Not bad this week. I’m REALLY looking forward to getting down under 190 lbs. My metabolism is starting to push back a little so watching what I eat calorie wise continues to be very important. Losing a pound a week over the next month will be a achievable. My appetite has become more accustom to smaller portions so I fill up faster. That makes resisting larger portions that much easier. I’ve found it’s best to just not put too much on your plate to start with.

Today is cheat day and Caroline and I both hit our first milestone so we will be celebrating with a cheese and chocolate fondue meal – Yummy!

End Weight: 192.2
Previous Weight: 194
Week 5 Loss: -1.8 lbs
Net Loss: -15.8 lbs
BMI: 24.67
Percent of Goal (175 lbs.): 47.88% Complete

End Weight: 194
Previous Weight: 195.4
Week 5 Loss: -1.4 lbs
Net Loss: -14.0 lbs
BMI: 24.91
Percent of Goal (175 lbs.): 42.42% Complete

P.F. Chang’s frozen meals are fantastic. I’ve had several of them previously with no regard to calorie content. Anyway, now dieting, I thought to check them out for their appropriateness for my diet. The problem with most of the meals is that you want to serve them with rice and that really drives the calories through the roof. But with the noodles, the calories stay relatively low at 350 per serving.

Bottom line, you can’t beat the taste for calorie ratio of this dish. I did add small handful of peanuts right at the end and allowed it simmer the final minute.  Yummy!!

I’ve continued to make steady progress this week. Yogurt for breakfast and salads for lunch most days. I’ve discovered a pretty good lunch at Panera consisting of 1/2 a Smoked Turkey sandwich on wheat and a cup of Chicken Noodle soup. You can have them give you an apple instead of the baguette. Total of 280 calories. We have also been enjoying some tasty Talapia dinners. I’ll post that recipe sometime this week.

End Weight: 195.4
Previous Weight: 198.8
Loss: -3.4 lbs
Net Loss: -12.6 lbs
BMI: 25.09
Percent of Goal (175 lbs.): 38.18% Complete

Leah and her friend Sailor enjoy a pop-up book together during a sleepover tonight. The book is Dragons & Mosters by Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda.

It doesn’t get much better than this down home song on my Victrola. In case you have never heard this song, here is a very nice version by Allison Krauss and Lyle Lovett: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UxOcZgDOpc.Enjoy.

Yes, under 200 lbs. again and I already feel lighter. I’m about 6 weeks away from my skinny clothes, the fat bin is waiting for me to load it up and pack it away again. Unfortunately, all the easy lbs. are all almost gone and soon it will be time to settle in for the ground war with the remaining 20 lbs.

End Weight: 198.8
Previous Weight: 202.4
Loss: -3.6 lbs
Net Loss: -9.2 lbs
BMI: 25.52
Percent of Goal (175 lbs.): 27.88% Complete

This is a reproduction set of the Isle of Lewis Chessmen (or Uig Chessmen). It is the earliest know chess set. Discovered in 1831 in Scotland, a total of 78 pieces were recovered including 8 kings, 8 queens, 16 bishops, 15 knights, 12 rooks and 19 pawns. The heights of the pawns range from 3.5 to 5.8 cm while the major pieces are between 7 and 10.2 cm. It is believed they were probably made in Norway, by craftsmen in the 12th century. They are owned and exhibited by the British Museum in London, which has 67 of the original pieces, and the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, which has the remaining 11 pieces. Sarah, in 4th grade now, joined the chess club this year and I can’t wait to play a game with her using this set. The board arrives next week!

This afternoon Leah, Sarah and I went to share some treats with the horses down the street. We were hoping to see King and Tinkerbell but instead we found only Pepe. He was whinnying at the fence when we arrived and kept it up until he realized what we had at which point he trotted over to investigate. We shared some apples and carrots with him and I think he must have appreciated it because it struck a very nice pose fore me afterward. Thanks Pepe!

That’s right! Take that. I say “game on” to my fatness. Your ass is mine!!

End Weight: 202.4
Previous Weight: 208.0
Loss: -5.6 lbs
Net Loss: -5.6 lbs
BMI: 25.98
Percent of Goal (175 lbs.): 16.97% Complete

I cut the Venison loin into strips and lightly breaded with flour. I fried the strips for about 5-7 minutes for both sides and then added the vegetables. After about another 5 minutes I added the sauce. That I let run on medium heat for a final 5-7 minutes and served on a bed of rice.

The sauce was made from the following all mixed together before hand:

2 tablespoons Corn Starch
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
1/2 cup Light Corn Syrup
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic

Added peanuts as an after thought. It was great with or without the nuts.

I love the hour glass with black sand that has been sitting on my desk since I started working here. I can’t believe it took me this long to take a picture of it. The trees outside my window and the gray sky made the perfect monochromatic backdrop for the picture. I used my iPhone 4 to take the shot. If I had my 5D I would have been able to capture the sand frozen in space.

I welcomed in 2012 with the usual eats. Black eyed peas? Check! Cabbage? Check. Collards? YUCK, thank goodness for the peach juice. Check! And last but not least, the pork product of your choice. Check! Ummmm good and here’s to the new year.

