]]>
So that was 23 lbs in month one. Anyone can believe results. Blood pressure is down and I have had one adjustment to that already, other symptoms of obesity and a pre-diabetic syndrome are going away fast. I'm looking forward to my next blood test now instead of dreading it. Swelling in legs and ankles is gone now, Knee selling is almost gone ( even with the long rides.) Average speeds and pace on known 50 mile workout rides is up almost almost 18-20%. Headaches from caffeine withdraw over. I did have a beer one day after the 100K ride around the west side, last Sunday with the Maui Bike Alliance. I still lost almost 3 pounds on that one ride even after re-hydration. I eat all I want but only approved foods. Aside from that I have stayed true to the McDougall restoration diet. No meat, No Dairy, No fat ,No Caffeine, No Alcohol, No Cheese No white sugar or processed foods. Total vegan . It has taken this month to get used to eating good foods, the right amounts and not without some effort. Each day is easier, and if you have any number of self help books , there is an old adage of habit changing taking at least 30 days and I have to agree it has been all that. The most interesting thing is our food bill, even with all vegan and organic foods has dropped almost in half! See http://www.drmcdougall.com/index.html for more information.
So hello Mr. Bowflex.
Not only am I motivated but I'm starting to workout out even harder. I haven't felt this confident or driven in my whole life to accomplish a goal. So I thought I'd broadcast it to hang myself to my friends and family. Barb Like the new attitude, calmer and confident.
In as much as I'm about 50% to 60% towards my ideal target weight I'll get pictures in a few days but will only publish them all after the fact. The first one in 2007 is really gross, I can't believe I was that big. You can get a hint by looking at day one of the bike ride. I was approximately 294-295 then. http://www.aswallace.com/bikeride.html
Dr McDougall's and that of Dr. Dean Ornish were ground breaking achievements when first published for the public in 1990-1991. Today it is just a simple fact and well documented that the best way toward restoration of your health is simple exercise and a controlling what goes in your body. All low tech. No gimmick drinks, No gimmick diets, No prepackaged foods, No living better through Chemistry and the pharmaceutical industry that wants to saddle you with symptom treatments without addressing the core issues. I have never had any invasive testing other than a stress test to check my heart but have just assumed that at my weight , my symptoms for so long I have a certain amount of arterial blockage and am taking a long term holistic approach to restoration. The total goal is an improved healthy lifestyle, a healthier heart and longer active life, and be an example to friends and family that have similar problems and symptoms to help them gain belief that if i can make a change they can do it to! Maybe we can make a difference in peoples lives in this country one body at a time. I am reminded so much of a phrase I once heard and can not attribute, " Let your action speak so loudly , that what you say I can not hear."
I was just reminded of the word "try" by a very dear friend, Dr Darrell Shaffer a Doctor, Psychiatrist, and long lost High School friend that I had the pleasure of spending a couple of pleasant afternoons with here in Maui last week. I realized that so many of us, me especially, have used words like"try" and "if only" to explain away our shortcomings and avoid responsibility. Almost like we want to stay victims and blame other circumstances and events in our lives for not achieving or making positive changes. I used it in conjunction with a different goal than my weight and diet but the argument was just as valid.
Thanks to all of you supporting me in this change it helps.
All the best -AL
]]>They all have a place in the economy and there is room in the economy for an extravagance ,enthusiast, or just passion as fine art.
http://www.hautehorlogerie.org/en/encyclopaedia/metiers-art/
This website offers dozens of video's all about 3 minutes that you can enjoy in your leisure. Designed to excite the passions of maybe a new student I found them to be a great testament, to the art to explain some of the complications, the engineering and art. ( Look to the left side menu from this link)
In particular pay attention to the complicated watches as no matter how fine the machinery that makes the parts, there is always a certain amount of hand finishing and part modification to get these watches to work perfect. In some cases a very complicated watch can take up to 10 days to assemble and adjust. A diamond dial can take up to 10-15 hours to set by a master setter. Each set of the process is very labor intensive and in the end you have a piece of art that you can wear the rest of your life.
