RunawayJim.org

Following my weekend at Cannon, and the main reason why our friends from Providence came up to join us, was Kate the Great Day at the Portsmouth Brewery. If you didn’t know, the Portsmouth Brewery is a relatively small brewpub in downtown Portsmouth, NH. They make a whole bunch of excellent beers. Kate the Great just happens to be one of them. It’s their Russian Imperial Stout. The whole thing blew up when Beer Advocate named the beer the best beer in the world in their last issue of 2007. A beer that had been enjoyed by locals for a couple weeks was now seeing greater interest and less time on tap. The first Kate Day was in June of 2008. They did the bottle release and tapping and even allowed people to buy growlers of the beer (which had gone on for years prior). In 2009, my first Kate Day, they did the tapping and bottle release at the same time in the brewery. It was a big event and the place was packed. We tried it on tap and got our bottles. We spent most of the day at the bar before heading back to Providence.

This year saw a lot more fanfare. They changed it so that they would sell the bottles prior to tapping the beer. Because of all the craziness surrounding the event, we spent the night before in Portsmouth, allowing us to get up early to get our calendar date – our ticket to buy our two bottles of the beer. Some investigating told us they would start handing out the dates at 4:00 am. We decided to arrive at 3:30 after only getting a couple hours of sleep. We stood out on the cold rainy streets of Portsmouth for about an hour before we received our golden ticket and immediately headed back to the hotel to try to get some sleep before being back outside the brewery for the release at 9:00 am. Still cold and agitated from the lack of sleep, I tossed and turned until it was time to pack up our stuff, check out of the hotel, and head back downtown to buy our bottles. While I was awake trying to sleep, I counted out how far back we were in line based on our dates. We were about 120-130 in line for the calendar dates. The first people in line arrived at 12:30, hanging out there for four hours before the dates were handed out.

The mob outside the brewery when we came back to buy our bottles was huge. There was a mob of people across the street and a mob on one side of the brewery all waiting to hear their month called out. On the other side of the brewery was a line that stretched around the block. These were the people waiting to get into the brewery to try some of the Kate on tap. The capacity being only 300 made it difficult for people to get in. There were probably about 600 people in line and another 300 waiting for their bottles. While not everyone wanted a bottle and not everyone wanted to try it on tap, there were still a whole lot of people who wanted both. Many got in the line immediately after getting their bottles. Some took off for home after getting their bottles. The rest were like us – buying the bottles and wandering around or doing something else before getting in line.

After buying our bottles, we headed to the Friendly Toast for breakfast, as we did last year. It’s a funky place with an interesting menu. I wasn’t overly impressed by the french toast, but the other meals looked good. I wish they used real maple syrup. We were in Northern New England, after all. We wandered around Portsmouth, visiting some of the shops for a while, and then headed up to the Ale House Inn, where some of our friends were staying. We hung out there until about 2:00 pm and made our way down to the brewery to see if we could get in. By this time, there were only about 20 people in line and it moved relatively quickly. Unfortunately, we were a group of eight and finding a table large enough would prove to be difficult. After about an hour in line, we were seated at two tables of four. We hung out, had some beer, and got some food. By 5:30, Susan and I were beat and ready to head home.

I’m not sure I would do this again. I heard rumors that they’re thinking about doing the bottle sales at the Smuttynose Brewery, also in Portsmouth and owned by the same people, to prevent such a huge crowd from descending on the streets of Portsmouth. I’ve heard rumors that they’ll brew the beer at Smuttynose to allow for a larger batch and more bottles. The problem with that is the labeling. Because it’s from a different brewery, the label would have to go through approval before they can sell it, though I’m not sure how difficult that would be if they did it under “contract”. I definitely did not enjoy standing outside in the rain for an hour in the middle of the night. I did not enjoy getting only 3 hours of sleep that night. I did enjoy hanging out with our friends and the festiveness inside the brewery once we were seated. There were a lot more people than last year and it just made it that much more difficult for everyone. I didn’t see any fights or arguments about people cutting into the lines at all, which surprised me a bit as people were pretty riled up on BA about it.

The beer itself was excellent, though I remembered it being better last year. Perhaps that’s because we had some of the first pours from the tap, but that shouldn’t have affected it. The Imperial Porter they had on tap was also excellent. If you get the chance, go to the Portsmouth Brewery. All their beer is great, not just Kate.

