My Vegan Banana Brownie Recipe

As some of you know, now that the kitchen is nearly done, I have started experimenting with cooking and recipes to try and improve my overall diet. Here is an example of a Brownie recipe I've put together that I believe is pretty good. Made without butter, white sugar, eggs, or dairy products these still taste great.

Ingredients:
1 cup Vanilla Soy Milk
1 Banana
1/2 cup Light brown sugar
1/2 cup Dark light brown sugar
1/3 cup Unsweetened Cocoa powder
1/2 cup Whole Wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 oz chopped Walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Lightly grease with vegetable oil an 8 inch square pan.
Blend Soy Milk and Banana
In a large mixing bowl combine 1/3 cup cocoa, Sugars, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder.
Mix in Soy/banana mix
Spread batter into prepared pan.
Gently place Walnuts over the top until well covered.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
(Cook until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.)
Allow to cool for 15 minutes
Remove from pan and enjoy

Visions of the Future - Part 2

"i am a clone
i am not alone . . . .

if you had ever seen us
you'd rejoice
in your uniqueness
and consider every weakness
something special
of your own" - Hawkwind

This episode focuses on the Biotech Revolution.

Run, Runner!

As those of you who have known me for a long time can attest, I have never been able run for any kind of distance. The problem for me is not muscle endurance or strength, I can walk just about forever and I'm plenty strong, no for me the the problem is air. Once I start running I simply can not breath. This has also been a problem with hiking at high altitudes and I have always believed that this inability has kept me from reaching some of my loftier health goals over the years. However, after my recent success with all this weight loss, I thought I'd attack the problem again. So I charted a course through the neighborhood and started trying to run it. Needless to say I ran into the same old problem. This time however I had another resource - my boss at Avenues. This guy is an ex-army DI and knows a fair share about getting men in shape. I sat him down and talked it over and he came up with some really good advice that I was able to use. In short I was able to adapt a new breathing technique. I told him about the progress I've been making and, well, he still thinks that I'm still not really getting it, but perhaps he doesn't understand how serious this problem has been for me over the years. In any case, the deal is I can now run the entire original course I mapped out through the neighborhood.
So how far is that? I got in the car last night reset the tripometer and measured it. I was pretty sure this was going to be a humiliating experience when I was done, but I was surprised when it turned out to be seven tenths of a mile. Then I reset the tripometer again and mapped out a new course that is just over a mile and that's my new target. I've also checked out how many calories each run burns off and plugged that into my caloric spreadsheet and I'm keeping a close eye on my progress.
The bottom line of all of this is that I am probably in the best shape of my life right now and I am setting some really lofty goals for the coming year. In the next couple of weeks I'm looking forward to a new wardrobe as my current clothes are starting to look pretty ridiculous on me.

Dieting and the Quantum properties of Calories

As anyone even remotely familiar Quantum Mechanics knows, certain sub atomic particles change their behavior based on whether or not they are observed. Well I have discovered that Calories are Quantum Particles, or at least, they behave in the same way. Those of you who know me, know of my lifelong struggle to avoid diabetes and control my weight. I’ve been too heavy for too long a time. The trick is I don’t always look too heavy because I have a Mesomorph body type and I carry it pretty well, but really I’ve been too heavy. I have been really careful about my diet for, well, just about forever. I almost never eat any fast food or pork of any kind if I can help it. I rarely eat steak or chicken, and then only the leanest, best cuts I can find. I do eat a lot of fish, grains, and vegetables and so on - but even after years of working out, cutting down and watching my portions; I was healthy, I was strong, but I was still just too heavy. When I did “Revelations” for instance I was over 200 pounds, I won’t say how much over, but I was over. (As an aside there is nothing like having lots of video of yourself to really inspire you to watch your diet, let me tell you.)
In any case, as of today, I can report I’ve got it beaten. Today I am 185 pounds and I plan to lose just a bit more in my efforts to get “really ripped” as the body builders say. How did I finally and at long suffering last do it? What was the final thing that I changed allowed me to start really losing and keeping off the weight?

Nothing.

Well, that’s not exactly true. It’s true that I’m eating the same, very careful diet and now it’s working, but not because I changed the diet itself. As near as I can tell it’s working because I made a spreadsheet of the foods I eat, with the calories for each food and I keep a week long list of what I eat per day. I also weight myself every morning and 'presto' now it works.
So it seems that calories like quantum particles behave differently if you watch them very carefully. I want to stress here that the actual amount of the calories isn’t all that relevant. What is crucial is the exactitude with which you measure your calorie intake. Check the labels and don’t round the numbers, count everything and see if it works for you.