Kryptonite Revisited

Many thanks to NotionsCapital for pointing out some new pseudonyms of my arch-nemesis.

Ever since Jud forwarded me a this NY Times article that identified several alternative names used to hide MSG in food labels, I have avoided those items and dramatically reduced the frequency of my headaches.

Sadly, it's getting to the point where about all I can eat that I KNOW FOR SURE is "safe" is plain white rice. It annoys me to no end that "All Natural" does NOT equate to "safe for Kevin" because "natural flavor" and "natural smoke flavor" are MSG pseudonyms. However, I DO find that items with "organic" on the label tend to be safe, although the MSG pain in my head shifts to an Organic pain in my wallet.

In spite of carefully checking the ingredients of everything I eat, I still get a headache every once in a while and have NO CLUE what caused it, so I knew there was something else (ingredient-wise) out there that I haven't nailed down through pattern-analysis yet. Now armed with the names provided through NotionsCapital, I'll be on the lookout for these other forms of "Stealth MSG."

Oh, check out this video (found from the second link on NotionsCapital):

Happy Halloween

Ungh.

Head.

Hurts.

No, not a hangover. [Cue Arnold Schwartzeneger's voice: "Eet's NAUT a hanG-ohvah."] It must have been MSG in the food last night.

I really wanted to go to this cool event with a guest speaker on codes and ciphers at the Masonic Temple in Washington, D.C. this morning, but each time I walk by a window and get a shot of sunlight in my eyes, I wince from the pain in my head.

Rewinding a bit, we had a pretty nice Halloween in our new neighborhood last night. We had a block party at the end of our cul-de-sac with a lot of German beer, bratwurst, and sauerkraut.

My wife made some really good potato and leek soup and we brought styrofoam cups and spoons to serve it. I thought it was really good, but LW says I'm the only one who ate any. :-(

I only had two beers last night, so I'm thinking there must have been MSG in the bratwurst. I really should have played it safe and taken an imitrex as a prophylactic before I went to the party, or at least taken one before I went to bed last night. Shoulda coulda woulda.

YB loved his Batman costume.


But then he chickened out and decided he didn't want to go trick-or-treating. He stayed home with my wife handing out candy. Our next door neighbor's visiting grandma made YB's night by bringing some candy to him since he wasn't going out to get any. (Not that he couldn't just take some from the bowl of candy we were handing out mind you, it was just the act of someone else giving him candy.)

ES had previously declared he wanted to be a police man, and my wife bought him a police man costume. He changed his mind at the last minute though and said he wanted to go as a moving box.


He got a lot of laughs and compliments from people. We discovered the hard way that it really limited his field of vision. He had trouble going up and down steps to people's front doors. He also couldn't take the candy with one hand and put it into the bag in his other hand with his hands sticking out the opposite sides of the box. I told him he needed to hold his bag out for the people at the door to just put the candy in his bag for him. At one house, he dropped his bag on the ground, and it was sort of comical watching him try to pick it up. I walked up the driveway to go help him pick it up, but as I was walking toward him, he tried multiple different angles of attack and techniques to try and bend over to grab the bag, and he just couldn't make it.

I was impressed though. That's the most houses ES has hit in one night of trick-or-treating. We did almost all of our street and the next street over (both cul-de-sacs). He got quite the haul. I think the only reason he gave up was because it was too hard for him to hold the weight of all the candy in his bag out at a right angle from his body through the hole in the box.

Oh, want a laugh? My favorite Halloween costume this year is MetroDad's daughter, "Peanut." For some other really funny Halloween costumes, check this out.

BT BT

For those of you grandparents and other family and friends interested in such things, ES lost his second tooth this week.

You can already see the new tooth coming in behind where the baby tooth fell out.

It's SO tiny!

BT BT

Can anyone help me identify what the heck kind of bug this is? I'd NEVER seen one before we moved into this house, and I've caught three so far. Oddly, all three have been on the stairs.

Unidentified Alien Bug

I say "alien" bug because each time I see one of these things, it reminds me of one of the aliens in the movie Men in Black. You know - the one that's drinking coffee in the MIB headquarters when they first bring Will Smith in?

Alright, that's all for now. I need to go drink some more coffee and hang a couple of mirrors and some pictures.

I hope you all had a Happy Halloween.

Weekend Recap

Rewind to Friday: Command Picnic

Friday afternoon we had our command picnic out at Bellows Beach. That was my first time going to Bellows. It was a pretty nice place. I had heard it was a good place to go kayaking, so my plan had been to rent a kayak to take the boys out. The boys were too busy playing with the neighbor kids and refused to go. I didn't think it would be any fun if I dragged them kicking and screaming, so I left them home and went to the picnic myself.

About ten minutes after I left the house, I was on my way driving out there and my cell phone rang. I answered it, and it was ES calling to tell me he wanted to go with me. My heart sank. I would have gone back to get him if it hadn't been for the traffic I had just battled getting over there in the first place. I told ES it was too late and I was too far away to come back and get him.

Much to my surprise when I got to Bellows, there were signs up saying the beach was CLOSED due to high concentrations of some parasite in the water. So it actually worked out for the best that I DIDN'T pay the money or go through the trouble to rent the kayak. Friday night I searched all over the internet to find out someplace I could have checked to find out the beaches were closed BEFORE I went over there, and I couldn't find any such warnings anywhere. There must be some way to find out, but I haven't figured it out yet.

