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sbostedor
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sbostedor
Fgggh
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sbostedor
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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sbostedor
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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sbostedor
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sbostedor
Testing from BlogPress app
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Location:W Joy Rd,Webster,United States
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sbostedor
Working on some SEO stuff to get the rank back up to par on my http://www.bozteck.com website. It used to be ranked 5 but has somehow slipped down to 3 as I’ve neglected the SEO stuff.
If there are any SEO people out there with some spare time and a generous heart, can you please look at the site and give me some pointers?
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sbostedor
Phase 3 of my Nutritional Experimentation
About 3 months ago, I was feeling very gluttonous and drained all day. It had been that way for years. I decided that day to finally do something about my weight and lack of physical endurance. I wanted to snowboard a lot with the kids this Winter and I used that as my motivation. Back then, my meals consisted of three rounds of fast food followed by a small drink of something containing alcohol in the evening. Usually it was a glass of red wine, but if the day was really stressful, I’d pull out the rum with coke or vodka with OJ. For breakfast, I’d typically have an Egg McMuffin meal from McDonalds with two white milks. At lunch, I’d have a double-cheeseburger meal from whatever fast food place I chose that day. On Fridays, my place of business would have the local Pizza guy come in and sell pizza by the slice. I’d never miss a pizza Friday; two slices of pepperoni or mushroom. On the way home, I’d stop by McDonalds for another cheeseburger meal. I’d munch a lot of junk food once I got home, also. I would also consume no less than three Mt. Dew’s every day. Some days, I’d consume almost double that.
I had ballooned from my natural 163Lbs to 186Lbs. I had serious acid reflux and took Prilosec daily to manage it. I was feeling like a fat old man. This wasn’t me! I used to be so physically fit and in shape. I went from feeling like a maneuverable Porsche to a clunky school bus and it was time to lose the spare tire(s).
Phase 1 – The Diet
In the first phase, I did what most people typically do; I went on a diet. I switch to white meats and whole grain breads. I frequented Subway for their turkey subs instead of McDonalds for the cheeseburgers. I replaced the ground hamburger in meals with ground turkey. I cut down on the Mt. Dew to no more than 2 or 3 20oz bottles per day. I enrolled in a gym and started exercising there two or three times every week at lunch.
With all of this effort, nothing that I did worked much, though. After four weeks, I only dropped three pounds. I was still at 181 and very discouraged. What do people who are dieting do when they’re discouraged do? We say “screw it” and start grubbing down everything in sight! So, phase 1 was a failure for the most part. I was building muscle at the gym but you cold only see one set of muscles in my former six pack and the rest of it was covered by belly fat.
I knew that I needed a lifestyle change. This dieting thing is for people who will always inevitably lose out and bounce back to their original weight. Diets pretty much imply a temporary sacrifice to obtain a goal; after which you can go back to resuming your former routine. That wasn’t for me and I needed to find something that I could see myself still doing when I’m 85. Screw the diet, I wanted to change how I looked at food and nutrition.
Incidentally, I watched a movie called Food Inc. It talked about the crap that our industrialized food goes through before it enters our mouths. I also read a book called “The China Study”. This book talked about the health benefits of vegetarianism and how it’s a lifestyle change that has consistently produced healthy bodies out of unhealthy bodies in study after study.
I hit the Interwebs and started doing objective research on everything in that book and the movie. I found a lot of strong opinions on both sides of the fence. it was pretty much a draw on the validity of the facts from both sides. I decided to give it a try myself. This wasn’t going to be a diet. I needed to make this my official way to eat from now on. That moment, I put the ban on animal meat.
Phase 2 – Vegetarianism
I signed up for an account at TheDailyburn.com to track my dietary intake. I wanted to make sure that I was getting all of the nutrients that I was supposed to get from this new way of eating. I didn’t want any guessing or assuming to happen. This was going to be scientific and totally geeked out!
I also decided to cut out the Mt. Dew totally. I did still drink a Diet Mountain Dew on occasion but absolutely no other soda at all; only juices with natural sugars. I was 100% organic at this point. I refused to eat anything with high fructose corn syrup in it or any other ingredient that doesn’t happen naturally in nature. My body must have thought I’d totally hippied out! It revolted for the first week. My body was craving carbs horribly and was suffering withdrawals from something that I couldn’t explain. It wasn’t caffeine because I was still getting plenty from the green teas and the occasional diet Mountain Dew. I still had a glass of red wine at least twice every week but that was a big drop from the daily evening drink.
