CCCF 5 – Cauli Ⓥ’Brien

CCCF = Carb Conscience Comfort Food

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After being diagnosed Type ONE Diabetic in 2022, most comfort food was gone after blood sugar levels monitoring became an all day//everyday lifestyle.

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Ingredients and food has been my constant lifestyle for a long time. I ADAPT & EVOLVE.

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My goal is to not have to take a lot of insulin to compensate the high Carb intake. Being a self-diagnosed Carb Addict, portion control is not easy… Progress is being made:)

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Cauli O’Brien w/ Just EGG

  • Peppers
  • Onion
  • Jalapeño
  • Riced cauliflower
  • Just egg

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CHEERS.

 

Lower Carb Pizza Cheat

Since being a young child I remember how special and comforting Pizza has been and my addiction to this wonderful food. The older I become, the less Pizza I can consume. Chicago style deep dish pizza is one of my favorite styles of Pizza to eat. That style has always been a occasional enjoyment because of its higher price. Regular deep dish or pan Pizza has been, in my eyes, the most economical for amount of Pizza density.

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Since, checking my blood sugar 40-50 times a day with my Freestyle Libre 2 sensor, I’ve noticed how much Pizza and its large amounts of delicious Carbs bring havoc to my glucose levels. It’s unfortunate, but my Pizza addiction evolves, significantly, this year.

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Store bought (frozen to be cooked) pizza is no longer good for me unless I want to inject extra insulin, being type ONE Diabetic. My goal is not to inject insulin, however, my body isn’t that simple.

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Here’s my latest Pizza cheat. These low carb Tortillas aren’t very low carb, but the Fiber excuses the carbs – for the most part. The Egg White “wraps” along with the Mozzarella Cheese aren’t Vegan, but I do not see Veganism offering the delicious food in a low carb state as much as the Vegetarian food.

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The Aldi low carb tortillas were 19 g carbs, 4 g protein and 15 g FIBER… Still jumping my blood sugar levels, just not as much as any other regular Pizza.

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CHEERS.

¡Happy Sunday!

Happy new phone post!

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An iPhone 13 Pro has arrived. It takes photos. It is loyal. It might make phone calls, too.

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Essential New Mexico Seasonings have been found and are orderable with the link below.

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Seasonings Website:)

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This website will be helping gift to loved ones this year!

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CHEERS.

Chipotle Chocolate Lentili

I bought a pack of Hell’s Kitchen (five) hot sauces the Day After Thanksgiving. I did shop for the first time ever on “black Friday”. I was at work and I believe that I made my purchase around 1:00pm. It was not anything extreme and I did not push anyone out of my way. The Chocolate Chipotle Hot Sauce is the only one that I’ve tried thus far and it is AMAZING. Daydreaming occasionally combines with reality and here I am with another Food idea that is DELICIOUS. Trial and Error, or how about just Trial. Take a chance. Have faith. Have confidence. Know your ingredients.

Baking is not me. Baking is alien. I have partaken. I can do it, but we do not get along. This concept was fun, exciting and educational. The only things different, were the ingredients. MY “Chili” concept will not change.

Seasonings, bad. Vegetables, good.

Cocoa Powder, Semi-sweet Chocolate, Veggie Broth, Peppers, Chipotle in Adobo, Daiya, Lentils, Onion, Tomatoes and crushed Tomatoes (canned), Cilantro, Sugar, SeaSalt/Pepper, Garlic, Sweet Potatoes were combined and simmered all damn day, literally. The batch produced is hefty.

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SoloCUBSParade

Ⓥestern Skillet

I made a badass Ⓥegan western-style skillet last night. This concoction was served in a sorry-tin container that made it even more Westernish. I’ve seen my fair share of Western flicks and how they consume their beans next to the fire before shut-eye, y’all. I went for one of the best rides that I’ve ever ridden today, November 17, 2016, at 60-73℉ in the state of Illinois. The sun was shining and also, the wind was blowing.

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I have to try to explain my ride today. Venturing on new roads in this unforgettable mixed surface cycling Gran Fondo, was the goal. I wanted to cross a river that I’ve never crossed before outside of the I&M Canal. That river is the Fox River which starts in Wisconsin and drains into the Illinois River. From the git-go, some drivers were not paying as much attention to the road and me as well as they should. Steering clear of busy roads was another goal. A watery detour was taken to help that goal.

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Never will I ever plan my entire ride. There is no fun in that and something always comes up to influence a right instead of a left turn. Choosing to ride into the wind a couple of times instead of taking the easy way out and turning with the wind was extremely beneficial. The results were as if the planets aligned and all luck was on my (drivetrain) side. Being in a new area, yeah-everything was new, but the significance of the new sights were ungodly. I took a few pictures and ultimately am motivated about the next year trek, my #SoloCUBSParade. It is not always about how fast you go, it is about the experience and the journey of doing something great.