Even though we couldn't go in the water, it was a beautiful day out and a very nice beach. The command picnic was a big success. I had hoped to have a photo to post, but I'm still waiting on an electronic copy of our group photo. Check back later for an update with the photo - photo added 6/17.

Mighty MSP Picnic at Bellows Beach

Saturday - Flag Day!

I already wrote about Saturday's Flag Day Ceremony on the MISSOURI. After that, we had a friend from church in VA in town for business. I took him for a tour on a submarine and we went out for a nice dinner at the Sea Breeze on Hickam AFB. We had only been to the Sea Breeze once before for our command Christmas Party, and thought it was a nice place. They have both an indoor section that has a fancier menu and an outdoor grill with a cheaper burgers and fries type of menu. We ate at the grill outside looking out over the beach and the ocean. The food and the service were good and the prices were reasonable. It's sort of a long drive out there with the slow speed limits on base (and the base police on the AFB are speed-trap-crazy), but it was a nice location.

Oh, and we didn't end up as celebrities after all. Nothing showed up in the newspaper. Oh well.

Sunday - Father's Day

The day started out well. I decided to go for a run in the morning before getting ready for church, and ES wanted to go with me on his bike. LW has been nudging me to teach ES to ride his bike without training wheels. Before we left, I raised the training wheels so they weren't touching the ground much, and I carried the socket wrench with me when we went running out on the bike path. I figured the bike path would be a better place to practice without the training wheels because there are long, flat, straight stretches of path.

So we jogged out to Best Buy (1 mile out from our house). When we turned around to head back, I stopped and took the training wheels off of ES's bike. He was a little nervous and really wobbly, but I'm proud of him for at least giving it a try. We went about half a mile back toward the house with me holding him up the whole way. That was hell on my back running while bent over at the waist and keeping ES from tipping over, so I stopped and put the training wheels back on for the rest of the jog/ride home.

After church, we tried unsuccessfully to find a Mexican restaurant in Kaneohe, then gave up and headed to our usual Zia's. I was surprised there wasn't more of a crowd at Zia's. It was a LOT busier on Mother's Day.

I've never had a problem with Zia's food before. I can usually steer clear of foods that are known for having MSG in them. Well, I missed something this time. I had the special that was sort of a margherita ravioli. It was ricotta stuffed ravioli with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella - none of "the usual suspects" for MSG.

Before we even left the restaurant, I felt really sluggish and fatigued. It grew into a migraine headache at home. I was really pissed off because I felt like I was being robbed of my Father's Day. As much as I joke about Father's Day having the same end result as Mother's Day (i.e. Daddy gets to take the boys somewhere and give Mommy a break), I was actually really looking forward to taking the boys for a hike Sunday afternoon. Instead, I took a nap and some imitrex.

I started feeling better around dinner time and managed to walk across Kam Highway to get us some pizza for dinner. We shared the pizza with our neighbors across the street. LW said I should go do the night-time geocache I've been wanting to do, and our neighbor B said I should take ES and her daughter, M. The kids said they wanted to go, so we loaded up the kids in my car and headed out about 7:30 (fifteen minutes after sunset).

Hanauma Bay on a Moonlit Night Photo from the Geocache Listing

"Sacred Moonrise and The Case of The Twisted Kitty" is a really cool geocache, and has been called "the best geocache on Oahu" by some. You have to do it at night, because the clues are only visible with a flashlight after dark. It is recommended to do it on a full-moon. Although it was partly to mostly cloudy last night, the full moon was poking through the clouds here and there. It was a really cool night-time view down into Hanauma Bay on one side of the ridge and across the water to Diamond Head on the other side. I couldn't take any good nighttime pictures of the scenery with my camera, but the photo above of Hanauma Bay on a moonlit night from the geocache listing is similar to what it was like for us last night.

Altitude Profile for our Sunday Night Hike
X-Axis is Elapsed Mileage in 0.2 mile increments
Y-Axis is Elevation in 50 foot increments

It ended up being about a 2.5 mile hike round trip from the suggested parking location out to the geocache and back. It was a pretty steep hill though. We parked at 150 feet of elevation and maxed out at 685 feet, for a total elevation gain of 535 feet.

ES and M with the Kitty
Photo censored so it won't spoil the
hunt for anyone else seeking this cache.

The hike is mostly on a paved path and easily navigable by kids. That hill is a lot bigger than it looks from the Hanauma Bay parking lot though. By the time we got out there it was like 8 or 8:30, and we didn't get back to the car until about 10:30.

ES Wasn't Sleep-Walking Back to the Car,
His eyes just shut because of the flash from the camera.

The kids seemed to enjoy it. ES and M are two peas in a pod and were in a state of perpetual talking and giggling until we got in the car to go home. About 90 seconds after I started the car, there was dead silence from the back seat. Not long after that, ES started sawing logs the rest of the way home.

So in the end... good start to the day, lousy afternoon, but a good finish.

Monday Night Food and Fitness

Food

Wow, what a difference! I had been getting headaches several days per week and burning through my Imitrex supply like they were Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. They seemed to come on around lunchtime. Since I read that article in NY Times that Jud emailed me, I went through all the lunch food supplies I had in my office and found a LOT of "autolyzed yeast extract." I took all those things out, and I haven't had a headache since. THANK YOU JUD! (And thank you NY Times for the article!)

Since then, my new favorite lunch item from the commissary is the Progresso Lentil Soup. It says on the side in big bold letters "NO MSG" and doesn't have any of the disguised varieties either. AAAAAND I tastes pretty good, too. Often the stuff that meets all my dietary needs tastes like corrugated cardboard.