I spent this past weekend at Cannon Mountain in stunning Franconia Notch in New Hampshire. Pretty much all of the New England mountains had been getting dumped on and I wasn’t going to miss some fresh powder. Unfortunately, however, Cannon was somehow missed by the massive storm that hit New York, Vermont, eastern NH, and Maine.

We stayed at the very lovely Gale River Motel in the adorable town of Franconia, just north of the notch. I really hate to give a tip of such a small place, but this motel was perfect in almost every way. It sits on an open field looking out towards the mountains of the notch with gorgeous views of Cannon and Mount Lafayette. The owner runs the place like a small inn or bed and breakfast, but without the breakfast. It has a small indoor hot tub that ends up being semi-private – the people with the key to the room get to use it. The spa room is all wood and smells like a sauna. The owner has homemade cookies, tea, and hot cocoa available in the office, free-of-charge. He provides menus for a few restaurants in Littleton, a couple exits north on I-93. If he has a menu for the place, he also has a 10% discount coupon you can use. What their website does not advertise is the discount ski passes. He had vouchers for Cannon, Loon, and Bretton Woods. While I don’t know what the discount was for Loon or Bretton Woods, Cannon was only $55 each, a savings of $11 per ticket. The motel is also a very environmentally friendly place. He does the towel program like most hotels tend to do now, only washing what is left on the floor. The domestic hot water is heated using solar power. He’s also looking into a photo-voltaic system for electricity. Each room has a small refrigerator with cans of soda sold on the honor system for 50 cents each. There’s a small basket of everyday items that you can take if you want. The beds were relatively new pillow-top. The room was immaculate. The best part was that it only cost $75 per night. Also, if you mention my name, you’ll probably get $5 off the price of the room.

We skied at Cannon both Saturday and Sunday of our trip. While Cannon didn’t get the snow from the big storm, it did snow Friday night and all day on Saturday. Conditions on Saturday started out like standard Cannon conditions. It was hard pack with ruts and some loose granular. As the day went on and the snow started to come down more heavily, the conditions began to improve. The snow coming down at the summit was powdery and it turned into a small powder day. The new snow filled in the ruts and made for an awesome day of skiing. The warm temperatures kept it a bit slower. My favorite trail that day was Taft Slalom with Upper Cannon coming in a close second. I spent most of the afternoon up at the summit skiing the trails up there.

The temps stayed low overnight and on Sunday, a bunch of our friends from Providence met us at the mountain and we skied with them all day. Usually, I ski alone. Susan isn’t as strong a skier and tends to stick to just a handful of easier trails, while I like to explore. My issue, though, is that I don’t explore too much on my own and tend not to take too many risks in case something happens. Having people to ski with on Sunday was nice. It allowed me to try some new trails, including some of the black diamonds on the mountain. The snow was faster, but soft and forgiving. There were few ruts and no lumps of heavy powder to catch your skis. While I did ski Middle Cannon Bypass on Saturday, which is a short black diamond, I added a couple on Sunday. After lunch, I decided to try Profile (now known as Cannonball), which is a straight wide steep down the upper mountain lift line. It’s usually icy and beat up or blown off, but on Sunday it was pretty well covered, though bumpy in spots. I made it down with ease, but I did begin to feel it in my knees and quads. The other trail I tried that I really enjoyed was Vista Way. It’s normally a blue trail, but all season has been left ungroomed and only covered with natural snow. They had it marked at the top as a black trail because of this. The trail was all bumped out and had some exposed rocks in one spot. It was a ton of fun and really got me working my turns and pole plants. Because the trail is normally not that steep, it was easy to get down and around the bumps. Also, because it’s not a standard mogul field, the bumps were smaller and not overly icy. It was obvious that very few people skied the trail, as many others on the mountain were giving warnings about it not being a fun run. It turned out to be my favorite run of the day. The best part about that trail is the views. The name holds true as the views of the notch from that trail are absolutely breathtaking. I also went down Short Fuse to Lower Hardscrabble, which is normally a bump run. It wasn’t too bad. Short Fuse is a very steep black trail, but, as the name implies, it’s short. We took those to Blue Ball, which was also bumped out and icy in the flat section heading towards the base. Overall, it was a great day on the mountain. Having people to ski with made it the best ski day I’ve had all season.

