kypdurran

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It's with a sad heart that I report that my beloved pet Deuce, a 13.5 year old min-pin, died in my arms this morning around 4AM.  I knew the day was coming because he was in really poor health and even though you try to prepare yourself in your mind you never really are ready for it.   I can thank God that he allowed me to have such a great dog and that He allowed him to pass in my arms.  

So long Deuce.   You were a great friend and companion.  You know I loved you and will miss you until the day I die and join you on the Rainbow Bridge.   Rest in peace little buddy.

Deuce, 1994 - 2007

Thanksgiving and the weekend was great with the exception of my gorging on whatever food was laying around and LSU losing all hopes of a national championship by losing to R-Kansas (as Les Miles so elegantly calls them). 

My punishment?   3-a-days all week to make amends for being lax during the holidays as well making a commitment to eat near perfectly this week.   So far so good but today is only Tuesday.   :)

SLU 5K Gobble Gallop

I ran a 5K last night with a buddy of mine from New Orleans. I finished 14th overall with a time of 24:30 which is my best time yet. I'm training now for the Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans which is in February 2008. That should be fun. :) I think we're only going to do the half marathon race but that should still be a challenge.

Here's some pics from last nights race:

I just ran across a post about the 5-Day Pouch Test. I'm gonna try it out and post my results after I finish. I'm gonna start it tomorrow.

More info at www.5daypouchtest.com

Saints family reception party at the Superdome after the game
(Saints 41 - Jaguars 24)

My girlfriend and I attended the family reception after the Saints vs. Jaguars game yesterday. I got to meet a bunch of the players and coaches and even take a picture with Drew Brees and Coach Peyton.

Click on the image for a larger picture Click here to see the full set

Sunday in San Francisco

Telegraph Hill & Muir Woods
My brother and I started off the day EARLY so we could try to spot the wild parrots at Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. We only saw one lonely parrot, however were treated to an amazing sunset over the bay bridge. After some breakfast we traveled over the Golden Gate Bridge to visit Muir Woods and the nearby cliffs. Undescribeably beautiful scenery!

Click here for all the pics

Saints vs. San Fran
We left Muir Woods and traveled to Oakland to meet up with my friends at the
Thai Temple in Berkeley.  The Thai Temple puts on a fund raiser every
Sunday and they cook a huge meal.   The food was outstanding and even
though the clientele was a big strange (we were in the hippie capital of the
world!) it was a neat experience.

I guess I will have to be nicer to the visiting team fans when they travel to the dome from now on. Outside of Candlestick the population was pretty much oblivious that the game was even on but as soon as we neared the stadium the jeers and taunts began and for the most part they were all in fun. :)

Our seats weren't the best but we were in the stadium and that's all that matters. The Saints dominated and ended up winning big.

Click here for all the pics

Overall a great day and one that I will never forget!  
I'm planning another trip in May and hopefully this time I'll get to bring my
girlfriend and we can stay longer than a weekend.

My Goal List and my California Adventure

Well as of 6:30PM CST last night I officially crossed off the LAST item from my goal list which was to sit in an airline seat and fasten the seat belt comfortably without having to ask the flight attendant for a fat-boy extender belt.   I guess she thought I was a retard because I asked her to take a picture of it to commemorate the occasion.   I just told her that it was my first time flying and she and everyone around me gave me funny looks like I was "country come to town" being 35 years old and never flown.  Heh.   Screw 'em, they wouldn't understand how important that picture was to me!   Anyway here's a couple of pics.  :)

The purpose of my plane ride was two-fold.  I flew out to California to visit my brother and his family and to go watch the Saints whip up on the Niners on Sunday.   This was my first visit to his house in Benicia.   I'm a little jealous of the view outside his living room...

I ran the Walk from Obesity 5K run over the weekend. I finished 16th overall at 27:04. The highlight of that run was when my surgeon approached me after the run was over and congratulated me. He ran it too and finished a couple minutes after me. He said, "Man I tried to keep up with you but couldn't." I was also the first 'patient' over the finish line as well. :)

Well, I'm off the creatine for now. It was causing me to retain too much water. The only thing I've changed as far as my supplements go is I'm taking a ephedra pill in the morning to give me a little metabolism boost. Too bad asprin is bad for the pouch or I would do the E.C.A. (ephedra, caffine, asprin) stack which I've had success with in the past (pre-surgery).

