat right.  I’d have a bowl of cereal for breakfast or some days just toast then go ride and eat a Tiger’s Milk bar when I got to the half hour mark when I took my break to give me the strength and energy to get back home.  But then I’d come home and I was so hungry that I’d end up eating 2 sandwiches.  Some days I’d eat a whole box of Macaroni and Cheese (cooked of course duh lol).  That’s definitely not good for trying to lose some weight.

I’ve taken the last 2 days off.  The day before yesterday I took off because I had ridden 2 days in a row and my legs just needed a break.  Then that day I couldn’t breathe through my nose so I took yesterday off thinking I was coming down with a cold but I was fine.  I’m still a little stuffed up.  But I’m taking today off too because it’s Chips day off.  Plus our dog doesn’t seem to be doing too well for some reason.  I don’t know whats wrong with her.  She might be constipated or she might be sick.  We can’t take her to the vet so we’re watching her.

This week I have to really focus on what I eat and I have to try hard to get motivated to ride because I don’t want to be discouraged.  I need to lose this weight.  We’re talkin 90lbs here that I have to lose.  I have to try so hard to eat less to shrink my stomach so that I get full faster so I don’t overeat.  I’m going to try the best that I can.  I don’t have any money until Friday though so I have to eat what we got in the house.  I’m going to buy a head of lettuce though to try to eat some salad for lunch today and maybe for dinner too.  That should help start getting my stomach smaller.

I think one of the things that is stopping me is the stress from thinking about it too hard.  They say that stress raises your Cortisol levels which makes it harder to lose the weight.  I’ve been documenting my every move (my rides that is) so maybe that is causing more stress than anything.  Plus the stress every time I weigh myself.  UGH!

I think the new plan should be to write down all the info from the bike computer but not think too much about it.  Try my best to start eating salads and maybe even sliced cucumbers and carrots etc.  Just eat veggies as much as possible to help with my hunger pangs.  And maybe put the scale in the back of the car so Darrin takes it to work with him so I don’t have any way of weighing myself every day.  Just do my weekly weigh in.  Or maybe a month weigh in.  That should help if I only weigh in once a month.

Oh that reminds me.  (I’m sorry, this post is getting too long.)  A few years ago I think I was 212lbs and so I started eating salads.  I wasn’t restricting myself on what I put in it.  I put sliced olives, hard-boiled egg or tuna, cucumbers, carrot and I used the salad mix (not head of lettuce) and I used ranch dressing.  I didn’t weigh myself at all for 3 months and I got down to 170lbs.  All of a sudden I weighed myself and that was the end of the weight loss.  Weighing myself put stress on me to keep losing weight so I was constantly weighing myself and the weight started coming back on.  Maybe I should just act like I’m not trying to lose weight and eat the salads again but not weigh myself ever again lol.

YouTube Movies and TV Shows

On By Michel McDonaldIn Movies, TVLeave a comment

I’m a bit behind in the news.  I know that YouTube has movies and TV Shows or they just added that recently.  Yesterday I watched “The Blue Lagoon”.  I never saw it.  It came out in 1980 and I was 10 at the time so I wasn’t able to see it for obvious reasons.  It’s rated R.  Not only that but I’d have to be an adult to really get it.  So I watched it and really understood it.  Such a sad and happy ending.

Anyway, they don’t have a whole lot of movies and TV shows yet because they just started but I’m sure they will have every movie and TV show ever made available for all to see.

I usually watch TV shows on Hulu because they have them like the very next day usually after airing on TV.  Sometimes I have to wait a few days after the show airs on TV but it’s not too long.  And you can subscribe to TV shows on Hulu so they email you to let you know a show is on their website so you don’t miss it.

This will certainly put Netflix out of business if people are able to just watch their movies right from YouTube.  Netflix is going to have to think fast and lower their prices and offer unlimited viewing through their website to compete.

The movies and tv shows you watch on YouTube do have commercials.  I was thinking that perhaps watching YouTube movies is like stealing from the actors and the production companies but the commercials probably make up for that.  The Blue Lagoon had like 10 commercials, it was all the same commercial just played every 10 minutes or so.  So that probably pays for it all so YouTube can continue showing them for free.

