Big News in the Ville

Nothing like an interactive wildlife class up at the 'ol Alma Mater. If you look closely, you'll see Big Clarence Green gets a cameo sporting his sweet yellow shirt.

That sedated deer looks like RC at the 0600 Bootcamp Fitness..."huh...what....where am I"

Grow Your Own

Along with spring comes garden time. I've always had some kind of garden regardless of where I lived or what area was available. Living in a loft apartment it was simple as container herbs or patio potted plants when I moved to a condo with a balcony. I'm fortunute now to have plenty of green space in my backyard and take advantage of it by planting some table favorites. Tomatos, green beans, peppers, spinich, lettuce, herbs are just a few of the headliners. Nothing beats an heirloom tomato with a little kosher salt and pepper.

Walking out the back door to collect your veggies is a great feeling. Now if I can just convince my homeowners assoc. to approve livestock, I'll have it made.

Check out this link from the Times on backyard grub.

What Are You Eating?

I've been hitting the Paleo diet since last fall in conjunction with my first Bootcamp section. I readily admit it's not full time but I've been able to adhere to a solid 5 days a week and shooting for 6 now. My weak link being pasta which used to be 4-5 days a week before I started Bootcamping, now I'm down to 1 day a week and found a low Glycemic load pasta that's packed with dietary fiber. Surprisingly the taste is actually preferred now.

Other than my off day, which can be a total yard sale, all my meals consist of high quality protien, veggies and good fat. Snacks which are a must to keep the metabolism up and provide fuel consist of nuts, seeds, apples, oranges and occasionally yogurt with fresh berries.

I don't get into weighing and measuring because in my opinion your body will tell you and show you what's needed in regards to quantity. Don't make it too complicated. Follow a few basics rules and you'll start leaning out in no time. A daily 0600 fanny waxin doesn't hurt either.

Courtesy of the gang over at Petranek Fitness here's a great site to plug in food and see load of nutritional info....Nutrition Data. The glycemic load estimator is very helpful.

Hillbilly Yacht Club

Ol' boy Huck Finn's got nothing on this guy. Glad to see he's installed the optional rope up on the poop deck, afterall... safety is top priority.

No Time for Breakfast?

During my blog rota this week, I came across a post from a troubled individual. Make a long story short...there's just no time for a quality breakfast and couldn't imagine having time to cook eggs. Not sure how this individual is trying to cook eggs but it must be somewhere north of rocket science.

A quick, healty breakfast may be one of the most simple tasks you can accomplish in the kitchen. Equip yourself with a few basics and you're ready to roll. The local resturant supply store (no it's not just for professionals) is a gold mine where you can find quality, functional, and affordable items. You'll pay a fraction of the fancy retail store price not to mention a better prodcut.

Here's what the GSB kitchen always has at the ready; 8" Lincoln Wear-Ever coated fry pan, small silicone spatula, 8" Victorinox chefs knife. With those 3 items ($35 dollars total) you can whip up anything this side of Toad Holler. Cut up your leftover protien from the previous nights dinner, add some fresh veggies, couple eggs, olive oil, salt/pepper and 5 minutes later, Eat Time.

Another helpful hint...take your knives to the local cutlery shop when they stop cutting like a razor. For $5 each, you'll thank me later.

The Master

2008 Masters kicked off Thursday morning in a dense fog with the King teeing up the honarary first shot. Can't wait until Arnie, Player, Jack are all together hitting the first tee balls, hopefully joined by Watson in a few years. That's a foursome not to be fooled with.

Check out the online coverege at Masters.org the streaming video has been improved greatly over the last couple years. Live shots at Amen Corner and 15 / 16th holes.

2008 NCAA Champions

Congrats to the Kansas Jayhawks and their 2008 National Championship

One of the best played and coached games by both teams. It held up to all the expectations and more. Coach Bill Self chalked an incredible game plan and the boys executed as such. The ability to pound the ball inside and wear down the bigs from Memphis was a key factor late in the game. You could see the frontline for Memphis wearing their exhaustion on their sleeves.

I predicted the need for KU to play some portion of zone to not only provide a different look but also to slow down the penetration of Rose and CDR. Late in the second half, the Memphis back court found their grove and quickly Coach Self recognized it. Their first effort with the box-n-one was not the answer but Coach Self quickly moved to a 1-2-2 with Rush covering the point. The confusion on Memphis part was evident and I mark that as a big turning point in the game.

This was truly a team effort and shows what's possible when you have kids playing the game for all the right reasons. They never gave up and left us all with something to remember forever.