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#SoloCUBSParade

Go Fund Me

My Ride

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Ⓥestern Skillet included boiled and drained Pinto & Northern (Western) Beans, Sweet & Russet Potatoes and Onion. I used Vegetable Oil and sautéed the ingredients in a cast iron skillet. Carrot shreds, Green Peppers, Mushroom, Garlic and PBR were sautéed together first. PBR (Beer) was added with an assortment of seasonings.

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The seasonings were SeaSalt/Pepper/ Turmeric/Paprika/ChipotleP/Cayenne/Sugar. Grape Tomatoes, freshly chopped DILL WEED, SmartDog slices, LiquidSmoke & Mustard BBQ sauce were added before baking/broiling a little bit. It pairs well with a cowboy hat and a fire.

I passed a Silica blasting site and took this picture:

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To get into a better spot, I jumped over a two-foot fabric fence. While I was standing there, a siren came from a few workers working behind this drop-off. Perhaps, they saw me or they were just jacking around like sometimes we do at my real job. I stepped back and had a snack and then just gave it another look before continuing on my ride when, BOOOOOOOM. A huge explosion erupted and threw dirt/sand/silica high into the air. My heart jumped with a horrifying sense of fright and oddly an engaging adrenaline rush as if I were about to enter battle as the earth rumbled through my feet and through constricting arteries. Basically, I’d feel this same exact way if I were three houses away from an F5 tornado and how I’d feel if I were a deer in the headlights of a 70 mph semi-truck about to be taken off of this Earth. My bicycle helmet would disintegrate.

Have fun, responsibly.

Solo #Cubs Parade

Hey, Hey! Holy Cow! Let’s Go!

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The Chicago CUBS did it in my lifetime. They have won it all and beat everyone else. There are many of people I am saddened by that could not witness this championship. I need to do one up on just celebrating. This team/club, the Chicago Cubs, have inspired myself to finally do something I’ve always wanted to do…Upgrade my adventurism.

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My Solo Cubs Parade is survival. It is athleticism. It is thinking ahead of the traffic. It is a celebration.

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Lack of vacation days and common sense took my original idea and threw it out the window. Starting at home instead of the Wisconsin/Illinois border riding through the Illinois/Kentucky border will not work for me. I have to be smart about planning and also realistic. I guess originally planned, it would be around 1,000 km which would decipher into around 625 miles. That would consist of consecutive century (100+ miles) rides. I can ride a century, but not too sure five in a row is even possible for me.

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I currently have roughly 750 km (470ish miles) to go in five days with  a six-hour train ride. Also, a safety plan incase I get into a bind. I plan on staying in hotels and experiencing three breweries. I plan on experiencing the land of Illinois and towing the pride of the Chicago Cubs VICTORY with me. I want to push my limits and do something cool. I truly want to celebrate in a unique way that I can forever cherish.

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Hopefully this will be happening in April. It depends on when vacation is blacked out with my real job. I have time to think and perfect. I have time to try to save money. I need extra motivation and possibly some funds. Eating Vegan along the way will not be cheap. Gear is gonna have to be purchased, as well.

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I’m excited and will blog my way through it with glorious pictures and improper english. If you like my concept, please help my cause and support me with a dollar or two. It would mean a lot!

GoFundMe

Wednesday Century

-6.15.16-I planned to knock out the monthly Gran Fondo challenge from Strava on Wednesday, my day off this week. June’s Gran Fondo is 115 km. I’m gonna try and tackle 161 km to complete my third ever (imperial) century ride, being at least 100 miles. I made a route on Strava coming out to be 159km. I do not follow routes. Anything could happen at any time and change your ride. And some roads are too busy for me.

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Materials List:

  • Socks
  • Cycling Shoes
  • Bib shorts
  • MTB shorts
  • Jersey
  • Cycling Cap
  • Helmet
  • iPhone
  • Garmin Edge 1000
  • Fuel: (2) Kind grain bars
  • Water bottle w/ Ice Water
  • Garmin Forerunner 235 Watch
  • Tool
  • Cycling Gloves
  • Money/ID
  • Key
  • Bicycle 🙂

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-6.16.16-I rode my ass off yesterday. And had to go to work today, the commute wasn’t too bad today. The sunburn is the worst part.

Melting roads, simmering blood and briny sweat marinated skin roasting for hours. Melting asphalt and moist dense gravel were some obstacles yesterday.

#RideOn

#RideOn is the only thing summing up the motivation needed to just endure imperfect conditions and persevere on larger rides. I’m not sure there is such a thing as perfect riding conditions. Here in Illinois, we have wind, rain/snow/ice, warmth and cold.

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Let insulated water bottle freeze 7/8 full of water for two days. Top it off. It lasted me 3+ hours in 80 degree weather. Red route was planned. Blue route was ridden.