I'm not exactly proud of the fact that shiftwork has resulted in me being much too familiar with the nuances between the different McDonalds on the island. If I go to the McD's on base and order a large coffee with two creams, they actually put the cream in the coffee for you. However, their drive-through is frequently closed even though their posted hours say the drive through should be open. So I end up having to get out of my car and walk in (I know, I know, I can feel your sympathy for my plight oozing through my keyboard and into my fingers - not). If I go to the McD's just down the street from our house, the drive-through is always open, 24/7. Unfortunately, when I go there and order a large coffee with two creams, they hand me the large coffee, and then they hand me a little bag with two creamer packets and a stir stick. So which is worse? Having to park and walk in to order your coffee, or having to pull the lid off and put the creamer in yourself? I know, I know, if these are the least of my worries in life, then I've got it pretty good.

Fitness

Fitness? What is that? I vaguely recall something about this place people call a "gym," but it seems like so long ago. Until recently when ES and I started going on bike rides together, the only "exercise" I was getting was climbing the ladders up and down between levels in the Engine Room.

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Talk about "can't teach an old dog new tricks"... Actually, this one might have to go in the file of "Stupid Kevin Tricks." Through years of experience, I have developed this confidence and physical ability to climb up and down the forward and aft escape trunk ladders while carrying things in one hand (coffee... notebook... small children... well, no small children in the AFT escape trunk, but you get the idea). Well, those years of experience were based on the "skirt" being in place. The skirt is this metal shield that is put there to create an area for divers to keep their head in an air pocket while they flood down, equalize, and open the escape trunk. Besides providing that shelter for divers, it also shrinks the size of the opening of the escape trunk and provides a handy smooth surface that you can lean your backside against as you reposition your one free hand on the ladder and continue your descent into the boat. When that skirt isn't there, and you let go with the one hand holding onto the ladder... there's nothing there to hold you up and you end up falling over [insert sound effect: "TIMBERRRRRR!"] until your back and elbow go crashing backwards a couple of feet into valves and pokey things sticking out of the side of the escape trunk. I wonder how many more times it will take me to unlearn the habit of leaning back into the skirt (since the skirt is removed / not there anymore).

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Not directly fitness related, but call it health and accident avoidance, I got a good laugh from this article one of my parental units sent me.

A long week compounded by 4-year old rhetoric

I've had better weeks.

First, PRAISE THE LORD, my step-brother Dave's guardian angel was with him this morning when he was in a terrible car accident. Some idiot pulled out in front of him on his way to school, and he nearly T-boned the dude. (This is the same wonderful "Uncle Dave" who got the boys to eat their peas when he was here visiting at Christmas)> From my step-mother:

"At the last second before impact Dave swerved and hit the left front quarter panel of the guys car – otherwise would have T-Boned him. The impact put the engine of Dave’s car in the passenger compartment and flooded his feet with anti-freeze. Dave turned his head also at the last second as he has an aversion to airbags going off in his face (this is #3) so his neck is wrenched also. There were 10 witnesses that told the cops it was not Dave’s fault. Dave’s car is totaled. Cop told Dave he “did a good job”. Dave takes that to mean that by swerving he didn’t kill the guy. Dave wouldn’t go look in the guy’s car as he believed the guy might be dead; he was bleeding from the nose & ears when the firemen finished cutting the guy out of his car with the “jaws of life”. They did update Dave in the hospital that they had taken the man off the ‘critical’ list and he’s in “serious” condition so he didn’t die."

Thankfully, Dave will be okay. He severely sprained his wrist and his bad knee hit something.

Picture of Dave's Car from the Newspaper

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Second, there's life on shiftwork...

As the midwatch guy, I've been going to work at 9 p.m. and coming home at 8 a.m. (except for yesterday when I had to go to the critique at 9 a.m., but luckily made it home by 10 a.m.). I'm thankful that shipyard things have been progressing very well, and I expect we will finish with shiftwork well before we had planned. (Knock on wood)

Basically, I come home in the morning a totally exhausted zombie. I grunt at my wife and the one son who isn't at school (or both sons on the weekend). I eat my cereal (my digestive system needs the fiber) and drag myself into bed. I've got black plastic trash bags tacked up over the windows to keep the light out. (LW complained that she overslept because it was SO dark in our room). I get up at dinner time in my normal morning-groggy state. After dinner, I would cajole ES into practicing his spelling, give the boys a bath, read bedtime stories, put the boys to bed, take my shower, get my coffee, and leave for work.

Meanwhile, poor LW has been suffering from a lack of adult conversation, and our children have been acting like heathen savages and driving her absolutely bonkers. To make matters worse, YB has had a fever and conjunctivitis all week. This means that not only did LW not get the break from YB she normally gets when I used to be home on the weekend, but also that she didn't get the break from YB going to pre-school on Tuesday and Thursday. Every little thing has become a major argument with YB. It's nearly impossible to get him to follow instructions.

