7vs7 Final Day

I sleep in YAY that hasn't happened in a long time.

9:30 AM Apple slices, raw almonds and lemon water

11:05 AM Banana, I haven't really been hungry today

4:27 PM I finish soaking some beans and starting turning it into a soup. Potatoes, Barley, celery, roma tomatoes, carrots are added along with pepper and salt. I eat a banana to hold me over until it is ready.

5:40 Pm I test a bowl of the soup it is delicious and I think I made enough to last a week LOL

7:58 PM Having had enough of school for the day I snack on an Orange and a half cup of soup

And the Winner is it is I says Me!

And down goes the defending champion Andrew I must say I am pretty shocked by this development. I am sure the pizza was delicious but it could have waited another day couldn't it?

At least Andrew went out in a great way:


7vs7 2 Day 6: Out! from Andrew Zahler on Vimeo.

Since I do not have a web camera I am going to use this highly appropriate clip from an extremely awesome show as my rebuttal:

7vs7 Friday

Sorry for the late post my whole morning got derailed between physical therapy and a house project.

Anyways today:

6am peppers,onions, potatoes with a side of apple slices

10:34 am Orange and lemon water

12:17 PM Two comice pears

2:03 PM Apple and raw almonds

4:32 PM Done with work for the week I reheat up the last of my homemade soup. I thought it was good until I read and viewed what Andrew made up. I believe a trip to the co-op is in order for tomorrow morning to try to enhance his recipe.

10:14 PM Late night study break of organice blueberrys, raw brazil nuts and of course lemon water

In a Past Life I ate Meat and sometimes it was delicious

Otherwise known as my brief mentioning of the glorious jewish deli Kenny and Zuke's in Portland, Oregon. If the fact that Matt Groening and I both recommend the place is not enough to draw you, then check out these pictures of a Reuben:





If I was still eating meat I would definitely go back even tho the place is fairly spendy. But you can walk just a couple blocks and dine at Pioneer Square which is always nice. Anyways to thumbs up if you are a carnivore.

7vs7 2 Thursday

Up early so I steam some potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and green beans.

5:27 AM Eat some of the above it is delicious, wash it down with lemon and water

9:32 AM Orange and some more lemon water...loading up on the vitamin c with the cold

11.38 AM Leftover Potatoes and veggies that I made this morning.

2:14 PM An Apple more lemon water

5:01 PM Raw Almonds more lemon water as I grind out the work day

7:14 PM Leftovers day. Leftover soup and leftover veggies

I said yesterday I would have something profound to say about the people going out in the 7v7 contest yesterday and I do. I choice picture format because they say a picture is worth a 1000 words and I need more cliches in my posts:

Spokane Food Blog I sum up your doings in the following masterpiece collage of pictures:









To the Rest of the competitors who bowed out:

It's Hump Day

That's right I went there, with the silly, dumb, pointless pic to kick off the daily post. Apparently to quote Queen "And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust" as three of the remaining 7vs7 competitors bit the dust giving in to Ben and Jerry's. Which by the way has a company ever gone from fringe to commercial more so than Ben and Jerry's as they are like the Nike of ice cream. Well it looks like there are only a few remaining players, I was tested today by waking up with a bit of a cold (explains the mehness last night) and no I didn't cave in I squeezed a full lemon into 8 oz of water chugged that SOB and went to the gym. I am sure I will have a much more profound analysis of the one's who didn't even make it to hump day in the challenge.

7 AM Fresh Squeezed Lemon and Water
10:30 AM Two Bananas and a bunch of Almonds
11:41 AM Left over barley and vegetables
5 PM Mashed some tomatoes threw them, water and a bunch of veggies along with some barley into a pot to make some soup.

Boredom leads to posts like this

So I got caught up on Grad School for the night and am now done and feeling relatively meh about everything in general. Not in anyway bah, but mearley a little meh. So to cheer me up I head over to a blog that is entirely inappropriate and really really offensive to get a quick chuckle:

Even this doesn't really knock me out of my mini funk so I contemplate playing a quick set on Guitar Hero World Tour but alas that seems like something where 15 minutes turns into an hour. So I settle on Kingdom of Loathing a fun text based rpg that is a great way to kill a lot or a little bit of time. It is full of great references and in general is a blast. I encourage anybody who enjoys this type of thing to give it a shot (it is free) You can add me as a friend (Solo Gigolos)

I also encourage palindromes

Just because this is supposed to be almost a quarter random:

Day 3 7vs7

I was going to have some truly witty banter up here at the top but honestly I am pretty uninspired today. Perhaps due to the frigid weather or to just because it is a meh day...