My diets now are as follows:
- Breakfast – organic toasted oats with a very tiny amount of organic white milk. Most days, I’ll also have an organic banana.
- Morning snack – organic fresh strawberries and/or fresh organic pineapple pieces
- Lunch – Morningstar Grillers Original with a small amount of organic Ketchup and mustard. I’d often put some organic lettuce on top, also. I would sometimes add a side of carrots or another veggie.
- Afternoon snack – more fresh strawberries or lightly salted cashews. I’d have another banana if I felt especially munchy that day
- Dinner – Meatless chili, steamed veggies or anything else of the sort that doesn’t contain meat. Some days, I’d even eat some Kraft organic Mac and Cheese.
- Evening Snack – Occasionally, I’d eat a handful of baby carrots as I was winding down.
One month later, I have dropped 11 pounds and still going. I feel like I’m 18 again! I’m full of energy and more alert than I ever was. This is something that I can totally see myself doing as I get old and grey. I haven’t taken anything for acid reflux in weeks! I’m cured!
Phase 3 – Seeking the Cause
There’s a scientific side of me that tells me that all of my questions have not yet been answered, however. What, out of the many things that I changed, made the most impact on the loss of weight? Was it the drop of high fructose corn syrup? Was it the move to exclusively organic foods? Was it the increase in exercise due to weekly snowboarding trips? Was it the lack of animal meat in my diet? I suspected the latter but I still have my doubts. I need to find out or it will burn at me forever.
When my body weight reaches my desired 162Lbs, I will begin Phase 3. I will slowly and deliberately reintroduce things that I have cut out of my diet one-by-one. I will start with white meat. I will go one-by-one through all of them with the only exception being Mt. Dew. For the sake of my teeth, I’m going to keep that one out of my diet forever.
I’ll not go for less than 1 week with each step so that I can measure the impact of that food. Before switching to the next food item, I’ll eliminate the food item that I was testing the week before. I’m only looking for a net gain of a couple of pounds at each food. Even when I was heavy, my body weight was easy to sustain and didn’t fluctuate much more than a pound from day to day. It should be obvious to me if a food ingredient is having a negative impact within a week.
When I’m done, I’ll publish the results here. I expect to hit my target weight sometime by the end of next week.
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sbostedor
Spinning – Breach – My band from the early 1990’s
Listen or Download: Breach – Steve Bostedor – spinning
Spinning
Lyrics by Steve Bostedor 1993It’s still the same as it always was
Woke up this morning and I caught my buzz
Yesterday was the same as today
And tomorrow will be like yesterday
Change my face, now I change my name
Just different ways to play the game
The only thing that will never change
Is that everything will be the same
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[Chorus]
The world is spinning around
Inside, Outside, and Upside down
The world is spinning around
Brain fried, I lied, then knocked you down
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What am I saying, I guess I just don’t know
Just sit back now and enjoy the show
I really hope you enjoy hearing us play
Cause we’re gonna be in your head every ##@$ day
The only thing that will never change
Is that everything will be the same!
(Chorus)
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sbostedor
Charter Business Internet Frustrations
Charter is frustrating to deal with! Or company has been long time subscribers to their business broadband. In fact, we footed the bill to get the first runs into our area in Dexter, MI so that we could use their services.
Today, I’ve clocked a total of 3 1/2 hours either on hold or talking to people at charter that can’t help me and who do not know who can. All that I want to do is get information and pricing about upgrading our service for considerably faster bandwidth. In other words, I’m trying to give them more business.
We used to have a sales rep named Vicki that I could call for this sort of thing and get an answer within a few minutes. She left the company last year and never communicated who her replacement would be,
I’ve called at various times over the past year to find out who this new sales rep is but nobody there can give me an answer. Now, our company has a project that absolutely requires a very high level of bandwidth so I’m desperate for someone to pay attention to my queries and so far I’m still empty handed!
If anyone knows of a good ISP in the Mid-Michigan area that supplies high bandwidth to businesses, please send me some references. I’m ready to give Charter the boot.