Last night, I slept late because I went to bed late after the critique. I woke up to LW throwing the bedroom door open and declaring she couldn't take it anymore. I dragged my butt down to find the colossal mess that Hurricane YB had made in the family room. LW was tired and cranky and not in the mood to make dinner (not that I blame her in the least), so I asked the boys what they wanted for dinner. If you've either known us or read my blog for any period of time, you already know what YB's answer was... chicken nuggets. So I got in the car and went to the drive-through and brought home a highly nutritious fast-food dinner for us. We set the food out on the table and sit down to eat, and YB proceeds to pull his arms into his shirt. YB, what are you doing? He's cold. Okay, well eat your chicken nuggets and it'll warm you up. Nope. In spite of repeated requests by me and LW to sit down and eat his nuggets (which he asked for), he just meandered around the kitchen with his arms bundled up inside his shirt. So we go upstairs to take a bath, and by this time YB is wearing his shirt normally with his arms out. I tell YB to "get naked," and he makes feeble tugs at his arm sleeves and says he can't get his shirt off. Um... Didn't he JUST demonstrate the ability to pull his arms into his sleeves when he was "cold" and didn't want to eat the nuggets I had slaved so hard on shiftwork to earn the money to buy at Mickey-D's???

After bathtime, I was trying to get ES to practice his spelling, and YB kept jumping up and down on the couch in spite of repeated orders by both LW and myself to stop. All of a sudden... there was this new noise coming from the couch... LW and I simultaneously looked over at the couch, and YB was laying flat on his belly, eyes closed and SNORING louder than a chainsaw. ...It was 7:30 p.m.

After nightly battles with ES to practice his spelling, I finally got a reprieve, although unbeknownst to him. He took the spelling word list from me and took his dry-erase board in the other room giggling. He came back and handed me the spelling word list and said he was ready and giggled some more. I told him to spell "fly." He giggled, looked on the back side of his two-sided dry-erase board where he had copied all the words off his spelling list, then flipped it back over and wrote down the word on the side I could see. I suppose being the man of integrity that I am, I should be ashamed at him since he obviously THOUGHT he was cheating by copying the words on the back of the board first. In reality though, he just got MORE practice and wrote his spelling words TWICE instead of the ONCE I normally get out of him through a lot of bribery and threats.

Now, I'm rotating to the day-shift. The CO is going on a TAD trip, so I needed to be able to respond to whatever crises came up during the day. I finished my last midwatch this morning, and I have go to back to work tomorrow morning to start the day shift. I need to go to sleep tonight and get up for work tomorrow morning, but I was exhausted so I just took a nap for a couple of hours after I got home.

When I woke up, I got another lesson in 4-year old rhetoric. He asked for a cheese sandwich for lunch, so LW made him a cheese sandwich. Did he eat it? Of course not! He refuses to eat it. He says he's not hungry. Next thing we know, he's standing at the kitchen counter, reaching for the cookie jar.

Mean Parents: No, YB, you can't have a cookie.
YB: [insert high-pitched whining noise here] But whyyyyyyyyy?
MP: Because you didn't eat your sandwich, and you just said you weren't hungry.
YB: Huh??? [This clearly does not pass the 4-year old's logic circuitry.]
MP: If you're not hungry then you don't need to eat a cookie. If you're hungry, then eat your sandwich.
YB: [Resume high-pitched whining noise] But I don't like that kind of cheese.
MP: It's the SAME cheese Mommy used to make his cheese sandwich yesterday and he liked it. YB: No, it's not, I don't like it.
MP: Fine, whatever.

LW and I resume eating our lunch. YB proceeds to take all the cheese off his cheese sandwich and just start to eat the bread.

YB: Mmmm, cheese bread.
LW: No, it's just bread.
YB: No, it's cheesy bread, feel it.
LW: [touches the bread] No, it's just bread. You took the cheese off.
YB: But it's cold! [That is apparently what makes it "cheesy bread" accoring to 4-year old logic]
LW: It's... just... bread.

This is what the whole week has been like for LW.

In other news...

My cousin emailed me this article about MSG. OMG...

Since the 1970s, MSG has sidled back onto American supermarket shelves, under assumed names: hydrolyzed proteins, yeast extracts, protein concentrates and other additives that are not labeled as MSG but, according to nutritionists and the United States Department of Agriculture, are essentially the same thing: synthetically produced glutamates.

The whey protein concentrate and liquid aminos that many Americans buy at health food stores are also, essentially, pure glutamate, Dr. Chaudhari said.

According to U.S.D.A. guidelines, “labeling is required when MSG is added as a direct ingredient.” But other glutamates — the hydrolyzed proteins, the autolyzed yeasts and the protein concentrates, which the U.S.D.A. acknowledges are related to MSG — must be identified under their own names.

I think I'm getting a headache just thinking about it...

Monday Night Food and Fitness

FOOD

Reason #547 I love my wife: She makes me tacos. :-9 She even makes the taco meat seasoning from scratch in order to protect me from the evil, naughty, blunoz-kryptonite MSG in the pre-made taco meat seasonings from the store.

Reason #547 ½ I love my wife: She makes her own sort of pico de gallo by dicing up tomatoes and onions and putting some seasonings it. I need to go back to my 7 random things post and just add one:
I LOVE ONIONS. I have this bizarre obsession with onions, or... more particularly, the aftertaste left in my mouth after I've eaten fresh onions. Especially red onions. Call me crazy. Wait... why are red onions purple, anyway? Sorry, getting off topic.

Effective advertising. Having two family members who work(ed) in the advertising industry raised my sensitivity to things like product placement in movies, made me do a double-take when someone says a phrase or sings a tune from an advertisement, and taught me the phrase, "that was effective advertisement."

Tangent / Aside: The last time I remember hearing that phrase from GMJ was when I said, "Man, I wish I had an Easy button." She just about busted up laughing and immediately wrote an email to the Staples management and congratulated them on the success of their ad campaign.