8 AM Banana on way to meeting...

10:43 AM Post meeting Red Bartlet Pear and fresh squeezed lemon and water

12:17 PM Lunch time. Leftover dinner from last night (Wild Organic Barley and Veggies)

3:30 PM A Comice Pear organic of course

6:23 PM Dinner time not sure what it will be yet but I think it will involve kelp

8:47 PM Finally made dinner black beans from the co-op, leftover rice, steamed snow peas and carrots with cabbage

A Zen like Discipline????

Or so it has been written, not be me I will gladly point out but nonetheless it has been written. Onto Day 2 of 7vs7, I'm still looking for my Pinky to help me take over the World.

6:30 AM I wake up it is negative 2 outside, I learned this by opening the front door to see how cold it is and promptly shutting the door and going back to sleep until 8:30am. I am pretty sure this is scientific proof that man can indeed best nature as I reawakened to it being a balmy 4 degrees outside. Oh yeah I managed to squeeze some lemon juice, mix it with water and drink it before I bested nature.

9:11 AM Some left over steamed vegetables and a banana.

10:37 AM In 24esque fashion we return from a commercial break to see our hero chomping down on an apple 10:37:13...10:37:14...



12:04 PM LUNCHHHHHHHHHHHH Two boiled potatoes, an apple and some more leftover steamed vegetables...someone from work brought me raw kelp to utilize!

1:56 PM Craving almonds or other such nutty sustenance, but alas I did not bring any with me. Could this be the end?

2:34 PM I am saved by an extra apple I had brought! Huzzah

5:23 PM I ran home for a quick dinner of wild organic barley, green beans, mushrooms, carrots, and celery

8:29 PM An orange and a pear

What is Spurring this Eating shift??

Well many things as I mentioned before a fluctuation in my energy level (not that my lack of a consistent sleep pattern would have anything to do with that =p) and just talking with various people about nutrition. One such conversation took place last night at a library gathering to meet and great the new director and in true NPL fashion have a feast of a meal! Over the course of this dinner the raw foods lifestyle came up and within that conversation I was referred to a book The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. I have been reading it all day and it is really resonating with me and giving me lots to ponder. I recommend that people interested in nutrition check it out and just ponder what it discusses.

And yes I have the libraries copy so some of you will have to wait as I re-read it


mg

7vs7 2 and so it begins

As I mentioned yesterday I am starting a friendly competition amongst acquaintances from Spokane that I fully intend to dominate. It technically started at 12:01 AM on today so I woke up this morning and had my new morning ritual of fresh lemon juice and water, ate a handful of raw almonds and am rip roaring and ready to go. I will edit this post throughout the day to show what I have done.

8:18am Fresh lemon juice and water, handful of raw almonds. I am off to the gym and then off to look for a food processor and blender which I meant to get yesterday but forgot despite multiple trips to the store.

11:21 Back from the gym grab some carrots and a banana to hold me over. Squeeze a couple of oranges and mix with water for what I am going to dub ghettoganic OJ

12:55 Munch of some raw brazil nuts, drink some water

4:45 Orange, Banana and some almonds

8:07 Another Banana and I chopped and steamed some vegtables (carrots broccoli, sugar peas, green beans)

Spies Like Us or better known as oooh baby I like it raw

Spies Like Us was a classic terrible 1980s comedy and the only relation it has to this post is this picture:



The awesome hat in the pic came from my buddy Aras at Tundra Gear and I encourage all of you in need of a Russian style winter hat to place an order.



Seriously, because nothing screams serious like a pic of ODB and a title to a blog post referencing him and an 80s movie! I am starting a new adventure this weekend as I have been drawn into a 7 days without processed food with some acquaintances over at the Spokane Food Blog. I am feeling good about the competition the hardest part will be at work, but I feel confident I can make it through the week. Namely due to the fact that my fridge is stock with fresh organic apples and pears from the family's organic farm. I will have to hold off on drinking the cider for a week tho. I also had help from Aras who I have been chatting with about going to raw foods anyways. Having been a lover of many things processed for a long time this will be quite a transition, but I am going to use the 7 on 7 challenge as we are calling the competition on Spokane Food Blog as a launching point for my transition into raw foods. If anybody has thoughts or suggestions let me know I am looking for any and all recipes and ideas and have my food processor and blender fine tuned and ready to roll.

This is a big change but one I think is necessary, I recently did an experiment where I ate almost entirely unprocessed foods for a work week and I felt great, then I used the three day weekend to eat "normal." By the end of that weekend I felt meh for lack of a better word and right then and there decided to make a change.

I will be sure to post how this week goes as often as I can although it is shaping up to be a busy week

b9 goes to Iceland Part 2: The Great Outdoors

The best part about Iceland is the great outdoors. A side effect of being isolated in the North Atlantic is a relatively untouched scenery with all kinds of amazing geology to see and in some cases explore. I was going to do this really in depth, descriptive post on all the amazing things we saw in Iceland, but instead I think I will let the pictures do most of the talking. So enjoy and if you have questions post in the comments section=p


Some of the crew went diving in Iceland!