So, I went to my parents house yesterday evening to grab some chow. They entice me with food from time to time to get me to come visit. I was at their back door admiring a little ruby breasted hummingbird that was buzzing a couple feet from where I was standing. My dad opened the door and asked me what I was looking at and I told him that I just saw a little hummingbird. As I started to walk into the house I felt something land on my head. I immediately knew it was a flying animal of some sort but didn't know what or what kind it was. It was too large to be the hummingbird I had just seen so it kinda freaked me out a bit. For a second I thought I was being attacked by a rabid bat or something. (I did get attacked by a squirrel when I was a kid so it wouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary for me. ) When I got inside the bird, still unidentified, hopped on my shoulder. Now I could see that it wasn't a bat or a squirrel or a yard bird. It was a beautiful, multi-colored PARROT! I put out my hand hoping it would hop on. In the back of my mind I guess I fully expected it to take a chunk out of the finger I was offering it. Well it hopped on and proceeded to consume the pistachio nut that my pop was offering it as well as drink from a little cup that we gave him. I guess he was thirsty because he drank almost all of the water. All this time the little guy was cawing and I could faintly hear another bird outside cawing back. I figured that the bird 'replying' to my new yellow friend was a mockingbird or some type of yard bird. I walked outside, looked up and to my surprise there was ANOTHER parrot circling the house around 50 feet up in the air. I brought the yellow parrot outside because his squelching was getting more intense. Both birds were cawing back and forth and the yellow bird took flight and flew to a nearby tree. I figured that my short time of aviary ownership was over and he was gone for good. To my surprise he flew back and landed on my shoulder again. I picked up the tin of food and offered it to his 'buddy' that was up around 50ft in a tree. The yellow parrot continued to call to his buddy and after a minute or so the parrot in the tree took flight, circled me a couple of times and landed on my other shoulder. Ok... So... I now have TWO parrots that have flown out of nowhere and adopted me. I walked inside with both parrots on either shoulder and gave them some water and food. In between gulps of water and eating some seeds they continued to whistle quietly to each other. In the next 15 minutes or so I could really tell they were mates by the way they were interacting with each other. (cleaning, snuggling, cawing, etc.) I went to PetSmart shortly after and got them a cage, some food and some toys and stuff. They both took to the cage almost immediately.

I am of course looking for the owners but if I can't find them I guess I am the proud owner of two Conure Parrots.

So here's my pics and a video taken shortly after they got in the cage...

Picture 1

Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

Video Clip (28meg Quicktime video)

Well I've come to the conclusion that when I eat RIGHT I don't experience any of the 'side effects' of eating WRONG.   By eating right I mean getting in 190 - 200 grams of protein a day, (mostly by shooting protein powder drinks multiple times a day) drinking at least 1 gallon of water a day and not consuming any bad crap like candy, Coke, chips and other other stuff that's not good for me.   I slowly let 10 - 15 pounds creep back on over the last 3 months or so which I can directly contribute to eating candy, drinking sugary drinks and not watching what I'm eating.    When I eat wrong I experience 'side effects' such as abdominal cramping, nausea, rapid heartbeat, dizziness, diarrhea, lethargy and other symptoms that are common with dumping.    I've been taking a high carbohydrate creatine supplement too that I have yet to dump on or experience any ill effects that would normally be associated with a 84 gram carb per serving consumption.   Last week was my test period.  I ate perfectly...   well mostly perfectly :) for the entire week.   I consistantly averaged 190 - 200+ grams of protein per day, at least 1 gallon of water per day and consumed on average of around 2200 calories per day.    As far as my exercise goes I burned what I consumed every day so that my BMR (basic metabolic rate) for each day was the caloric deficiency for each given day.   If I ate 2200 calories I tried to hit that goal of execrcise calories by running, lifting weights and doing Stairmaster.  While I was physically beat by Wednesday I experienced NONE of my common side effects at all during the week.   The physical soreness that I felt was from the exercise and not from any poor diet side effects.   This weekend I ate bad stuff consitantly and while I didn't consume more than 2500 - 3000 calories a day I didn't get my full average of protein, I didn't exercise, I didn't get in a gallon of water a day and I ate a bunch of sugary and fatty crap foods.  THE RESULT...  I was dizzy and experienced dumping symptoms at least a couple of times and had diarrea for the last 36 hours.      So, in a nutshell when I eat right I don't get sick.  :)   I will continue to take a day off on the weekends to eat what I want so I can throw my metabloism out of whack for a day or two Body for Life style but I'm not gonna do it during the week anymore.  

I weighed myself on my doctors Tanita scale on Wednesday.   That's the scale that sends an electrical pulse up your body and determines your fat content, lean muscle mass and a bunch of other stuff.    I only lost 3 pounds from my 18 month checkup the previous Wednesday however my fat content went from 14.6% to 13.3% so I was pleased with that result because it means the supplements may be working.  :)   I adjusted my workout to include more intense cardio in the mornings and a more intense lifting routine as well.    I'm getting up at 5:45 now so I can do 47 minutes of Stairmaster and 3 minutes jumping rope every morning.   Afternoon workouts still consist of weights (45 minutes), running (10 minutes) and jump rope (9 minutes) on Monday / Wednesday / Friday and running (4 miles) on Tuesday and Thursday.    

On a side note I'm studying for a couple personal training certification tests so I can get my PFT license.   Don't get me wrong, I love my day job developing web pages and web application solutions.  I don't intend to ever give that up but I want to start offering some personal training services to bariatric patients in the evenings.   Not only will it be nice to have a second income, I feel like I can cater to people that were in my condition before my surgery and help them acheive results that I have.