Okay, so all that being said, and in keeping with the "food" topic of this blog, I had two "that was effective advertisement" moments this week:

Effective Advertisement of the Week Award #1:

Okay, to say that our children are picky eaters is like saying they are casually interested in Star Wars (mild understatment?). I have never been able to get either of our boys to so much as LOOK at a bowl of soup much less actually TRY a spoonful. LW made that awesome chicken tortilla soup again this week. As a force of habit, she offered some to ES - fully expecting him to turn up his nose and say, "yuck." Although we were not surprised by his refusal to try some, he floored us both with his statement, "There is a type of soup I would like to try." Oh yeah? He said he saw it on TV. We asked him what type of soup it was. He said, "It was called Campbell's soup." He didn't understand that Campbell's is a name brand, he thought it was a flavor.

Effective Advertisement of the Week Award #2:

Have you seen the Goldfish Cracker advertisements where they swim around in this little community under the bed in the kids' room? On the one hand, I think the concept is cool and the ads are cute and funny. On the other hand though, the thought of a bunch of goldfish crackers under the bed in my boys room with all the dust bunnies, toys, boogers, and dirty underwear just grosses me out and makes me absolutely NOT want to eat Goldfish Crackers. Apparently, I was not the target audience for the ad though. No sooner does the ad finish on the TV screen then YB chimes in with, "Mommy! I want some goldfish crackers!"

FITNESS

It was a pretty darn good week for me fitness-wise, especially considering how it started out last Monday. If you recall, I tried going running last Monday for the first time following a nasty head cold. I couldn't run more than a mile and a half and coughed the entire time walking back home.

There was some bizarre alignment of the planets that occurred on Tuesday though. I felt much better than I did Monday. I got home from work and tossed out my usual offer to take the boys for a bike ride, but for the first time in a long time, they said YES! So I put the boys on their bikes with their bike helmets and their camelbaks and we headed out. It was the first time I've taken YB out on the bike path on his new bike - a two-wheeler with training wheels. We made it out to Best Buy (1 mile out) and turned around. We got about half way back and YB refused to ride his bike anymore, got off and started walking. I would've broken my back if I tried pushing his bike back, so I ended up carrying it back the last half mile. Even so, it was a good workout for me. I ran some sprints to the next telephone pole and back to the boys again, so I think I probably did about 2.5 miles from the doubling back.

Wednesday, I was bummed I couldn't go to Command PT with the PT Nazi (we do interval training Wednesday mornings at Bloch Arena with a personal trainer who really kicks our butts). I had to be on the boat for a walkthrough with the shipyard commander. Talking to the guys who went to Command PT though - ouch! They were all absolutely drenched in sweat as they came back from PT. She had them do spinners on the exercise bikes, and whenever anyone stopped pedaling, they had to get down and do 40 pushups. I've heard spinners is pretty intense, but I've never actually done it before.

When I got home that afternoon though, the boys were all excited and wanted to go for another bike ride. So I got them geared up and we went and did the same route again. This time, YB stayed on his bike the entire ride. However (comma) I don't think he pedaled at all. I basically pushed him with my hand on his back the entire ride. As a result, it was by no means a FAST run for me, but I sure had my heart rate up.

Thursday I didn't ask the boys if they wanted to go because ES and I had to bake and decorate our cake for the Cub Scout Blue & Gold dinner on Friday night.

Friday at Command PT we did our usual warmup, stretches, and calesthenics in the gym. Then we went for a run from Bloch Arena down South Ave along the perimeter of the base next to Hickam. We ran all the way to the end of South Ave at the water's edge and then turned around and came back. It came out to 3 miles.

But alas... I was a lazy slug all weekend and didn't do any PT.

Monday Night Food and Fitness

Food

Saturday I went to the Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation (BALOO) training for cub scout leaders. Overall, it was a really good experience, and I learned a lot of great information about leading cub scouts on camp-outs and hikes. One of the things we did at BALOO was learn a few simple things that we can cook at camp using foil pouches.

In the first foil pouch, we put a frozen hamburger patty in the bottom, then some potatoes, onions, and frozen mixed vegetables. For the potatoes and onions, we used a french-fry cutter like at In-n-Out (southern California burger joint that makes french fries fresh from potatoes). Then we could either squirt in some Italian dressing or some cream of mushroom soup. [Aside: Thank goodness I checked the ingredients before hand. The cream of mushroom soup had MSG in it and would have made for a miserable day.] The trainer said it was important to use a frozen hamburger patty because as it melted the melted ice would make steam to help cook the food. If it wasn't frozen, he said to just put an ice cube inside the pouch and it would have the same effect. I was really pleased with how well it turned out. I would have liked to put some salt and/or Chipotle Tobasco on it, but it was decent on it's own.

I learned a new technique for making the foil pouches. If you do it so the seam is on the sides and it's symmetrical, then you can flip it from one side to the other to cook it on both sides without putting a seam facing down to leak. After about 20 to 25 minutes when the foil pouch poofs up like a pillow, that tells you it's done cooking. It's important NOT to use any sort of tongs on the foil pouch that could rip the foil. They taught us to use some leather gloves for picking up the pouches off the grill and flipping them over without tearing them.

The second foil pouch was for pigs in blankets. This was something simple enough the kids could get involved in doing it. You just wrap a hot dog in a Pillsbury crescent roll dough and put it in the foil pouch. He recommended spraying the inside of the foil pouch with the non-stick spray, and turning the pouch on the grill every 2 minutes (to keep it from burning on one side) for about 12 minutes.