One of the biggest things anyone trying to lose weight reads or hears is that in order to really lose the weight and keep it off, you need to look at it as a lifestyle change and not a diet or just a bunch of exercise. This has always made weight loss more difficult for me. You see, I’m not the kind of guy who generally likes difficult things, at least not when it comes to my life. I’ll challenge myself at work and in certain activities, but in my normal life, I usually go the easy route. This has always made the weight loss difficult. So when I read that I have to change my lifestyle, my way of living and thinking, it’s a bit daunting. In the past, I tried to make lifestyle changes, but really, I was just dieting.

During my current weight loss journey, which will be my last, I have learned that a lifestyle change does not need to be difficult. It doesn’t even need to be a major change. In fact, it’s been pretty easy for me. If you’ve been following my more recent posts about weight loss, you know that I have made some minor, but important, changes to what I eat and drink on a daily basis. I’ve been thinking about it as being on a diet, but, in reality, it’s a lifestyle change – a change to the way I would normally do something. Because the changes I have made are changes I will need to keep up with for likely the rest of my life, it’s a change in my lifestyle. I have gone from someone who ate and drank whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to someone who is more carefully watching what he eats and when he eats it. I think of it as a minor change, but it’s really a major change when you think about it. It’s probably one of the most important changes I will ever make to the way I live.

I still look at the changes in my eating and drinking habits as minor. If I think more drastically, I’ll most likely fail again. The small changes have amounted to a lot towards my healthier lifestyle. While I never drank a lot of soda, I didn’t drink a lot of water either. I have brought a 32 oz bottle of water to work with me for a long time, but sometimes I wouldn’t finish it, and that would be all I drank for the 8 hours I was at work. I have since added a second bottle of water to work, and I make sure to drink them both in full throughout the day. It serves three purposes for me. The first two might be obvious to most people – keeping well hydrated and making me feel fuller, preventing me from wanting to eat or snack more. The third purpose is related to the first. Drinking a lot of water makes me have to pee. The bathroom in this building is up a fairly tall flight of stairs. I make at least three trips to the bathroom each day. That’s three trips up and down the stairs each day.

So with a different way of thinking about the changes I’ve made, along with the changes themselves, I’ve managed to steadily lose weight since just after the first of the year. I’m also not worried about falling off the track this time. The changes I’ve made, while really helping me lose weight simply by cutting back some calories that I really didn’t need, are small enough that I just don’t mind. In addition, because I put together the plan, I’ve allowed myself to “cheat” every now and then. I still eat and drink all the stuff I have in the past, just less of it all.

While weight loss is a lifestyle change, it doesn’t have to completely change how you go about your life. If it freaks you out thinking that you’re making a major change in your life, don’t think of it that way. I haven’t thought of it that way. It’s been working for me, and I have no reason to think it will stop working. I will eventually hit a plateau. When I do, I will make some more small changes to my life, such as the addition of regular exercise. Until then, the small changes I’ve made work, and I’m in no rush to lose the weight. When you start to rush it, you increase your chance of falling off track and gaining it back, often times with something extra. With weight loss, slow and steady wins the race. And nothing helps stay slow and steady, especially the steady, like small stages.

I’ve been back from vacation for 2 weeks now. I had lost about 5 pounds prior to leaving for vacation and, while I was exerting a lot of energy skiing over that week, I consumed more calories than I probably should have. I’m now finally below the point where I was prior to vacation. I’ve lost 5.6 pounds since the start of my journey a few days after the new year began.

I’m currently at 236. While my weight fluctuates daily, it’s trending in a negative direction, which is good for me. I’m still not exercising a whole lot, but I am making every attempt to keep to my original diet plan, which is simply making little changes in what I eat and drink on a daily basis. I will admit to falling off track a few times this week and getting Twix bars from the candy machine at work, but my weight has continued to decrease. This weekend we’re headed back up north for more skiing. I’m going to watch what I eat this time and not go crazy like I did on vacation. I’m hoping I can continue to lose weight through the weekend, which will require burning more calories skiing than I eat. That shouldn’t be a problem, especially since I’m at a lower weight again. It has greatly helped my skiing and the continued weight loss will make me an even better skier.

I now have 2 things motivating my weight loss. The first is improving my skiing ability, but the second is watching my gut shrink. It’s noticeably smaller than it was prior to making the decision to lose the weight.

Last Friday, a couple of my invisible friends from Twitter (@UNOlker and @mountainlaura) came up to Providence for the Disco Biscuits show at Lupo’s. Having never seen Bisco, I decided I’d check it out, knowing the two of them love the band.

