Hamenopi

I am sitting, day 3, in an intensive training course. 32 hours in 4.5 days of automation engineering. So intensive, we don't leave for lunch. They cater it. Yesterday's lunch was pasta. It was a less than ideal situation. You'll come across a less than ideal situation. Train for the less ideal If you are dependant on the enviroment, you depend on the enviroment. There are times you can define your environment. You can manipulate the variables in the definition. You can simulate a lack when there isn't one. You can learn to compensate for that lack. In this case, you can learn how to skip a lunch, with a lunch at the ready. Because sometimes, you aren't ready to skip the lunch. Sometimes you need that lunch. But that's not always the case. But if you try skipping a lunch, you are more likely to skip than if you don't try. With practice, you might find, you don't even need lunch. Not the food. With practice, you can go to the mexican food restaurnt with ...

So many obsessed with a perfect, a proper diet. It's a nice concept. But we need to be able to handle an improper diet to some level. Of course, it needs to be introduces carefully and gradually. Don't just be strong in a strict diet. Let's see what happens when we aren't on the diet. You need to know off diet because you'll get off diet. When will you go off diet? Today. Tomorrow. Next week. In a month. It's going to happen. Challenges are there all the time. I can meal prep and meal prep all my life, but if I'm somewhere where I can't meal prep. I'm going to fall off the wagon. But if you've learned how to diet outside of the strict dogma. Outside of the meal prep, meal planning. Then you'll be okay. People miss this because they are obsessed with a perfect diet. A proper diet. There is no proper diet. There is just improper preperation. Yes, learn the basics, develop foundations. Like if you are keto, learn your 20...

July 8th, 2015, I had the pleasure of meeting Les Brown and hearing him speak. He’s a famous motivational speaker in the US. Check him out. Anyways, I was over 300 lbs. Sick, moody, depressed, the list goes on. I was not a picture of health. Something needed to change. If I continued my path, a pine box was coming my way. Losing weight wasn’t easy for me. I struggled. I hated myself for falling off the wagon. I’d curse myself for every mistake I made. In the beginning, it was so exhausting. But finally, I found a way to get out of my own way. I began to trust the process and remind myself every day isn’t going to be perfect. We all make mistakes. That’s how we learn. That’s how we get better. Then I started to log what I was doing. I began seeing where I’d fall off the wagon and try new strategies because I had on paper strategies which didn’t work. I even shared some my favorite breakthroughs on my blog. Over time, I pushed past what I thought was impossible odds. It became ...

When your body becomes good at burning fat for energy, you start burning fat for energy all the time. Then, you stop getting hungry and eating become optional. Your body burns instead the internal fat stores for energy. You eat less because you aren’t hungry and you lose weight. Humans have been doing this forever.

In the beginning, it was a hard sell for me. I was plant powered and wasn’t interesting in switching over to a low carb high fat diet. That’s so silly! Why would any rational person do that? But after prodding from my lovely wife, I ceded. With tepidation, I tip toed toward the diet, giving it a dubious due diligence along the way. I was going to prove keto was just a fad diet. There’s a lot of hype and misinformation around it. But I dug deeper, I began to find it is a ton more nuanced than what fit on an infographic. It’s profound! The science behind it blows my mind. Why has this not been around longer? First 2 To be honest, the first 2 weeks were hard for me. I believed this wouldn’t work. Everything I knew told me this wouldn’t work. But it wasn’t good enough for me to know it. I needed to prove it, so I gave it a fair shake. First 2 weeks were hard. I wanted the carbs. They called to me. I dreamed in them. Each whiff of bread intoxicated my sens...

Try not to get too dogmatic with your diet. Like snowflakes, we are all similar but unique. Your best bet is to journal your way and listen to what your body tells you. 20 grams of carbs is just a starting point. Protein in grams to lean mass weight is just a starting weight. Start there, then experiment. Get interested. Be a case study of 1. Learn to ask a lot of questions. Take all the answers with a grain of salt. Pink Himalayan Salt. Take everything with salt. You need the electrolytes. And... of course, above all else, don’t forget to…  Keep Calm and Keto On.