The third thing we had that the trainer made of us was corn on the cob. He put some butter on frozen ears of corn, wrapped them in foil but didn't seal the ends. They turned out pretty good, too.

None of the things we ate on Saturday were gourmet by any means, but it was easy stuff to prepare at camp. The trainer commented that's why you want to be sure your boys continue on into Boy Scouts, because then the scouts cook their own food and the adults make their own. He said he likes having filet mignon with the other scout leaders while the boy scouts make whatever hot dogs or other stuff they scrape together.

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Fitness

I haven't been doing so hot on wait loss the past two weeks. I've basically maintained my weight, so at least I wasn't putting weight back on, right? One of my problems is I haven't been doing as much PT as I would like. Last Monday at Command PT, I hurt a muscle in the middle of the left side of my back. I'm not sure how I did it, but it came on suddenly as I started my run. I had only run like a block from the Bloch Arena gym when the pain started, and within half a block later, it got suddenly so bad that I couldn't run anymore. It hurt to breathe. I walked back to the gym to find our corpsman to have him take a look at it.

Doc used some highly scientific latin type of name to describe what it was, but I didn't understand it. Not surprisingly, he told me to take motrin, use cold packs on it, and recommended I not go to Command PT for the rest of the week. I needed to do something to burn some calories though, so I just went to the gym and rode the exercise bike on our Command PT days (Wednesday and Friday).

Today I really wanted to get back to running. Of course, it was raining out, and that means the gym was packed with people. Luckily, I got the last treadmill in the gym... but was it good luck or bad luck? The treadmill kept wigging out on me. I was trying to run a heart-rate program with my Polar HRM watch, but it kept suddenly and drastically raising the incline on me (even though my heart rate was above my target zone already) and then not responding when I pushed the buttons to lower it back to where I wanted it. The good news is, my back was a little sore, but it was okay.

It's too bad I missed our Command PT on Wednesday. Apparently our old trainer a.k.a. "PT Nazi" suddenly packed his bags and moved back to the mainland, and all of our single Sailors were rather pleased with the replacement trainer. I hear she's... uh... not bad to look at. I hope it'll boost our attendance at Command PT (yes, everybody's supposed to go to Command PT, but there are always excuses). COB said she "took it easy" on them since it was their first session with her, but she really kicked their butts. It'll be interesting to see how tough the workout is on Wednesday.

Fast Food without the Gutt Busters

For anyone else trying to lose a few pounds, I know we've all had those times when you find yourself starving and in need of lunch or dinner and the only thing close and convenient are fast food joints. Of course, a lot of places offer "healthy alternatives," but the healthy alternatives taste like cardboard. So I thought I'd share some of the things I have found at fast food places that both fit decently into my daily food plan AND actually taste good.

Quick background on WW for Men in case you're not familiar with it: All food has a point value based on the number of calories, grams of fat, and grams of fiber. My allowance is 35 points per day, plus I can earn extra points through exercise (normally about 5 points for my typical Command PT).

Breakfast: I generally eat about 9 points at breakfast, something like:
- Raisin Bran Crunch cereal = 3 points
- 1% Milk = 1 point
- Yogurt Smoothie = 4 points
- Coffee creamer = 1 point
9 pts Breakfast so far

Snack: Usually sometime in the morning I have some Powerade for 1 point and a snack like a cheese stick or wasabi nuts for 2 points.
9 pts Breakfast + 3 points snack = 12 points so far

Lunch: At work, I generally have something like 12 points at lunch. For example:
- Flavored tuna pack (my favorite is the sweet & spicy, but the hickory smoked and lemon pepper are good, too) = 6 points
- Crackers to put the tuna on = 2 points
- Cup of mixed fruit = 2 points
- 100 Calorie Pack of Cookies = 2 points
9 pts Breakfast + 3 points snack + 12 points lunch = 24 points so far

After-Work Snack and Dinner: I generally have something like a cheese stick for a 2 point snack when I get home, putting me at 26 points before dinner. So I still have 8 points left on my daily allowance, plus my average 5 points from exercise leaves me 13 points left for dinner.

So that's a snapshot of how my food plan works on a daily basis, now back to the restaurants...

On those occasions when I find myself out and about and the boys demand going to a fast food place for lunch, here are some of my favorite things to get that both taste good and keep me in my target points range. The ones in green are my favorites that I will try and steer the boys' decision toward (when we're letting them choose where to go to eat). The ones in red I just plain avoid at all costs.

McDonald's: (website with nutritional info is here) I actually REALLY like the bacon ranch salad with grilled chicken, and I get the Newman's Lowfat Balsamic Vinaigrette. It was better in VA where the tomatoes were better. The tomatoes they put on the McD's salads here are soft and squishy and I won't eat 'em.
Stay AWAY from McD's french fries - they are the most evil, bad, naughty thing you can get to ruin your diet.

Burger King: I generally don't go to BK. Usually, if there's a BK, then there's probably a McD's somewhere nearby. I've tried BK's salads, and they just don't taste good. So I aim for McD's instead.

Carl's Jr.: If you're watching your weight, avoid Carl's Jr. like the plague. I used to eat there ALL the time. I LOVED their western bacon cheeseburgers with the onion rings on them, but they're more points than I'm allowed to eat in an entire day. I didn't find anything there that was worth eating for a reasonable number of points.