It’s the same thing as watching regular TV, you still have to watch commercials, but only 1 commercial, not 2 minutes worth of commercials.  More like 1 30 second commercial.  I think that I can handle being interrupted every 10 or so minutes by a 30 second commercial and be able to watch it for free than have to wait for the movies to come in the mail via Netflix and have it scratched and unplayable or have it come to me broken or never even receive it at all.  Which has happened to me by the way.  But that’s another blog post for another time.

All in all I give YouTube a big thumbs up for making it available for free.

How To Change A Dell DJ Battery

On By Michel McDonaldIn Music, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

I just posted this video on YouTube.  It’s sort of a tutorial on how to change the battery in a Dell DJ-20.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svD_W3PCrSc

I got this for Christmas in 2004 but it didn’t actually arrive until the middle of January 2005 so technically the day I got it is when the warranty started.  Over the next year the battery would start to die so when I charge it it’s supposed to have 8 hours of battery life but that started going down more and more until it wouldn’t even turn on at all.

I called Dell about getting a new battery but since my warranty had lapsed (they never contacted me to renew it, I didn’t think to call them because I thought I had a 2 year warranty, that’s what I chose when we bought it through their website) so they refused to help me.  I told the person I was talking to that I basically had a $318 paper weight.  The guy said yeah I understand but without a warranty there is nothing we can do.  I asked about buying a new battery, they wanted like $75 for a new one.  I couldn’t afford that.

So it sat in a drawer until September 2008 when I wanted to start riding my bike for exercise.  I didn’t want to ride without my tunes so I went on eBay and found a battery for a Dell DJ-20.  Unfortunately it was .50mm too wide and it would’ve ended up costing me more than the battery was worth to send it back so I said screw it, I’ll make it work.

In this video I will demonstrate how to remove the old one and put in the new one.  Although mine I couldn’t put it in so I had to tape it to the back.  But it works and that’s all that matters.  I actually put the Dell DJ into a neoprene camera case to protect it.

I don’t know why but when I was video taping myself doing this my hands all of a sudden got so shaky.  I was kinda afraid of breaking it when pulling the old battery out even though I had to put it in for this video and then take it back out lol.  I knew what I was doing because I did it before but I got nervous all of a sudden I guess.

Anyway, for those people who have been searching for this, here you go.  I would’ve embedded the video in here but it just looks better at the YouTube website since it’s widescreen.

Neat Breakfast Ideas

On By Michel McDonaldIn FoodLeave a comment

I was just thinking of something.  Why go to McDonald’s for a breakfast sandwich when you have the Big City Sliders Station?  All you have to do is buy some ground up sausage meat then roll it into balls and press them with this thing but don’t cook it in there.  Just pop them out and cook them on the skillet (or BBQ).

Then beat some eggs and pour them into the 5 spaces and of course, as per instructions cook on low heat for 4 minutes.  Obviously since it’s eggs you can’t press them and you can’t use that top press piece to put on top of the eggs, it’s too heavy and the eggs will come out and get all over the place.  So what I think is let them cook for a few minutes.  Since they are small spaces they won’t take that long to cook then you can just add the lid when it’s pretty solid.  It says that you can flip them so that’s a good idea I guess if you can.  Make sure you use Pam.

Then once you are done cooking the eggs and the sausage take some English muffins or better yet, make some fresh baked biscuits.  Preferably from the recipe from the Bisquick mix instead of the ones that are in a tube.  Those are never right.  But when those are done just slice it then place the sausage on the bottom, a piece of cheese (optional) on top of the sausage then add the egg on top.

I’m sure this will be such a good sandwich.  And since they are so tiny you could enjoy a few of them.  I can’t wait to try this.  When I do I’m going to take some pictures and add it to the recipes page heh.

The Heat Is Gone

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I know the song is “The Heat Is On” but for us in Bakersfield, it’s gone.  This is for the time being.  The last few days has been really hot, like 95°F-100°F temperatures.

