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Monthly Archives: December 2011

Praying for Renewed Strength

True story. I blew it on Christmas Eve. It was a disaster. I knew I shouldn’t have made my famous peanut butter fudge. The sampling of it was all it took to get me “out of the box” (HMR weight management term). We had all of our adult children over for Christmas Eve, and quite a few delicious foods were being served. It was pretty overwhelming. I gave into the temptation to eat outside of the newly created diet box for the first time in over 13 weeks. Looking back this morning I have figured out what went wrong. We were so busy preparing for the arrival of everyone that I didn’t consider to plan for my meals so by the time the foods were being prepared I was pretty hungry, and gave into eating naughty things. Next time, Lord willing, I plan on being prepared.

My bride had to work on Christmas day so it was a little easier to eat the foods I should be eating. Today I have been praying for renewed strength and self-control, and the Lord has been faithful. I have the day off and got on the treadmill for 35 minutes first thing this morning. After a hot cereal with banana and some cleaning, I made a double protein shake with PB2 and took it and a bottle of water up to the exercise room and worked out my shoulders and triceps for another 30 minutes. I am feeling re-vitalized and strengthened. The Lord is good. Always!

Soli Deo Gloria!!

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Posted by barrydean on December 26, 2011 in exercise, God's faithfulness, HMR, meal planning, out of the box, Prayer

The Blood Tells It All

21 Dec

My lab work is in! Before I give the details let me, tell about my blood draw experiences. The first blood draw as part of my weight management program for me was about 3 months ago. The nurse had a difficult time finding a good vein and had to stick me a couple of times before the blood would flow into her vial. When she went to draw my blood a few days ago she had no difficulty finding a good vein to stick. She said this was due to my weight loss and my healthy water consumption. Just another benefit of getting healthier. Now for the lab results.

Lab results from program start on 9/21/2011:

Test	Value	Units	Ref. Range
Cholesterol	215	mg/dL	120-200
Triglyceride I	251	mg/dL	<=149
HDL I	49	mg/dL	40-60
VLDL Calc	50	mg/dL	<=30
LDL Calc I	116	mg/dL	<=99
Chol/HDL Ratio I	4.4	Ratio	<=5.0
LDL/HDL Ratio I	2.4	Ratio	<=3.6
Non-HDL Chol. I	166	mg/dL

Lab results at end of Phase I on 12.14.2011:

Test	Value	Units	Ref. Range
Cholesterol	122	mg/dL	120-200
Triglyceride I	81	mg/dL	<=149
HDL I	55	mg/dL	40-60
VLDL Calc	16	mg/dL	<=30
LDL Calc I	51	mg/dL	<=99
Chol/HDL Ratio I	2.2	Ratio	<=5.0
LDL/HDL Ratio I	.9	Ratio	<=3.6
Non-HDL Chol. I	67	mg/dL

LDL/HDL Ratio legend for risk of developing coronary heart disease for Men:

Up to 1.0	Low Risk
1.1 to 3.6	Average Risk
3.7 to 6.3	Above Avg Risk
6.4 to 8.0	High Risk

Last night I weighed in at 248.7 lbs. which is down 3.9 lbs. from the previous week, and means a total loss from beginning of 46 lbs. I had set a personal goal to break the 250 lb. barrier before Christmas. Goal achieved!!

All to the glory of God!

Soli Deo Gloria!!

Christmas Is All In The Heart

19 Dec

As Christmas approaches I am voluntarily listening to more and more of my favorite Christmas songs and carols. Some of my favorite traditional carols are “Joy To The World”, I can almost hear the angels proclaiming it when it is sung, “Silent Night”, I especially love the story behind the origin of the song found here, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”, and “The First Noel”. Some my favorite non-traditional Christmas music of late is from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Just pick any of their Christmas themed albums. Growing up I fell in love with the Snoopy Christmas songs from The Royal Guardsmen. Songs like “Snoopy’s Christmas“, and the follow up “The Return of the Red Barron”. Speaking of Snoopy, who doesn’t love the Vince Guaraldi Trio and their “Christmastime Is Here“, and the classic “Linus and Lucy“. But one of my favorite non-traditional Christmas songs was written by one of my favorite Christian artists, Steven Curtis Chapman, or as I like to refer to him .. SC² from the retro DCtalk days. The song is from SC²‘s 1995 album “The Music of Christmas“. Below is the wonderful video from the song. Enjoy!

Moving on to Phase 2

16 Dec

I have been a bit lax in my weight management updates lately. So in order to remedy that I am going to write about my end to Phase 1 of the program and what I might expect in Phase 2, which begins in less than two weeks.

This past Wednesday I did the follow up nurse visit for the weight management program I have been on for the past 12 weeks. The results of this visit are very encouraging for a loser like me. Here is the list:

I have lost 43 lbs.
I have lost a total of 8 inches around my trunk.
I have lost 2 inches in my neck.
I have dropped 36 lbs of body fat.
My BMI has dropped 6 points.
I have dropped 7% body fat.

I will update the results of my lab work in a following post.

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Posted by barrydean on December 16, 2011 in exercise, fitness, God's sovereignty, HMR, Phase 2, weight loss

Infinite and an Infant

16 Dec

I found this eloquent quote from Charles H. Spurgeon related to the birth of Christ.

Infinite, and an infant. Eternal, and yet born of a woman. Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast. Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms. King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph. Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son.

Hats Off To The Bull – Chevelle

14 Dec

This is an album I have been looking forward to since their live album release hit the stores. Chevelle is a Chicago based band. I have been listening to them since their first release, “Point #1”. My fondness was cemented the day I read they named the band for their dad’s favorite automobile. I am also a Chevy fan. Chevelle was first introduced to the market under Squint Entertainment, a Christian record label which created quite a controversy for them. They may have finally moved beyond the label of Christian band to a band who is serious about their faith. I am not sure what that means specifically but on to the album review. A couple of aspects of the band that attracted me to Chevelle are; they write their own music, and they are a three piece band. They have been compared to other bands like Tool, and Helmet, but I got into Chevelle long before I heard any music from those other bands. In my estimation there is only a slight resemblance in sound and style. Some music critics have described Chevelle in such terms as “a kind of controlled chaos, a beautiful darkness, a gentle rampage of aural velocity”. I will agree with that description. In my own experience of listening to their music and seeing them live I would describe their music as melodic restrained chaos. This pattern holds in their latest project titled “Hats Off To The Bull“.

The album begins with “Face To The Floor”. A heavy melodic groove that starts the Chevelle motor just fine. This track was first leaked to radio back in September of this year and is getting some nice airplay on rock and college radio stations. In an interview earlier this year, drummer Sam Loeffler, stated that the song is about the Ponzi scheme stuff going on in some corporations today. Next up is “Same Old Trip”. The song is typical Chevelle and yet not with some cool backing vocals mixed in during the chorus. “Ruse” is up next, and it reminds me of some of the pieces from their “Wonder What’s Next” album, one of my favorite Chevelle albums. The “Meddler” has many layers to it. It has some very cool guitar vibrato which makes the song almost atmospheric. “Pinata” is a quick paced song reminiscent of “Mia” from their “Point #1” album, and yet contains an almost clean rock sound mixed in, and some rare lead guitar work.

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Posted by barrydean on December 14, 2011 in Chevelle, Hats Off To The Bull, Music Review