Subway: (website with nutritional info here) Subway sandwiches aren't bad. They have several healthy alternatives to choose from. My main problem is that in Groton, your choices to eat on base are Subway, Subway, or Subway, unless you want to get the greasy artery-buster pizza at the bowling alley. I think I just OD'ed on Subway on my previous tours in Groton, so I don't tend to go there very often. Plus, given my addiction to Mexican food, I generally will choose Taco Bell any day over Subway, and where there's one - you'll probably find the other not far away (except on the sub base in Groton).

Taco Bell: (website with nutritional info here) When I'm concerned about staying within my points allowance for the day, then I'll go with the chicken soft tacos. Ask for them "al fresco" style, and they will just put pico de gallo (tomatos and onions) and lettuce on them - no cheese. They're okay taste-wise. I much prefer the beef soft tacos if I have some maneuvering room in my points allowance for the day.

Chipotle: As I mentioned before, I absolutely LOVE the chicken tacos at Chipotle. I don't put any cheese or sour cream on them. I generally do lettuce, guacamole, and mild salsa. In order to get their nutrional info, you have to hunt for it on their website. Go to Speak -> FAQ, and the first FAQ asks for nutritional info. You'd THINK that if it was the most frequently asked question then they'd just put a link to it on the front of their web page??? Heck, Taco Bell figured that much out and put a BIG link right at the top of their main web page.

Baja Fresh: (website with nutritional info here) The tacos aren't as good as Chipotle, but they're decent and good on the WW points scale. My problem there is I LOVE their burritos, and they AREN'T good on the WW point scale. Maybe it was all psychological and the fact that I was denying myself the burrito I wanted made me resent the tacos?

Moe's: (website with nutritional info here) In response to Sam's question - the burrito I had the other night was a Triple Lindy. I got the ground beef, no rice, no cheese, added black beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, guacamole, and it came out to 13 points - exactly my average budget for dinner. I was ravenously hungry that night and craving a burrito though.
My "usual" at Moe's is actually the Other Lewinsky (two tacos), I would go with chicken, black beans, no rice, no cheese, add pico de gallo, add lettuce, add guacamole, and it only comes out to a whopping THREE, count 'em, 3 points. Then I've still got room for some tortilla chips, maybe a soda, or a beer or some desert when I get home.

Panda Express: (website with nutritional info here) I've recently become a fan of PE here in Hawaii, in part because they advertise that there's no MSG in the food, and I generally steer clear of Chinese restaurants out of fear of MSG. Beware, there ARE some dangerous pitfalls here. The worst gutt-busters are the rice, the noodles, and their darned signature-item orange chicken that tastes SOOOO good. However, the black pepper chicken, the mushroom chicken, the beef with broccoli, and the veggie spring rolls are all very reasonable on the points scale (although not all at once / in the same meal) and taste really good, too.

Weekend Recap (as of Monday morning)

Friday night, LW went out with the wardroom wives for a ladies' night out. The boys and I had a Banditos night. We watched The Three Amigos and had dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant called Banditos. After I got the boys in bed, one of the guys whose wife was out with my wife stopped by to play some Halo 3. We "met up" with the CO via the internet for some online carnage (see previous post on obsession with things that go bang).

Apparently, something I had at Banditos for dinner had MSG in it, because I woke up Saturday morning with a raging migraine headache. It was a two-Imitrex morning. Normally one tablet does the trick if I take it BEFORE the onset of the headache. I still wasn't feeling 100% when I dragged myself out of bed, got ready, and headed off to the airport.

Saturday, my old friend Yoshi and his wife Miwa arrived on the island for their 20th Anniversary vacation. Yoshi was a Japanese exchange student who first stayed with my family when I was about 5 years old. He came back about once a year for several years after that to visit us in California and go surfing (until he graduated and had to get a real job and be a productive member of society). I got to visit Yoshi in Japan in 1979 and 1987. Then in 2002, I had a port call in Okinawa, and Yoshi flew down to visit me on my 30th birthday. That was the first time I had seen him in 15 years. Yesterday I finally got to meet Miwa for the first time. I drove them to their hotel and left them with my car as a loaner.

LW and the boys met us at the hotel to have some lunch. There's a really cool little pond with bat rays, hammerhead sharks, black-tipped reef sharks, and tropical fish. We got a table right by the water, so the boys both turned their chairs around and watched the sharks and fish swimming around while we ate.








Saturday night, my CO brought back a day-bed he had borrowed. No sooner did he arrive in front of our house, then my boys attacked him with light-sabers. Luckily, my CO was not offended by this gesture, and he quickly picked up a lightsaber and fought back with one of his evil AH-ha-ha-ha-ha laughs.








Sunday after church, Yoshi and Miwa met us at Haleiwa Joe's in Kaneohe for brunch, and we walked through the Haiku gardens afterward. Yoshi and Miwa gave the boys these really cool little remote-control R2-D2 robots. The remote control looks like a light-saber. Since they're both obsessed with all things Star Wars, these gifts were a BIG hit with them.

Yoshi also brought a bunch of old photos from his trips to California in the 70's and 80's. LW thought that was pretty funny seeing pictures of me that looked a lot like ES. When Yoshi and Miwa come over for dinner on Tuesday night, I hope to scan some of his old pictures and I'll post some here. (Check back for updates).

I tried taking Yoshi to see the Pali overlook, but I found out the hard way that when you make a wrong turn in Kaneohe, you can end up on a highway going up and over to the other side of the island without anyplace to turn around until you get to Honolulu.