This morning I woke up full. It was a great feeling. I was pleasantly surprised. I felt like I could go the entire day without eating. … But then I went down stairs. I started to make a pecan, coconut flake, flax shake with cacao and erythritol. It tasted amazing! Just like a creamy, nutty chocolate. So good!!! But I wasn’t hungry. In fact, I was full. Then I made myself an omelet with goat cheese. Delicious. But I wasn’t hungry. In fact, I was full. The omelet was great. I loved it. I topped it with some Louisiana hot sauce and devoured it like a mad man. But I wasn’t hungry.   In fact, the entire time,   I was full. This is a reminder to myself Wait until you are hungry to eat. Food is everywhere, you aren’t going to starve. Stop eating once you’re good. You don’t have to clear your plate. You can save the rest for later in case you get hungry again. The food industry shouldn’t dictate your eating habits. They hav...

I’ve been taking pictures of my food so I could better remember what I ate so I can better log my food in myfitnesspal. Thus, I have a lot of food pictures! (Microsoft Word recommended I use Thus) So, before I delete them to make room for the next thousand pictures I take. I figure I’ll take a second to drop them into a blog post and talk about some of my favorite courses. If you are interested in any one of them. Please let me know and I’ll share the full recipe. Keto MCMuffin Breakfast Sammich This little breakfast is amazing! Genius! All gratitude goes to Anne Marie for finding and making this Cloud Bread. It works perfectly! I stuck some bacon, cheese, chicken, and mayo between two pieces. Nuke it for 30 seconds and go to town on them. They are so a good idea I’m requesting them weekly now. Makes quick breakfast a breeze! Keto Poppers These bad boys may look familiar. It’s jalapeno, cream ...

Where do I start? It’s so… counter intuitive from everything I know. Everything I learned. Everything I’ve heard. It’s like when… someone insists the world is round when you know in your heart that can’t be. Of course, the world is flat! Why on Earth would the Earth be round? That’s ridiculous! Of course, like Aristotle and Christopher Columbus, you kind of have to see it to believe it. Right? In the same way, I want to share discoveries which began to sell me on the ideology of ketogenic viability. This is coming from a harsh critic and doubter, much as I imagine those who swore the Earth was, in fact, flat. Backstory So, there’s tons of overweight people these days (pun). But it hasn’t always been the case. Has it? What changed? Many things, of course but one of the main changes is how we consume our food. I mean, we could rant nonstop about all the nuances of modern day food consumption. I may do just that at some later time… ...

Recently a friend asked for a few weight loss pointers. Instead of the standard fare, I want to share what made it possible for me to follow the standard fare. An answer beneath the answer. I hope this help someone as much as it helped me. Start recording what you are doing. Write down when you’re waking up and when you are going to sleep. Don’t judge what you write, just write and start becoming aware of it, and yourself. After you get a feel of what you are doing , start recording what you eat. Record when you eat, and where you are, physically, emotionally, write whatever you can. Try to be a little more detailed then you think you need to be. Again, don’t judge. Even if it’s 3 donuts and 2 kolaches. It’s not a test, it’s an exercise is mindfulness. As you continue recording what you are doing, you begin to  learn a little bit about yourself.  Go ahead and add what you do with your down time. Is it TV time, ...

If you follow me on MyFitnessPal (Hamenopi), you may notice my macros changed.  Once around 60%, my carbohydrates dropped to 5%. That is a huge change, both nutritionally and mentally. Anne Marie wants to try the keto diet. That’s the high fat, low carb one. It is a radical shift from what I was doing (and planned for) but I want to support her in it. I also don’t want to prepare 3 different meals each night; kids aren’t interested in either. The first week was tough! I missed (and still do) all the vegetables but now in week 2, I’m learning how to integrate them back into my routine. In fact, cabbage is now back on my meal plan in week 2 during lunch. I found it surprising how excited I was to eat cabbage Tuesday. Maybe it was because I just finished working out and was ravenous. Still, I choose cabbage over bacon. That’s saying something. Anyway, week 1 I was struggling getting enough protein. Week 2, now I’m getting too much protein. I think I’m finally figuring...