Leah had the pleasure of entertaining Corduroy the class bear for the weekend. Every year Mrs. McCrary’s kindergarten class at Cumberland Trace Elementary school is graced with a class bear. The students take turns hosting the class bear for the weekend. Sarah had Buddy the Bear and this year Leah has Corduroy.

Anna Scifres and Lexi Stewart attempt to train Tinkerbell, a miniature horse, to jump barrels. They are joined by Sarah and Leah Scifres as well as Sarah’s friend Katie Levesque.

Maia Madison from David Scifres on Vimeo.

I got my 5D this Friday YEAH!!! I had been taken aback by my oldest daughters friend Maia Madison’s artistic ability on her Nintendo DS. The new camera, coupled with my desire to learn Adobe Premiere, led to this video. When Maia came over to visit, I could not resist the opportunity to try and capture the creative work she had done. Not bad for my first real video attempt.

As promised I took Anna and Sarah to Chicago for the weekend. We had a blast. We purchased a CityPass which got us in the Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, Art Institute, the SkyWalk at the top of Sears tower and the Science and Technology building (which we didn’t make it to). The hit of the trip as it turns out was Navy Pier as well as tea at the American Girl Doll store.

Leah dove off the board for the first time the day before this video was shot. I used the 8mm app to give it the old school look.

Brining the chicken is a MUST because it seems to help make the chicken juicier. To brine, first mix 4 cups of cold water with ¼ cup of kosher salt and ¼ cup of brown sugar. Stir until dissolved. Wash and put the boneless, skinless chicken strips in a gallon size zip-lock bag and pour the brine mixture in the bag and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. Now, it is time to make the marinade.

Marinade ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups of apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Juice from one lemon or lime (whichever you prefer – mixing both is tasty too)
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 8 tsp of minced garlic
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 cup of Heinz 57 sauce
• 1/2 cup of Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup A-1 Marinade
• Tabasco to taste
• 4 tsp flaked red pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Remove the chicken strips from the brine and rinse and pat dry with a paper towel. Submerge the chicken strips in the homemade marinade (you can use a Tupperware type bowl with a lid, a zip-lock bag or for best results a Vacuvin Marinater) and refrigerate a minimum of 4 to 6 hours. Please note it is best to let them soak in the marinade overnight. You should set aside some of the marinade to baste the chicken breasts when cooking. Remove and grill. And that’s pretty much it. Good luck and you won’t be disappointed!

Testing out the share link from FLickr

End Weight: 186.2
Previous Weight: 189.0
Loss: -2.8 lbs
Net Loss: -5.0 lbs
BMI: 23.90
Percent of New Goal (175 lbs.): 29.07% Complete

I recently received an iPad as a graduation present after finishing my MBA. It was a total surprise and I could not have asked for anything more useful and entertaining. It is a total game changer. This is how the Internet and digital media was meant to be consumed. The device itself and most of the applications are delightfully intuitive – they don’t make me think! In the short amount of time I have had it it has become indispensable to my life. Below are the Apps that I have found most useful.