You will think that some of the 10-20K watches are bargains after seeing this and understand why people pay 100's of thousands for some of the rare hand made unique watches.
In a conversation I had yesterday I reminded myself of all the old wrist watches and pocket watches I have collected over the years and I think I'm going to re-build a few more collectible and memorable watches to wear myself.
It was a passion of excellence from old watchmaker Howard Hawkins from Vermont that also designed machinery like the lathe that cut the Gyro for the fist space program ( And then he make that part as well in 16 year period he work for them. ) I loved stopping by his store sometime after work and just listened to all the stories from Sherve, Crump and Low in Boston, Waltham Watch Company after WWII, and Chelsea Clock Company. It started me on one of my career paths as well.
Hope you enjoy this site -Al
Article after article keep calling for Israel to stop the incursion into Gaza and to stop the bombing and violence. Now some are calling for investigations into war crimes and no one will speak for Israel. Documentation and reporting from Reuters and AP have sources corroborating the facts of Hamas using human shields as well as the UN areas as shields to launch rockets. I have been sitting on the sidelines angry at both sides for the stupidity of their antiquated adherence to religious dogma. What is even more appalling, is apart from the religious and culture chasms that seem impossible to bridge, they both share the same DNA.
Where are the calls of Hamas to stop the rockets into Israel ? The fundamental issue is Hamas will never recognize or allow Israel to ever live in peace. The anger goes back 60 years to the beginning of the Israeli state and before. My goodness why not just say before The Arabs and Mohammad took it over almost 1000 years ago it was a Jewish state then too. Or maybe 2500 years ago it was the kingdom of Israel.
The point is Hamas runs in among children and UN workers, sets off rockets, and then the world wonders why the area is targeted by Israel. I finally have been swayed to one side. I hope people in the region will come to there senses and see that there is no hope of peace as long as Hamas is in control of Gaza. If they decide to launch rockets and attack from the safety of civilian populations, there is going to be a lot of regrettable but necessary collateral damage.
Hamas in order to stay viable as both an organization and have any political capital in this issue is going to have to sway world opinion and convince some other nations take up arms against Israel, now. If not they will have no meaning or reason to exist. Israel on the other hand has to get better at a public relations effort out among the nations of the world all the while trying not appear to over run the state again which may need to happen.
I think Israel has finally had enough and I don't blame them. They are in a tougher position from the 2006 embarrassment in Lebanon, they can't afford to be weak either. I fear this is going to get real ugly and feel bad for the innocent lives that will be a necessary loss until cooler heads and logic prevail.
]]>Making the ride more fun is the constant thinking and planning I can never seem make go away. All this time I'm contemplating the horrible presentation and mockery I made of myself at the land use committee meeting yesterday as they took public testimony. A real Dog and Pony show too, as this is the second reading of the Makana Project ( only about 25 -30 years in planning now) and it passed the first time, so chances are if your speaking against it your wasting time. My conscience demands that I speak. I'm not for or against any development on the island. I am against all development until the City Council has a scientific produced sustainability report showing that the island can handle the extra people, the resources to do so, and a public mandate to increase the population. We've been under drought conditions for almost 2 years and our area has a recommended voluntary cutback in water usage of 10% almost daily and other places are under mandatory cutbacks. South Maui has no potable water to drill, and everyone knows this but they still keep approving thousands of new homes ! Worse the councils of the past have entitled now almost 20 thousand homes for the future with no resources either! Further complicating that is the fact that no one will acknowledge this! Instead they are worried about job losses in construction and want this fast tracked to get people working. ( It represents private investment Vs. public of course). With all this on my mind as a SMALL sample of the inner workings of my brain I have an epiphany of sorts....I do my best thinking on the bicycle.
WHY CAN'T ALL SIDES OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES GET TOGETHER! WAY CAN'T THE DEVELOPERS GO TO THE COUNCIL AND ASK THAT THEY FIND A SUSTAINABLE NUMBER OR WHAT I CALL A CARRYING CAPACITY FOR THE ISLAND? WOULD THEY AND THE PLANNERS LISTEN IF BOTH SIDES CAME TO THEM ?