I went bike riding this morning and it was nice and cool but not too cold.  I thought for sure it was going to be a scorcher today but it wasn’t.  Although there were times that I had to pull over into the shade because the sun was beating me down.

I looked at the forecast until Monday and it’s going to be in the late 70’s to mid 80’s all week.  Then the 6-10 day forecast it shows next week is going to be in the mid 80’s too.  Even on May 1st which is usually the day the 100°F temperatures start coming.

Although, you can never rely 100% on the weather forecast because it’s not always accurate.  So perhaps by May 1st it will be so hot I’m gonna be bike riding at 5am.

Big City Slider Station

On By Michel McDonaldIn Food, Products I LikeLeave a comment

I got the Big City Slider Station today.  It was a lot smaller than I had thought it would be.  But that’s fine.  It looks neat.  I haven’t been able to use it yet because I don’t have any ground meat.  I need to get to the store.

I’ve read several blog’s about how crappy this device is and what a complete waste of $20 it is.

This one person said that when she opened her BCSS she smelled it and it had an unpleasant odor.  I didn’t smell mine but I washed it right away in warm soapy water.  The instructions say hot soapy water though.  It was hotter than regular warm so that’s good enough I guess.  But this person also said that she put it on the stove for 15 minutes by itself with no burgers in it to remove all the germs or what not.  Well, I read the instructions and it clearly states not to put it on the stove without anything in it.  And you have to cook the burgers on medium, not high.  It also says not to cook it on a halogen or quartz stove surfaces yet in the commercial they are using the glass stove top.

Another person said that when he was biting into his mini burger he saw some silver on his burger and shouted STOP EATING! because the teflon was attached to the burgers.  I’m sorry but you would notice that when you finish cooking them before putting them on the buns.

Another person said that he cooked like 70 or so mini burgers for a party, just batch after batch after batch.  When he was done it was pretty nasty and he said he had to use a Brillo pad (or something like it) to clean it.  The first rule when cleaning Teflon is no wire cleaning tools that can scratch the Teflon.  Everyone knows that.

Well, the cooking time of this thing is 2-4 minutes on medium and I don’t think that after the 3rd batch the Teflon is going to start coming off if you are using it right.  That’s what another person said, after the 3rd batch it started coming off and onto the burgers.  That’s only 12 minutes of use so if that happens to them after 12 minutes of use then I’m going to guess they are cooking it on high and leaving it on the stove for long periods of time without cooking anything in it.

But, I’m going to take all these comments that I’ve read into consideration and I’m not going to cook with it.  I’m going to use it as a burger press then lay the 5 burgers on a piece of wax paper, put wax paper on top of the burgers, then add 5 more stacked and so on then put it all in a gallon zip lock bag.  The one that you suck the air out.  This way I can have maybe 30 or so mini burgers frozen and ready to use whenever I get the urge to eat some.  And I plan on cooking them with a skillet.  I know that Billy Mayes thinks that people who cook their mini burgers on a skillet are all morons who can’t cook but I’ve done pretty good cooking burgers on a skillet my whole life, I think that I’ll be ok.

Bicycle

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

I woke up at 7am with the alarm clock with the intention of leaving the house at 8:30am or when Darrin left for work.  But then I realized that I might be getting a package in the mail any day now so I just decided to wait another hour for the mail.  It’s a good thing I did because she left a big package on my doorstep and didn’t even ring the bell.  She just left it there.  If I wasn’t home when she dropped it off then someone could have taken it.  It was the Big City Slider Station from Publishers Clearing House lol.  Yeah I know, I could have gotten it from Wal-Mart but I can pay for it over the next 4 months.  I don’t have the money to spend at Wal-Mart right now.

Before the mail came I thought that I would go to Albertson’s real fast and see what they have in the way of energy bars.  When I get to a certain point my stomach starts hurting because all of a sudden it’s like I’m starving or something.  I don’t know why it does that so I wanted to get some energy bars.  They aren’t too bad I guess, most of them are a bit expensive like $1.50 – $2.  But then I saw the Tiger’s Milk bars which were only .89 cents but they also had a tag that said buy 1 get 1 free.  So I bought 3 of them and got 3 for free.  I’m going to have to go back later and buy 20 more for $10 lol.