Top iPad Apps

• DropBox – a Web-based file hosting service that uses cloud computing to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization. Keeps files on your desktop in sync on multiple computers, your iPad and the Dropbox website in your account.
• Zite – is an intelligent personalized magazine that uses your previous actions or viewing habits, as well as social network activity, as indicator of what you will most likely want to see in the future. And then it brings you that content. You can give a thumbs up or down on specific content to help further refine the content you are delivered. In a world of information overload this could be a huge time saver.
• Flipboard – Finally something that is bringing it all together in a more easily consumable format. Flipboard is your very own personalized magazine written by your friends. Flipboard integrates all your facebook, twitter, flickr and other social websites together in an entertaining personalized magazine.
• Jump Desktop – Run your PC’s and Mac’s remotely with your iPad. Jump Desktop is a remote desktop application that let you control your computer from your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Jump Desktop is secure, reliable and very easy to setup. Jump Desktop features a streamlined user interface that gives you full access to your PCs on all Apple mobile devices. One app that works seamlessly across all your devices.
• iThoughtsHD – is very nicely done a mind mapping tool for the iPad and well worth the $9.99 price. Mindmapping enables you to visually organize your thoughts, ideas and information for things like task lists, brainstorming, project planning, goal setting, concept mapping and meeting notes. It integrates with all the standard mind map formats like Freemind (which I use on my desktop) and integrates with could services like MobileMe and DropBox
• Wikihood - What are the most important sights to see around me? What do others find interesting here? Is there a museum, a castle, a park or church nearby? What persons are connected with this place? Did a historic battle happen at this place? Wikihood knows the answers to questions like these and more. It intelligently organizes Wikipedia information for any place in the world using advanced semantic data mining. Within a few clicks you not only get access to all the locations around you, but also the vast information related to these locations categorized by “persons” and “culture/buildings”.
• Netflix – Hook up directly to your Netflix account and view anything from your on demand video queue.
• Hulu Plus – You can stream thousands of episodes from hundreds of current and classic TV shows to your iPad, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 3rd generation iPod Touch, computer, TV, and other devices with a Hulu Plus subscription.
• IMDB – The Amazon.com subsidiary released this native iPad app optimized for the bigger screen. The App lets customers access more than 1.5 million movie and TV titles with information on 3.2 million celebrities, actors, actresses, directors and crew members.
• Flixster - View the top box office leaders, upcoming movies and new DVD releases. Look up local show times and buy tickets from movie tickets.com (for participating theaters that sell movie tickets online).
• Pandora - Create your own personalized radio stations for FREE and stream them to your iPad. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a “station” that plays their music and more music like it.
• Sound Hound -Say the name, sing, hum or play any song and sound hound will find in a split second.
• Google eBooks – Access to over 10 millions books in google digital repository. Many are free.
• Kindle – One app optimized for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, giving you the ability to read Kindle books your large format iPad screen. App has access to 775,000 books in the Kindle Store, including best sellers and new releases. Amazon Whispersync automatically syncs your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across devices (including Kindle), so you can pick up where you left off on another device.
• iBooks -download and buy books via your iPad. You can also organize your PDF files and sync them for reading on iBooks via iTunes.
• Flickr Studio -brings all the goodness from photo community site Flickr.com to your Apple iPad. It makes optimal use of the hi-res iPad screen for displaying Flickr photos and videos in all their glory! The only drawback is that it you can’t point it at a specific photoset while in screen saver mode.
• New York Times -
• Wall Street Journal -
• Engadget -
• BBC News -
• NPR -
• Wikipanion - reformats the wikipedia pages for the iPad, and saves you from having to zoom in and out to be able to get the information you need. The app lets you search entries and keeps track of your searches. It also allows you to bookmark specific pages for later use.
• The Weather Channel MAX+ –
• Trip Adviser -
• Yelp -
• Urbanspoon -
• Amazon -
• Live Strong – As Drucker said, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” and that includes your weight. Tracking stuff really works!! This Calorie Tracker can help you reach your diet, weight loss and fitness goals by tracking your daily calories and exercise. I REALLY NEED TO START USING THIS on Jan 1 again. Their database contains over 625,000 food and fitness items. This app is totally worth the expense if you really want to diet.
• Dragon Dictation – This app is an easy to use voice recognition powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. Saves time if you need to do a lot of typing.
• Adobe Ideas – is a digital sketchbook and an ideal companion for the professional design applications like Illustrator and Photoshop. You design concepts while sitting in a cafe, capture and store color themes while browsing through the photos on your phone, or jot down notes on a photo. It’s just really handy to have with you all the time
• World Atlas by National Geographic – This app is worth every penny. Now you can have the world’s best maps in high resolution to browse, search, and zoom details of the entire globe. Contains 7 different levels of National Geographic cartography, plus when you zoom in to details you are seamlessly transferred to mapping via Bing (should have been Google Maps but I digress) so you view all the way down to your house.
• All Recipes Pro – Search the entire All Recipes database. This is one of my favorite apps. It integrates your online recipe box with your ipad but you have to purchase the pro version to do it. The PRO version is well worth the $4.99 price. It allows you to synch with your Allrecipes.com account for full access to your online recipe box and shopping lists. It provides easy recipe management for your Recipe Box with drag and drop organization and editing and access to cuisine and occasion based browsing, and no advertising! This is a great example of how to use a free app to get downloads and convert people to the pro version for a decent price/value compbination.
• Epicurious – This is Conde Naste Digital’s cooking website with more than 30,000 delicious, professionally created recipes from Bon Appét*t, Gourmet, Self, and renowned chefs and cookbooks.
• Marvel -
• TED – Ideas Worth Spreading -
• The Economist -
• Star Walk -
• NASA App HD -
• Angry Birds -
• Scrabble -
• Yahtzee -
• Clue S&S -
• Risk -
• SimCity DLX -
• Rage HD -
• Cut the Rope HD -
• Fruit Ninja -

End Weight: 191.2
Previous Weight: ???
Loss: -0.0 lbs
Net Loss: 0.0 lbs
BMI: 24.5
Percent of New Goal (175 lbs.): 1% Complete

Ingredients

• Package Puff Pastry Sheets
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/2 cup apricot preserves
• 1/3 cup dried cranberry, softened
• 1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
• 1 (13.2 ounce) round Brie cheese
• Crackers

Directions

1. Thaw pastry sheet at room temperature 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix egg and water.
2. Unfold pastry sheet on lightly floured surface. Roll into 14 inch square. Cut off corners to make a circle. Spread preserves to within 1 inch of pastry edge. Sprinkle cranberries and almonds over preserves. Top with cheese. Brush edge of circle with egg mixture. Fold two opposite sides over cheese. Trim remaining two sides to 2 inch from edge of cheese. Fold these two sides onto the round. Press edges to seal. Place seam-side down on baking sheet. Decorate top with pastry scraps if desired. Brush with egg mixture.
3. Bake 20 minutes or until golden. Let stand 1 hour. Serve with crackers.