One of the many National Parks we visited.


An awesome waterfall!


Icelandic Old Faithful!


View from a cliff jutting out of southern Iceland!


Another view of/from the cliff


One of the crew under a waterfall


Group shot


We had to hang over that cliff, but we got a shot of puffins!


Man fearlessly takes on nature


Are we on the moon?



These chaps gave us a lift up on to a glacier and then we got to hike around


They run a tourist dog sledding business


A shot from the glacier


Another glacier shot, you could see the storm coming


This blog does have 24.8% random


Don't go chasing waterfalls


More cliff and glacier


Doing our best explorer pose


Sometimes you have to fight nature, in this case I became a human sunblock so we could surf the nets


The park around the lake in Reykjavik


The End

Ah random email...

Thanks to my friend Kim who sent an email with the clip seen below...nough said

b9 goes to Iceland Part I

That's right the whole crew (well most of the crew a few were excused for various reasons) headed off to Iceland last June to commerate the upcoming wedding of one of the brethren. Why Iceland you ask? That is indeed a very good question. We were given parameters for the trip by groom and they were as follows:

• The trip must require a passport
• The trip must not be to anywhere in continental North America
• The trip must be to somewhere that nobody going on the trip has been to before
• The trip must be to somewhere with good outdoor activities like hiking and great geology

So given these four requirements it really whittled down the list of destinations and we added a couple of additional requirements:

• The trip must be to somewhere with a good nightlife
• The trip must be to somewhere we as a group are otherwise unlikely to visit

At this point we were down to a few ideas, mainly Iceland, Brazil, or renting a boat somewhere tropical for two weeks. Brazil was ruled out so we could keep it in reserve for inevitable midlife crisis's and renting a boat and just puttering around while appealing did not seem to meet the geological requirement. So Iceland it was and in true b9 fashion I decided we needed to spite the groom by taking not one, but two red eyes to get to Iceland. So we flew from Seattle to Chicago and then made our way to Halifax, Nova Scotia before catching red eye number two (after many, many Canadian beers) from Halifax to Reykjavik, Iceland.


And we are off from Seattle, the group actually left in two groups from Seattle and another group from London.

Upon arrival it is fascinating it really feels as if you have landed on the moon as you see nothing but desolation and craters. However, only a 10 minute ride or so from the airport is the Blue Lagoon. What a place, it is a natural warm water spa and a must attend location when visiting Iceland.



While in Iceland we were based out of the capital of Reykjavik and stayed at a hostel. It was a fun and very communal time as the pictures below indicate:




Reykjavik itself is a great place to visit and explore, full of musuems, friendly people and best of all you can literally walk basically anywhere if you are willing to take the time to do it. It was probably a 20 minute walk from the Hostel to downtown Reykjavik, where there are streets lined with bars, clubs and awesomeness in general. Here are some shots taken around the city


Reykjavik Harbor


One of the downtown squares in Reykjavik


A view from a hill outside Reykjavik


One of the Downtown streets in Reyk. This was taken mid afternoon so it is quite calm, at night this street is jammed full of people.


We watched the Icelandic Women's National Soccer Team dismantle Greece and yes they were doing flip throw ins


Some of the crew even attended a Bjork concert on the last day there.



This is as close to night as we ever saw while in Iceland and the building picture (Hofdi) was the meeting place between Reagan and Gorbachev in 1986 that helped thaw Cold War relations.

Reykjavik has a well earned reputation as a nightlife spot and it was a lot of fun. The bars are open until 7 or 8 am on Fridays and Saturday so you don't even go out until 2am or so. Here are some pics on the nightlife:


On the first night out in Iceland we introduced the nation to Gladiators. It should be noted it is about 4am in this shot and that is all natural day light lighting the place!


One of our favorite places was the Celtic Cross, it was a nice bar upstairs and downstairs was an epically awesome couch lined dance area with a singer who performed such classic as Wonderboy by Tenacious D.


This shot was taken about 5am, as the photo shows the city is still alive.


Around 7am the masses flood out of the bars and even side streets like this one get fairly crowded.

These next few photos demonstrate that you just never knew how a night was going to end in Reykjavik:



It could end up in a drunken stupor on a stairway.


It could end up playing Guitar Hero at new friends house in Reykjavik.


It could end teaching hot Icelandic women American Football


It could end poorly...


Or if you were this buffoon who messed with the wrong bouncer it could end poorly and early...


However, the best part of the trip by far was exploring the amazing outdoors Iceland had to offer. Truly, the only thing we didn't get to see was the Northern Lights although they are supposed to be spectacular in the winter. Unfortunately, you all will have to wait for all that awesomeness in my next post.