Keto Avocado Boats Prep: 5 min Cook:  Servings: 1 Ingrediants Avocado half, sliced and pitted Diced Roasted Chicken (any protein will work) Sautéed Spinach with diced garlic and onion Crumbled Bacon Optional: Crumbled or Shredded Cheese Optional: Crumbled Pork Rinds Optional: Mayo Directions Use an ice cream scoop to hollow the pit more Dice and reserve scooped avocado Mix all other ingredients Scoop ingredients into hollowed pit Top with reserved diced avocado bits

So, you had a bad day? The company brought in donuts this morning and you just couldn’t help yourself, right? You even had to get a kolache, didn’t you? And then some bad news came in which deflated you. You just don’t want to work out so instead you grab a burger. A big, juicy mushroom swiss burger, no sides held. Just think of all those calories, carbs and mayo. Yeesh! Then back at home after work and after you've gorged a handful of Swedish Fish, you find wife had a bad day too and wants to eat her misery, and you just know misery loves company. So, you go out for drinks and burgers. Alcoholic milkshakes, really?! You got to be kidding me! And the burger. Huge with a Y! It was a monster of taste and calories. So, that was my last Friday. I gained 8 pounds that day. At least that’s what the scale said the next day. One may think I'd of ate the rest of the swedish fish, right? Not this time. I dropped 7 of those same pounds over ...

Sorry for falling off the blogging wagon but there's only so much I can do during the day and Facebook posts I kid but I ha. I've been hard at work with some projects at work and at home. However, that's no excuse to neglect you, right? Today I want to talk about an appetizer I made, I hope you enjoy it. If you make it, do me a favor and post it on Instagram and tag me. Mini Pepper Pizzas I'm growing these peppers in the garden and my wife is trying a keto diet. That means there is a ton of cheese and pepperoni in the refrigerator. How people lose weight on keto diets still boggle me. I lost over 100 lbs. and can honestly tell you, I don’t have the discipline to stay under my calories on a fat based diet. Still, while we’re experimenting with the keto diet, might as well make the most out of it with recipes! Take a pepper or a ton of peppers. From the store or your garden. This one is my first pepper of the season. Let’s name him Bill. ...

This morning I weighed in a full pound heavier than yesterday. Flip the table! Then the split second of anger subsided to a chuckle. Yes, I still have a tendency to kick myself in the morning but I'm finding it's starting to be a healthy thing. My trigger now triggers a healthier introspection of my previous day. Instead of condemning myself, I review the day and see if there's something I did wrong.  Yes, that took me a while to learn how to do. In fact, there was. Yesterday's Dinner Yesterday I made chicken, rice, and green beans. Not too bad right? I also toasted up some bolillo bread in the oven. Being health conscious, I divided each 6 in loaf into two, serving size friendly pieces. Being smart, I abstained from getting the second piece during dinner. Fast forward to clean up. There was the other half, next to a baking pan of chicken grease and roasted seasoning. I tell you like a viper I struck. I droppe...

You don't have to deprive yourself to lose weight. A diet of deprivation is starvation! Stop defining goals on can't. Good things don't grow from seeds of negativity. Instead, work on switching worse habits with better habits. It's not about perfection, it's about progression. Make a discipline of continual improvement. You can't solve problems with the same level of thinking that caused them. Switch up a few variables and discover a new solution. Take the wheel and explore until you find something that works, then worry about upgrading your autopilot. Though we be products of our environment, we have the ability to create our own environment. We have the ability to change. Try immersing yourself where you want to be. At least try to immerse yourself at the halfway point.