We got to Lupo’s during the opening act. The opening band was Indobox. They were decent. The people already there seemed to love it. There wasn’t much of a scene outside. The scene inside was far younger than I am used to. In fact, most of the crowd seemed barely 21. There were a few older folks and probably a lot of younger ones. It was a very different scene. Everyone seemed pretty spun for the most part, too.

Bisco came on sometime after 10. It might’ve been closer to 10:30. They played what seemed to be a very long first set. I’ll be honest, while they are pretty damn talented, I’m not sure it’s really for me. It was fun. It felt very much like a big dance party. The people there seemed like those you would see at a rave if raves still happened. I had a hard time following the different songs. They all seemed to flow into each other and, for the most part, ended up with that “UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ” sound at some point. This caused them to sound fairly similar. There was one song during the whole show that was slower and more mellow than the rest, but the show was extremely upbeat. As much as I like a good party, I think I can officially say that I’m getting too old for it. During the second set I headed upstairs to the balcony and hung out in back. It was nice to get away from the crazy dancing mobs for a bit, even if some chick thought I was someone else and started dancing with me. The encore was cool. They played “Cars” by Gary Numan (you know the song, look it up). I think that was my favorite part.

There were people puking in the bathroom, in garbage cans in the lobby, and I’m sure outside on the street. While in line at the coat check, some chick saw my Sunday River shirt and goes “Hey, I lost my virginity at Sunday River”. That pretty much summed up the whole experience for me.

I had fun hanging out with UNO and ML. The cabbie that took us back to my place was hilarious and a little wacked in the head, but it was fun. I’m not sure I’ll do it again, but there’s always the possibility. Maybe if it’s not on a Friday, I will. I had been awake from 6:30 am until 3:00 am that night. Needless to say, it was a long day.

Disco Bicuits 2-19-2010

Our little vacation ended with a trip to the Allagash Brewery in Portland, ME (after spending lots of time at LL Bean in Freeport). The tour started with a tasting of their main brands – White, Dubbel, Tripel, and Four. They weren’t full pours, but they weren’t small pours either, considering the strength of some of the beers. Not having had them in a long time, it was nice to be reacquainted with them, remembering how good they are.

The woman in the visitor center had a pretty strong knowledge of their beer and the styles. She knew quite a bit about the brewery and even seemed to have some good general beer knowledge. They weren’t brewing at the time we were there. In fact, they were just moving stuff around. The tour portion was short, but brewery tours need not be long unless there are a lot of questions. Given that the group was small, there weren’t many questions. They allowed us to check out some of their barrels, but not drink any of the beer in them, unfortunately.

What I found most disappointing was the pricing of the beer at the brewery. Oftentimes, breweries will sell beer for slightly cheaper than most retail outlets. In this case, that didn’t hold true. We didn’t buy anything extravagant, picking up a bottle of Four for ourselves and a bottle of Black for my cousin whom we were visiting for dinner that evening on our drive back to RI. I had wanted a t-shirt, but they didn’t have anything in my size in stock. I picked up a glass because that’s what I do at breweries, and we were on our way. It was one of the more informative brewery tours I’ve seen, and certainly the only real Belgian tour. I had expected their tasting room to be a bit different because of the popularity of the brewery. I was also hoping to be able to taste something a bit more special than the four beer we tried, knowing I wouldn’t get to taste the Gargamel or Vagabond.

It’s worth a visit, especially if you like Belgian beers. Someday I’ll get back up to Portland and tour the rest of the breweries in that fine New England beer town.

After our Sunday River trip, we  headed down to Brunswick, ME for the night to visit The Lion’s Pride, the newest restaurant owned by Chris and Jen Lively of Ebenezer’s fame. If you like beer and you live in New England (or anywhere really) and you haven’t been to Ebenezer’s, you need to get there… NOW. Of course their hours during the winter are funny, being only open on the weekend, likely due to their seriously remote location. This is why we decided to go to The Lion’s Pride. They’re open every night of the week.

While Ebenezer’s has a small middle of nowhere pub feel to it, The Lion’s Pride has a more urbane feel. Aside from that difference, they’re very much the same. The staff at both restaurants are fantastic. The food is to die for. And the beer… it’s world class. They’re both known for their steak tips, using the same recipe at each and getting their beef from the same local farm. This is what I ordered. And, as expected, they were absolutely amazing. Whatever they use as a marinade is just mouth watering. Susan got the seafood scampi, which said it came with lobster, mussels, shrimp, and scallops. We weren’t expecting much in the way of big hunks of seafood, but on top of the huge mount of pasta was a huge mound of seafood,  including a ton of lobster. I ate my whole meal, but Susan brought hers home. It fed both of us that second night. Prior to our meals, we were brought a small loaf of bread, which was amazing. I think it was a molasses oatmeal bread or something like that. I honestly don’t remember, but it was darker and very tasty.