Sunday night we had the MSG Party at my CO's house. It turned out really well. LW made Macho Summer Gazpacho (from a Rachel Ray recipe) and Mushrooms Sauteed in Garlic. The CO made his Mai-Tais Served in Glasses. One of the JO's brought Mark's San Gria. There was Macaroni in Saucy (cheese) Gravy (a.k.a. Macaroni and Cheese). There was Minneapolis Salad (Gellatin) (jello salad). Then there were a few things that fell under the "Many Special Grubs" generic label like chicken and artichoke pizza and beer bread. Oh, the Eng's wife made a cake that was absolutely to die for. It was like a chocolate cake infused with caramel. She called it "MSP Sexy Goodness," and then felt embarrassed and apologized to the CO for saying the word "sexy" in front of the his 12-year old daughter.

I was pretty impressed that the kids stayed mostly inside playing Lego Star Wars, watching movies, etc, while the adults were able to sit out in the back yard eating, drinking, and talking. The CO made a very interesting observation in light of my post about things that go bang. He has three kids - two girls and the youngest is a boy about the same age as YS. In spite of NOT having "shooting" actions or noises modeled for him by his older sisters, he still makes the same shooting noises that ES and YS do. It really must be something hardwired in the male brain.

As for our holiday today, LW and I have been doing yard work and small projects around the house so far. Not sure what else is in store for us yet today. I'll update this later - hopefully with scanned pictures from Yoshi.

Kryptonite

So, as some of you know, I suffer from migraine headaches. I mean, we're talking down-for-the-count, totally-incapacitated, and unable to accomplish anything when I get hit by one. I've had them at least since 3rd grade.

Luckily, I have discovered the triggers that cause them. It took years of pattern analysis, mainly by tracking what I ate immediately prior to getting the headache. The two biggest culprits for me are MSG and Splenda (which, I found out the hard way is sometimes listed as "sucralose" in ingredients).

The way I figured out the MSG was when we were in Monterey, there used to be this little Thai food cart that set up in the courtyard outside Root Hall. I developed a very noticeable pattern there that every time I ate the Thai food, I had a raging headache by the time I went home in the afternoon. I tied that together with the fact that I frequently got headaches after eating Chinese food, and finally I figured it out it was MSG.

Also luckily, the docs finally found a drug that works pretty well. If I take Imitrex when I start feeling the pre-cursors (sensitivity to light and sound,and this weird feeling or "aura" around my head), then the Imitrex usually does the trick and either stops it from ever manifesting or gets me through it in 30 minutes or so. The problem I have is when I have something for dinner not realizing there was MSG in it and I go to bed, then I wake up with a migraine, and then it's too late and I'm suffering and miserable all morning.

Not-so-luckily, I have been finding MSG appearing in more and more types of food, and Splenda is becoming more and more popular in diet sodas and other "healthy" eating alternatives. As a result, I have started seeking things that actually use sugar so I know it's not splenda, which in turn means I'm consuming more calories than I used to - not exactly helping my "culture of fitness" battle.

On the shore side, most places when I ask if they have MSG in the food or Splenda in their Diet Coke, the waitress will look at me like I've got three heads. I've found that (a) it's not worth the hassle of asking them because they never know the answer, and (b) it's not worth the risk when they tell me the wrong answer (intentionally or not) and I end up knocked out of commission for a half a day.

I used to love going to Jamba Juice all the time in San Diego, and I was really excited to find Jamba Juice here in Hawaii... but I think they must have Splenda in the non-fat frozen yogurt they use, because I've gotten a headache most times I've gone there since arriving in Hawaii. Once I suspected it, I asked someone at the store if they had Splenda in it, and the girl behind the counter said no, but I still got a headache. Bye-bye Jamba Juice. :-(

It used to be safe on the boat. I went an entire 6-month deployment without a food-induced migraine (the worst headache I had in Chin Hae, Korea, came after a night out with a Korean submarine wardroom, but that's another long story). When I got on the MSP though, I spent like three days in total agony. It really pissed me off and I went to the Chop and the CSC (chief cook) and said, "Look, SOMETHING you guys are cooking with has either MSG or Splenda in it. FIND IT!" Well, wouldn't ya know it? Both the beef base and the chicken base they were using for ALL the soups and many of the other things they cooked had MSG in it. Plus, you know how the CS's (Culinary Specialists - formerly known as MS or Mess Specialists) take the leftovers from lunch and/or dinner and mush them together into some casserole for midrats? Yeah, they use the beef base or the chicken base to sort of add moisture and hold the stuff together, so most midrats were off limits for me. Luckily, once we identified that, the CS's were very good about briefing me at the beginning of each meal on which items they used the beef or chicken base so I wouldn't eat them. Once or twice it resulted in me only getting to eat cake and ice cream for dinner because there wasn't anything else that didn't have MSG in it. (Once again, oh-so-helpful in my "culture of fitness" battle).

As a result though, the guys on the boat now refer to MSG as "XO Kryptonite." At least one of my JOs (Mark) has learned to recognize the facial expression I make when I'm in agony and battling through a headache. It has even become the theme of our next official wardroom function. The Captain is hosting an MSG party. That is to say, a "MSP Social Gathering." The theme is everything MSG except for monosodium glutamate. The Captain plans to serve MSG's, or Mai-Tai's in Small Glasses. I was thinking about making some Mango San Gria. Given my affinity for Mexican food, I suggested we have Mole Salsa and Guacamole. Or maybe some Mini Steamed Gnocci? Anyone got any other good "MSG" ideas for the party?