So then I went to the bike path and didn’t stop for any rest, I was going to just rest at a Yokuts park just before Beach Park but then I figured that Beach Park is right next to Yokuts park so I might as well just keep going to Beach Park.  When I got there I sat on the cement bench and grabbed my Tiger’s Milk bar and enjoyed it.  My stomach was a little tiny bit hungry but it wasn’t too hungry but this Tiger’s Milk bar filled it.  I sat there for probably 15 minutes then I went on my way back the way I came to come home.

When I got home I took the bicycle computer off and when I opened the back door the dog (toy chihuahua) was jumping up for me to pick her up and I did then I started walking in the door and went to reach for the doorknob to close it and the computer fell out of my hand.  OMG!!!  I picked it up and it was flashing numbers as if I had just taken the battery out and replaced it so it wanted me to set it up.  This means that I had lost all my information.

Luckily I had looked at the info before I got home so I kinda knew what my trip odometer was.  It was about 10 miles which was the same exact amount of miles I went on April 17th so I just wrote down the same miles.  Also I looked at my average speed and it was 12.2 so I wrote that down on my sheet (and in the bike computer stats in the Spark People page).  My time was about the same as April 17th also so I just put 52 minutes and no seconds.  I don’t know how many calories or fat calories that was but I’m not really concerned.  The reason I say that is because going 12.2mph burns more calories than going 11.8mph.  Not that much but still, the numbers wouldn’t be the same.

So that’s it.  Tomorrow I’m going to leave at the same time as Darrin since I’m not expecting anything in the mail.  Well, I did buy him some ties for Church with crosses on them but I’m sure they will be in a small enough package that they can slip it into the big box outside.

Anthony’s on CBS Early Show

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

The parents of Casey Anthony were on the CBS Early Show this morning.  It was only a 10 minute interview but tomorrow they will have part 2.

They were very soft spoken today, not argumentative or anything negative like they have been lately.  When asked a question that Cindy did not like, she looked over to her attorney to respond for her.  She looked like she was about to fly off the handle but thought to herself that it’s counterproductive to overreact.

They know that they need to start being a lot more softer to the public because their credibility has gone out the window so they are trying to rebuild that.  Without credibility they won’t be able to help their daughter when this comes to trial.

Oprah was supposed to do this interview with them in late April but she backed out.  She was probably afraid that it wouldn’t go very good or maybe perhaps Oprah isn’t so sympathetic and knows about Cindy and George Anthony’s credibility and does not want to help them fix it.  Who really knows for sure but they can count that out.  Oprah would’ve been a lot better for them than the CBS Early Show.

Too Hot

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

Well, I’ve decided that I’m going to wait until tomorrow to ride the bike.  I took yesterday off because it was Chips day off but now the weather is getting too hot for me to even want to go riding.  I just don’t feel like it anymore.

This is my issue, if it’s too cold I don’t want to go, if it’s too hot I don’t want to go.  Well, in Bakersfield it’s only normal for a month before summer then a month after the heat dies down before winter.  So I don’t have that many options.

This is what I’m thinking.  Since it’s getting hot outside but it’s cooler in the morning then I’m going to start going out at the same time that Darrin leaves for work.  So I’m going to get up at 8am and have something to eat then at 8:30am when he leaves I will leave too.  I know that I’ve said that before and then it never happened but this is how I’m going to do it starting tomorrow.

I really need this exercise and I don’t want to suffer in the process because of the heat.  I don’t think it’s that healthy to exercise when it’s 100+ outside.  That’s why the gym has the A/C going.

When summer does come though I’m going to have to make a real effort to get up earlier in the morning, like at the crack of dawn to leave the house and get it over with.  There is no way that I’m going to be out when it’s 110-120 outside.  No way.

Actually getting out there early in the morning is probably a very good idea no matter what the temperature is.  I’ve heard from trainers that it’s better to do your work out before you go to work early in the morning.  So, perhaps getting out there early is a smart move.  Maybe this will help me lose weight easier.