Now the beer… being indecisive, we ordered a couple flights. They had a taplist of something like 25 different beers, all amazing. This made the choice difficult and the option of getting a flight much more attractive. Our first flight of six beers consisted of the following.

• Smuttynose G-Bock
• De Struise Pannepot
• Cuvee de Jacobins
• Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine
• Biere de Boucanier
• Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted

The Smutty was a great beer, classified as a doppelbock. It was sweeter and quite tasty. Cuvee de Jacobins is a Flanders red ale (or a sour red). The difference is that it’s far more tart than most in the style. In fact, it bordered on being a lambic, in my opinion. Pannepot is a spiced Belgian ale, similar to a spiced quadrupel. It’s tasty, but not my favorite (though I’ve heard it’s excellent aged). The Olde School wasn’t as good as I had hoped. It was hoppier, but not hoppy. The malt profile seemed lacking. I expected more depth to the beer. Bitter and Twisted is a traditional English IPA. It was nice and malty with a touch of hops. It’s very easy drinking. Finally, Biere de Boucanier is a Belgian strong pale ale. I wasn’t overly impressed by it, but it was still good (I’m not the biggest Belgian pale ale fan).

Because there was still so much beer left on the list that I had to try, I ordered a partial flight when we finished the first. That one consisted of:

• Smuttynose Oak Aged Maibock
• Allagash Interlude
• Koningshoeven Quad
• Bayrischer Berlinerweiss

The Berlinerweiss was ordered straight up. In Germany, they’ll add a shot of flavor to it, like raspberry or apple. We wanted the pure unadulterated beer. It’s a very light, easy drinking wheat beer with a tart finish. It’s a very refreshing beer. I wasn’t impressed with the Quad, which was surprising as I enjoy it from the bottle. Perhaps the difference was being on tap. I actually have  bottle of that in my basement from 2006 that I need to drink. I’ve heard that those bottles had something wrong with them, but I guess we’ll find out when I open it. Interlude is a different type of beer. I think Allagash was going for a saison, but ended up infecting it by accident the first time they made it. It gave the beer a slight hint of funky tartness. It’s an excellent beer as always. My favorite beer of the night, however, was the Oak Aged Maibock. I don’t know what kind of oak barrels Smuttynose used, but I was expecting a big bourbon flavor as with many oak aged beers. This one, however, was very different. The oak gave the beer a nutty maple flavor that I was not expecting. It tasted almost like maple walnut ice cream. It was a superb beer, and, as a big fan of everything maple, easily my favorite.

The waiter we had, Jon, was excellent. He brought us a complimentary glass of the Cuvee de Jacobins as dessert. He knew his beer, as did the other two people working there that night. I was very impressed by their beer expertise, though I shouldn’t have expected anything less. We chatted with them all for a bit before we left. Even though they closed up right after we left (at 9:30 pm), they weren’t in a rush to get us out of there.

Finally, I want to comment on the pricing. Our bill came out to almost $90 for our two meals and the two flights of beer. The way they do the flights is give you basically a half pour for half the price. They fill up large tasting glasses, which are probably about 5 or 6 ounces each. Our beer came out to just about $40, not including tip or the complimentary beer. My meal was the cheaper (I didn’t have lobster in it). Susan’s meal cost $27, but for the amount of food, especially the amount of high quality seafood, it was well worth the price. I am not one to enjoy spending a large amount of money going out to dinner. The food and beer at this place is well worth every penny. In fact, I would dare you to compare the quality of the food with any top quality restaurants in a major metropolitan area. The food matches the quality of some of the best restaurants here in Providence – a city known for it’s culinary masters.

Last week Susan and I took a vacation up to Sunday River in Maine. We went skiing for 4 days, meeting up with a couple friends of ours. The trip was great and I got in a lot of good skiing. In fact, some of the trails were absolutely gorgeous. I spent most of the first morning at Jordan Bowl, skiing Lollapalooza, Excalibur, and Rogue Angel before skiing my way over to South Ridge to meet up with everyone. I skied a bunch off North Peak and did a run down American Express where I took a big spill, bruising my knee. I got up, brushed myself off, and headed back to the lodge to take a much needed rest.

