Saturday 8 February 2014

Quick Update with a glance of things to come.....

I haven't had a lot of time to update my blog, I think I may change to video blog's to update more often. I have been very busy in the kitchen. I got a ton of new equipment and have been trying a lot of new recipes out. My next video series I want to do is a Paleo healthy hamburger with fixings. I have tried 4 different paleo bread/bun recipes and one is decent. I just need to get the measurements and timing on making it into a hamburger bun down. I have found an awesome ketchup recipe. I am still tweaking my mayo recipe it is decent but could use a little something more. I have tried a few tricks with the hamburger patty. One patty turned out to be a sausage, it was wicked with some dijon mustard. Too much reading up on sausage making and burger making at the same time, got my brain crossed. LoL. I tried a mix of turnip and sweet potato fries but yesterday I made a mix of carrot, turnip, parsnip diced up and oven roasted with thyme and summer savory that was epic. I made an apple bacon coleslaw today that turned out decent, maybe a bit more mayo and my mayo to be a bit better or more like a coleslaw dressing would make it pop.

So there you have it, quiet Tim is busy Tim.

Hopefully soon I will start creating 6-12 video's on how to do each different part of putting together an awesome healthy hamburger platter.

In the meantime check out cooking caveman, I love his style!
http://cookingcaveman.tumblr.com/
and on you tube
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheCookingCaveman/feed

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Exercise Routine information.

This is going to contain the detailed layout of my first 3 month routine and my second (current) 3 month routine.

I really believe working out in 3 month intervals is a great time frame to do a routine. It just seems like a sweet spot. Not to long to get boring or for your muscles to get used to the same thing. But long enough to get to "up the weight" on moves that you have gotten good form with.

Monday 13 January 2014

Can't find a good Vegetable Broth.

My experience with vegetable broth, the perilous journey with much frustration and very little broth. Entire story to be written soon.

The Story Thus Far...

This Blog Post will be a history of my journey with food to bring you all up to current day.

It begins at my heaviest, 256 lbs. give or take. I was eating everything an average North American male eats. Pizza, burgers, pasta, all in quantities of a growing teenager. Problem was I was 30 years old and my metabolism was nose diving. At this point I got back into Ice Hockey, 2-3 hrs a week started pushing my weight back down a little, maybe 10 pounds the first season. The next year I added drinking green tea instead of a large tea with 3 milk and 1 sugar. Another 10 pounds left that year, I also had a little weight loss competition at work before Christmas. I came in second without doing any additional working out by eating only salad. It was hardly sustainable. I love beef way to much for that. And slowly those regular tea's crept back in among the green tea.

So mid February 2013 I read "The Paleo Solution" by Robb Wolf and I went hardcore. I got all the grains, legumes, and dairy products minus a few of my daughter specific items she relied on heavily and put them all on the kitchen table. The countdown had started. A few days later they were removed from the house. One of the first things I did was put a big fruit bowl in the middle of the kitchen table. Apples, avocado and bananas mainly filled it. We also purchased a juicer, after watching "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead", "Food Inc." and some other good food documentaries we were intent on doing a fair bit of juicing. We were doing it, mostly. There was still tea with milk, and sugar was still on the menu. I had passion again for cooking and I wasn't going into  carb comas after 2-3 slices of pizza! I also started doing modified P90X on top of Ice Hockey, mostly 3 weight training days in the early morning (4am).

Within 5 months I went from 236 lbs. to 175-180 lbs. I surpassed what I thought was my goal weight by 10-15 lbs! OK that's it, the story is done...cheers!

Not even close, we were still only 80-90% "Paleo" with cheats happening more and more. A Swiss chocolate bar was my go to treat. And during the summer I was having quite a few girly alchoholic drinks that are loaded with sugar.

In the fall I had to change my workout routine, I had no zip in the mornings and doing it alone and the same thing was wearing me down. I'll tell you what significantly helped my relationship with my best friend and partner, we decided to workout together with weights 3 times a week. Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. But we needed a workout we both could do in our house. So I worked on making a heavily modified workout based off of some of the things I had already been doing that would be suitable for her as well. It turned out great and was something we both could talk about and be excited about. We had our diet and exercise as passions that we shared and it is great. Her best friend even comes over and works out with us. The workouts were great. We had a 3 month stretch for that routine. Then came Christmas 2013.

Potato Chips, dip, whiskey, chocolate, wine, and more. Well let me tell you, it did not make me feel good afterwards to eat those things. My body wants good, healthy food. It's like pouring regular gasoline into a high performance car, I couldn't get out of neutral! I couldn't get up in the mornings. My energy levels were still mediocre at best, and getting to sleep was a toss-n-turn-a-thon.

How to turn it around? My new years resolutions were threefold. No Dairy, No Sugar, and No Elevators unless necessary for work.

"It Starts With Food" by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig is a book that we read over Christmas and it has a 30 day reset. It is "Paleo" but a little more strict. No sugar among other items... I'm on day 14 now. Yesterday I walked over 21 km and still had energy to spare. I wake up refreshed and ready to go. Getting to sleep has improved by quiet a lot! I have more energy and passion to put into my time with family, cooking, work, ice hockey, and more.

I also put together a new workout routine for 2014, it really up'ed the ante!! We are loving it so far and feel it is much more effective then my last one. I will make a post specifically outlining our new routine. It is considering beginners/novices will be doing it and it is in your own home with little room or gear. I will also put in my first 3 month routine in that post as it may be more suitable for the beginning of your journey with working out if you haven't done any or much in the past.

My goal now is to share my recipes I create and improve on so everyone has some easy go to meals to help them down a healthier path. Whether it be Paleo or what you think is the best choice. Do your research and come to your own conclusion's. And if some of my recipes are delicious dishes you add to your culinary lineup I will be happy to have helped.