The real bonus would be that the sides fighting could resolve the issues before the developments are proposed. The council and planners would have not only have clear urban boundaries, but would already made compromising talks with the population, with the knowledge that everyone knows what the total build out will be. Logic assumes that the island, like Earth is finite. Further even, if we could sustain and feed so many people, do we want to on this island? What kind of life style are we bequeathing to the future generations and at what point will the visitor experience be marginal enough so they stop coming ? I'm not going to espouse my thoughts, I think it is an island wide thought process. Clearly the elected representatives, as a whole, are avoiding this. ( Some are not but they are a very small minority of one maybe two of nine ) There are hints now we are getting close to that point even if we can support more!
So that will be the new direction, try and contact people on both sides of the fence as they actually both care. It is not all about greed and money in development nor are the environmentalists as a rule wanting to tun the clock back to subsistence farming and a stone age culture of the ancient Hawaiians. Judging by all the influential people I met yesterday I came away with that one positive thought. Even as I was called out of order by the chair at the end of my talk...and I had crossed a line...I really felt like hey this whole process is out of order, but just felt horrible for the people who deserves better and the island that really gets no respect in this. It's almost like a Rodney Dangerfield comic routine.
So what does all this have to do with meeting a celebrity and movie star ? Almost nothing. My mind however has been going like a locomotion and moving as fast as my legs. I'm almost 40 miles down the road now, having crossed the highway from Pukalani to Makawao, and done with the thrill ride to Paia. I clocked 41.5 MPH once but with strong crosswinds on the road, it gets stupid to push it. It's time for a break. One of my favorite stores on island is Mana Foods. Great people, all types of organic foods and drinks, and better they have a full assortment of my favorite road snack, Cliff Bars!
So when I get my Organic Lemonade out, and start munching a cliff bar, in all my stinky, sweaty self, I notice a nice Mercedes 320 E Diesel parked in front of me as I sit, Indian fashion with crossed legs, eating and drinking. Oddly enough it says ..BIO DIESEL not just DIESEL. Better is a sticker that says " Runs on Bio diesel, war no required," . I grin, thinking this is very cool as Maui had one of the very first commercial bio diesel plants in the country and....
Then the lady starts loading her groceries. I jump up and in the moment asked an innocent inquisitive question, " Excuse me Mame, did you have to modify the car to run on Bio Diesel or can it run it straight from a stock purchase.?" ( I've owned several Mercedes over the years including a 300 E Diesel many years ago. )
She politely retorts back, " You don't have to modify anything, not since the 1993 models. " That's cool I'm thinking. Just about then I have to get out of the way, as her husband now appears and wants to climb in the passenger side.
As I look , I see the scraggly beard and sly smile of...
" Hey, your Willie !"
"Yep That's me all right"
"Hi I'm Al Wallace"
So I just extend my hand , he shakes it , gets in the car, and they drive away!
When I saw him I flashed back to all the work he had done in promoting Bio Diesel both here ( Partnering with Bob and Kelly King to build Pacific Bio Diesel) and in the states, all the volunteer work and charity work on the island and around the world and of course his inspiring music.
Yes, it was just "Hey your Willie" that came out of my mouth, and not even a "have Merry Christmas" as they left. One of the bright spots about Maui is you can pretty much do what you want, most people will give you space.
I saw, but didn't meet him years ago at the world premiere first showing on Maui of " Wag the Dog" at an afternoon matinee at the Kukui Mall with about 10 other people in the theater and Willie's entourage. They were a dead giveaway. When he first shows up on screen the entourage all scream and clap, our friend from Oregon says, " Yeah like Willie is in the audience".
We had a laugh over that one too. But that is Maui at it's best. The famous and the not so famous, the wealthy and the not so wealthy, all mingling and enjoying the island !
If I had the time I could have told him stories about one of my old customers, Mrs Trueblood ( her married name) who told me stories in the 1980's about how wild a rascal Willie was as a boy...She was his Babysitter.......Oh Well.....Maybe next time.
Merry Christmas Annie and Willie Nelson !