On the second day, we both took a “Learn to Ride” snowboard lesson. It’s a 3 hour lesson that takes you from putting on your gear to making your first turns. I took a similar lesson about 12 years ago when I learned to ski. The only difference was that the ski lesson brought me down a real green trail at the end, teaching us how to load and unload on and off the lift. This lesson didn’t take us that far, but I was perfectly happy with that. My knee was still bruised from the previous day and the snowboard boots were downright uncomfortable. I have high arches on my feet and I have insoles in my ski boots to support my arches. The rental snowboard boots lacked any support and my feet were in serious pain. I made my way up and down the bunny slope pretty well for a beginner, but after the lesson, I decided I was done and turned in the board and boots in exchange for my skis. I never thought I’d say it, but my ski boots felt like slippers compared to the snowboard boots. After that, I did a couple runs down Barker, taking Lazy River and Ecstasy to Sunday Punch. I grew tired and decided to call it a day. Both knees, my butt, and my elbows were all bruised up from the snowboard lesson that morning. I used my elbows to land on because I didn’t want to screw up my wrists.

The third day saw the cloud return and the snow wasn’t as good as the previous day. I made a couple runs at Jordan Bowl before heading back to South Ridge to meet up with everyone. I decided to take it a bit easier that day after the rough day before. I made some runs with our friends, one of whom had just learned that day before venturing off with the more experienced of them. We headed up to Spruce and did Risky Business, which was in great shape that day. Then we did some trails on Barker. We had wanted to head over to White Cap, but got stuck because of racing and didn’t want to take the flat trail that is Roadrunner over there. When we got stuck, we had no choice but to take our first black diamond at the mountain. Monday Mourning is basically a straight shot down. It wasn’t bad and we both made it down the trail with relative ease. After taking another run down Barker with South Paw, which looked nice, but was all beat up and skied off, we headed in for the day.

Our last day was just me and Susan. She went out and did some green runs, and I skied over to Aurora to do Northern Lights. The snow was great that day and I should’ve done a few more or tried Airglow, but headed over to Spruce and Barker for a couple runs before making my way to White Cap down Roadrunner. I did a couple runs down there on Wildfire and Jibe, but didn’t make it up to the top for Salvation. My legs were just too tired to do that and then ski back. So I skied back and made my way down Lazy River back to the lodge and we called it a day.

It was a great trip and our first time staying at the Jordan Grand. I loved that hotel because it was very remote and I love the trails at Jordan Bowl. I’m not sure if we’ll stay there again because Susan preferred to start her day at South Ridge, taking the shuttle the first morning and the car the other 3. I didn’t mind skiing there and then skiing over to South Ridge. The road to the hotel is also a bit rough. It’s twisty and full of frost heaves. It also goes up about 1000 feet above the elevation of the rest of the base lodges. The room was fantastic and the view was gorgeous, especially when compared with our view of the parking lot when we stayed at the Grand Summit. The most convenient place was the Sunrise condos we stayed in last year. If we get a big enough group for the whole trip, we’ll likely stay there again, though the hotels are much much nicer.

The one thing I love about Sunday River is that just about everyone that works there is fantastic. It’s almost like Disney World for skiers. The mountain has something for all levels of skiing. They’ve got great snowmaking, making for a great season even when there’s no natural snow like this year.

I know I’ve written before about trying to lose weight. I didn’t keep up with that, and I won’t promise I’m gonna keep up with this one. What I will do is make a promise to myself:

I will lose weight this year. I will do whatever it takes to lose that weight.

This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time. It’s something that I’ve tried to do in the past. I’ve tried various methods. I’ll go through those methods and why each one didn’t work for me. Then I’ll explain my new plan and why I think this will work for me.

Past Methods

The first method I tried wasn’t really on purpose. Before I moved to RI, I worked in a high school in CT. I worked in a small computer lab in the library. I was surrounded by the high school students at all times. I caught mono while I was there. I thought it was just a bad cold or the flu, but I was wrong. In that time I had lost 30 pounds in a period of only about two months. Now, most nutritionists and doctors only recommend losing one or two pounds in a week. On average, I had lost about 4 pounds per week because of the illness. Now, I was happy with the weight loss. I was down to 190 lbs. The only problem was that it wasn’t a healthy 190. It was the weight I should be and my current ultimate goal. Because it was due to illness and lack of eating and exercise, it wasn’t healthy and it didn’t stay. In fact, I gained back another 40. So while I had been about 220-225 prior to getting sick, I was up to 230-235 after I gained it back. I tried to keep up with running and eventually hurt my knee. I gave it up and my exercise began to wane.