 My Wednesday Century

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#RideOn

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A Time Science Shorty

I find it entertaining and fascinating attempting trackage of my usage of time over a certain span of time. And this span of time will be from myself falling asleep Friday night May 14th at 10:19 pm (central time) through when I fell asleep Wednesday morning at 12:48 am (central time), creating a span of 98 hours and 30 minutes or 5,910 minutes or 354,600 seconds. It is less than 1% of the time an entire century, but never the less, all time is important. Basically, the time that I am tracking is Saturday May 14th through Tuesday May 17th with a little overhang to even out the sleep.

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Out of 98.5 H, I have 92% of my time documented with strong documentation. However, I still want to be above 95%. I will call a 92% over just short of 100 hours of time a C+. There are various excuses for error. I did take a few naps Sunday, recovering from a hellacious Saturday. It very well could be that my guessing estimations are off just a bit. I fully understand that it would be extremely hard to reach 100%, but 95+% is reachable.

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I had a conversation, shortly last night, if Netflix or Hulu was better. My response was Apple Music. It pisses me off when it takes me 20 minutes to find something that I kind of want to watch. Little things like that need to be accounted for. I’m gonna have to concentrate on this for my annual June Time Science. Speaking of Apple Music, I have had my first beef (and being Vegan, I extremely despise beef) with Apple Music not having more than one song from an artist who I’d like to check out. YouTube has Apple Music beat on material from the instrumental Post-Rock Canadians, DestroyAllDreamers. It is disappointing that I may have to try and pirate their music in order to add it to playlists.

Orage

Wish I Was All Flames

Swirling Colours Sink

The Sky Was Glorious For a Moment

Ghost Guitar in the Shell

Perdre Est Une Question De Méthode

 Sunday was a day of recuperation and I took four naps and ate so much food. I’m not sure yet of how my Garmin watch does with naps. Naps may need to be documented manually for more accurate documentation. We will see.

I slept 11.2% of the 98.5 hours in a deep sleep of the entire 31% slept. And slept deeply 36% of the 30.3 hours. That averages over 7.5 hours per night and short of an average of 3 hours of deep sleep (or dleep?) per night. Not too bad, if you ask me. Although, last night’s dleep was only 24 freaking minutes. That is interesting. I rode my bike 8.5% of the total time for a distance of just over 175 (108 miles) km with an elevation gain of 826 (2,708 ft) meters. I walked 57.3 (35.6 miles) km over 56,234 steps. I walk much more when I am at work. I ride much more when I am not at work. The art of balance. I also eat more when I am not at work. I burned 30,521 calories over this span and probably only consumed a fraction of those calories burnt. I worked 22.43 hours in two days of the four days. I did not take a break either day.

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#WorkHardPlayHarder

The rest of the time usually overlaps and needs to be documented better. I spent 1.25 hours shopping. I spent two hours of traveling by machine. My time in a kitchen and also eating was calculated at six hours and also needs better documentation. A total of five hours were totaled for Cubs/Socializing, aka drinking beer outside of the closet:) And the very last thing is a mixture of maintenance (shower/laundry/cleaning/dishes/fixing), internet/blogging and Netflix/movie. I tallied that sum to be 14.5 hours, but is probably more which would help fix the gap. Here is a better overview.

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  • SLEEP – 30.3 h
  • BIKE TIME – 8.33 h
  • WORK – 22.43
  • TRAVEL – 2 h
  • GROCERY – 1.25 h
  • EAT KIT – 6 h
  • SOCIAL – 5 h
  • MIX – 14.5 h

Totaling 89.99 hours of a total of 98.5 hours. 92%. Check back in July for my June Time Science blog.

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Bulls on Parade

I went to Dixon, IL, yesterday, for a gravel (bicycle) ride which was more of multi-surface ride with a mixture of various levels of gravel and road. It was a great ride, just a shitty day. The wind was windy and cold. The sun was hidden and also cold. I rode 118.7 km (73.76 miles) which did complete Strava’s May Gran Fondo challenge.

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I’ve blogged in the past about my difficulties with an athletic watch manufacturer and decided to go the Forerunner route, paying extra money for a Garmin Forerunner 235. It’s pretty sweet. I can track my rides as it is a Garmin. I can track runs, if I ever did run. I do not run. This watch monitors my heart rate and also my sleep.

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Last June, I attempted to track exactly what I did that entire month and put it into a blog that no one read.

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June 2015 Time Science

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It is and was extremely hard to monitor sleep manually. Next month will be a different story. Technology is our friend, but it is up to us how close of a friend it will be. But, first June has to get here. And June has to conclude to document an entire month of data and lifestyle.

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Yesterday, on this gravel ride, I rode new roads, I drank a couple of new beers, met new people with some of the same passions and I RODE WITH A BULL. I also ate out at a deli, deliciously, confidently Ⓥeganly. The day sums up this way. You take an excellent cut of Bike Ride layered generously, Vegetable genocide of all sorts, being outside in nature with animals and life, garnished with an array of Good Beers adding character and flavor – STUFFED between two pieces of Good Bread. Consumption of a sandwich of this magnitude is VEGGHEAD BEERCYCLIST. And this is the good life.

Happy Sunday!

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(No animals were harmed:)