I was now about 235. I had met Susan and we both tried losing weight through very drastic diets. The diet I chose for myself was the Change One diet. I actually still really like the idea behind it and the book is worth a read if you’re trying to diet. The problem I had with it was that it, like anything else, really doesn’t give you a good estimate of how many calories you specifically need. I had cut out so many calories, I lose weight really quickly. I had gone down to about 215-220 in a relatively short period of time. The problem was that I wasn’t exercising. So the quick weight loss that didn’t happen because of an increase in physical activity resulted in gaining back the weight, and then some.

I found myself at about 240. Susan and I were now engaged and wanted to lose weight for our wedding. We joined a gym, which is now closed (otherwise I’d probably join it again). This worked great for weight loss and getting in shape. We were eating a bit better, but hadn’t overly changed our diet. We were working out three or four nights per week. We would meet at the gym after work and then head home and make dinner. We kept this up through our wedding. I was going to a 20 min abs class that really worked great at toning my stomach a bit. I felt great. Our honeymoon came and we ate a lot, throwing out months of work. We didn’t keep up going to the gym after we returned. The problem was that by the time we got home, we were too tired to make dinner. We weren’t eating until 8:00 every night. We were burnt out and gave it up. We kept the membership for a while going once or twice a week sometimes skipping a few weeks at a time. A much cheaper gym opened closer to our apartment and we joined that one. The problem with that gym is it was crowded and nowhere near as nice. We didn’t like it so we never went. Eventually, we canceled that membership.

Current Method

By the holidays, I had gotten back up to my highest weight of 241.6. I decided I’m sick of being overweight. Skiing is the my favorite recreational activity. I’ve been stuck at a point where I haven’t advanced in skiing. The problem is that it’s hard to keep 240 lbs in control when you’re flying down a mountain. When I had gone on my crash diet and got down to just under 220, I felt great skiing and did a whole lot better. I decided that if I really want to advance as a skier, I need to lose weight. Knowing myself and how I gave up all my other attempts at losing weight, I was going to try something different. I didn’t make this resolution until a few days after the new year. I needed the holiday period to enjoy myself. So instead of making a pact with myself or someone else to go to the gym a few times a week or cut out all the sweets or something, I was going to make a smaller change.

The first, and biggest, change I made was to cut out drinking beer during the week. I would give myself 2 days a week to drink beer. If I drank it then, fine. If I didn’t, I wasn’t going to make up for it on a different day. I had been drinking one or two beers every day after work or with dinner. That’s an extra 250-600 calories, or sometimes more depending on the beer, I would not be consuming on a daily basis. I also added that if there was something going on, like a concert or visitors or a beer tasting, I would break this. This keeps the whole thing far more realistic for me.

In addition to cutting out the beer, we decided to eat a bit better. I am eating large salads with dinner each night. I’m eating Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast instead of Frosted Mini Wheats, which cuts out a bunch of calories. I added a good size bag of celery sticks to my snacks at work. The beauty of celery is that you burn more calories digesting it than it contains. I’ve heard the same thing about apples. I eat two of those every day. I’ve cut out the candy at work as a snack because of the celery. I also decided to cut back on dessert and eat things with fewer calories. Some of what I enjoy are the Edy’s Fruit Bars. I like coconut and lime. They each have about 100 calories or less.

Now, what might come as a surprise is that I haven’t cut out all fun stuff. On the weekend, I’ll drink beer, sometimes more than 2. I had a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that I ate over the course of 3 nights. I’ll continue to do this. I also decided that when I was on vacation last week that I wasn’t going to pay too much attention to my diet. The main reason was that I was going to be skiing every day (and ski I did, but that’s for another post), burning calories. I also don’t count calories. It’s too much effort for me.

I know that this method will only work until I’m at a weight that can be maintained by my diet and nutrition. When that point comes, I plan on adding in exercise (which I do occasionally with the Gazelle we have). One of the plans I am thinking about trying is the Couch to 5k program. I used to be a runner in high school and kept up running a bit in high school and even after moving to RI. Even when I was going to the gym, I was running a little on the treadmill. The problem is, I don’t want to join a gym. I know I won’t go. I also don’t have the money or space for a treadmill. So I’m waiting until the weather warms up and I’ll start this method outside in my neighborhood on the quieter streets. While it would be easiest on a treadmill, I think running outside is more exciting and will get my legs in better condition to handle the road race.

My Goal

My ultimate goal is to lose a total of 51.6 pounds, bringing my weight down to 190. However, hard goals are tough, especially when losing weight. So to appease myself, I decided to set a softer goal of 200. If I can get myself to 200, or, preferably, just under 200, I will be extremely happy. I am still using the Google 15 gadget on my Google homepage to track my weight. I haven’t decided to make a change to fully tracking my weight in a spreadsheet, which I might start doing.

Before my vacation, I had lost about 5 pounds in total. This came out to about a loss of a pound a week (some weeks saw more, some less). I gained back some of it over the past week while on vacation, but I’m getting back on track. I feel healthier already. In fact, the 5 pounds I lost helped my skiing quite a bit as I made it down some steeper terrain with more ease than I did last year.

On Saturday, I had gone to CT to see Trey and Classic TAB at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford. Because of a new hookup from my cousin, I had great seats, about 6 rows back. I had seen bands from that close before, but never a Phish-related band. The seats were great.

Upon arrival, there wasn’t a large lot scene that I could see. We had driven by around 6 to meet my cousin at a bar in downtown Wallingford and there was no one at the Oakdale yet. When we go back to the Oakdale around 7:15, the lot was pretty full, but there wasn’t a large scene. So we headed in.

We grabbed a beer and headed to our seats. The Oakdale is a pretty nice theatre, though it was the largest venue scheduled for Trey’s tour. It wasn’t a sold out show, but the vibe inside felt as if it had been sold out. The crowd was excited and Trey was visibly happy to be there. In fact, he had mentioned it was one of his favorite rooms. I could tell why. The sound in the room was perfect. We were low below the speakers and the sound was still excellent. This is a major contrast to the last time I saw TAB at Lupo’s. The sound there tends to be too loud, making it difficult to pick out the different instruments. The Oakdale had a nice warm sound to it.

He opened the show with “Alive Again” and it was clear the show was gonna be a good one. Everyone was playing at the top of their game. The next song was “Shine”. This is a song that I had previously only heard played by 70 Volt Parade. The song was horrible then. It was just way too much of a pop song. The horns added a nice element to it and made the song really sparkle (pun intended). After the new song “All that Almost Was”, he dedicated the next song to Natalie’s (the trombonist) great-grandmother who was in the audience, and they played “Mozambique”. You could tell the band was well rehearsed and didn’t just get on stage and wing it (which was how 70 Volt Parade always sounded). They followed that with my favorite TAB song, “Push On Til The day”. They really played this one strong and jammed it out a bit. Other highlights from the first set were “Sand”, “Alaska”, and “Liquid Time”, which really sounded great with the flute. I can’t wait for Phish to play this one. They closed the set with a song he said he was playing for his friend, Steve Pollack, aka the Dude of Life. He had written the song with Trey, but had never heard it performed. The song was “Show of Life”, which was another great song and could become a great Phish tune as well. It ended a long 90 minute set.

The second set opened with “Cayman Review”, followed by “Gotta Jibboo”. The band was nailing everything. They played “The Birdwatcher”, a barbershop tune from Phish’s Party Time album. They then went to “Love is Freedom” which segued to “Simple Twist-up Dave”, keeping up the energy. After calming things down a bit for “Flock of Words” and the nice groove of “Drifting”, they closed the set with “First Tube”. We knew we’d get a great encore. They came back and Trey explained how curfews worked and why there would sometimes be a three minute encore. He then said that wasn’t going to happen this night and it didn’t. The triple encore included “At the Gazebo”, “Valentine”, and “Dragonfly”.

Trey was visibly excited to be there throughout the whole show and didn’t seem to want the night to end. But, as with all good things, the night had come to an end. It was a very strong show and reminded me why I love Trey and TAB so much. This smaller incarnation of the band is really what he needs to stick with. Things started to get out of hand with the 10 piece band. It was almost too much going on to really get it. It’s also nice that he’s able to play the smaller venues. I had seen his bigger band at Great Woods during Phish’s hiatus. While it made sense that he played a venue that big, the music and the band really weren’t fit for such a large venue. For a band that’s full of just fun music, they need a smaller venue where they can be closer to the whole audience.

Unfortunately, the scene outside after the show was pretty bad. There were nitrous tanks and balloons everywhere. We made our way to the car and headed out.

Setlist 2-13-2010