One Local Summer Week 2
As part of the One Local Summer Challenge I have been trying to make more meals from local ingredients, and at least one meal a week from all local ingredients. So to this end, I headed out early Saturday morning to the Minneapolis Farmers Market. I picked up a bunch of different vegetables, most local and some not. As for the meal, well there, I tried some amazing brats(Peps Pork) and had to get some. I then picked up some rolls, lettuce, tomatoes(Bushel Boy) and some WI gorgonzola cheese(Black River) for a salad. For a dressing a I made up a simple quick Olive Oil & red wine vinegar dressing. Te brats were by far some of the best I have had and wish I could get some more before next weekend!
Add comment June 16, 2009
one local summer
Thanks to Jenny over at The Nourished Kitchen I found out about a 13 week eating local challenge. I have been trying to eat more locally and living in a more sustainable way, so this challenge fits right in with what I’m doing. Basically you have to commit to making 1 meal a week from local ingredients and then blog about the meal. Eating local, fresh ingredients fits right in with the primal lifestyle, I’m sure Grok didn’t have tomatoes flown in from Mexico. If your interesting in joining the challenge or just finding out more out it check it out at Farm To Philly
Add comment May 12, 2009
Progress, Not Perfection
I started this off about a month ago fully intending not to do what I always do – Procrastinate. Sure enough, I got busy at work, some other things came up and wham, no more blogging and I lost focus on my whole life project. I was doing pretty good to, I had lost about 10lbs in a month following the Primal Diet(mostly) and was feeling much better both mentally and physically. So I did a solo camping trip last weekend and it was cold and rainy and had a lot of time to think while being trapped in my tent. I decided I am going to redouble my efforts, and get back on track. I need to. So hopefully I will be posting a lot more and trying to really get into the whole primal lifestyle. I hope maybe someone else will read this and be inspired, and as the saying goes, “progress, not perfection” or something like that.
Add comment May 12, 2009
Kiva – Small Loans, Big Results
As part of my whole life project here one of my goals was to become more involved in helping others and along those lines I discovered a website called Kiva. I want to recruit you all to my lending team, The bradk Way, on Kiva, a non-profit website that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur across the globe. You choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq – and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.
If you join my lending team, we can work together to alleviate poverty. Once you’re a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva "count" towards our team’s impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you – but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team’s collective portfolio, so our team’s overall impact will grow!
Check out the The bradk Way lending team, and learn more about lending teams on Kiva in general, by clicking here: The bradk Way Kiva Lending Team
Add comment May 12, 2009
Cobb Salad for Lunch
How can you not like a diet that lets you eat salads like this? This is my cobb salad made from from a Recipe on Marks Daily Apple. He’s got a bunch of other great salad recipes in this article 10 Classic DIY Salad Creations The others look good too, but the cobb salad is by far my favorite.
The Recipe
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
3 bacon slices, cooked
1 head romaine lettuce, leaves separated and torn into bite-size pieces
4 cups diced cooked turkey or chicken (leftovers work best!)
1 avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
1 tomato, chopped
1/4 cup of blue cheese
Dressing:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Arrange lettuce in the bottom of a plate or shallow bowl. Feel free to get artsy arranging the rest of the ingredients (rows of vegetables are a popular method, but if you feel like just chucking it all in, go ahead!).
For the dressing, whisk together the wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper. Once combined, drizzle in the olive oil to form a thick dressing. Add to salad and serve immediately.
Add comment April 14, 2009
My Diet Goals
Diet. Its an ugly word, most often bringing to mind tasteless food(like rice cakes) and starvation. But I am talking about a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. My main goal at this time is admittedly a little superficial. Summers almost here and I want to look good. I live in Minnesota now, and the winters have not been that conducive to staying in shape. So I have started on Primal/Paleolithic diet/lifestyle. Its more of an experiment now and I am easing my way into it. I started about two weeks ago, and initially weighed 222lbs. My Goal is to be below 200lbs by June, which works out to about 10lbs a month, which should be fairly doable without losing lean body mass. The average person can burn about 2lbs of fat a week, any more and your losing lean body mass, or just losing water weight. Luckily I have a very fast metabolism(although you wouldn’t know it by current weight) and burning 2.5lbs doesn’t seem like it will be an issue for me. Currently I am fluctuating between 215-217.5. I think Easter might have set me a back a few days, but I am back on track now. So far I haven’t brought much exercise into my routine yet, but that is going to start changing now that the weather is getting nicer. I will be posting a chart of my progress in the near future as well a s a couple of programs/web sites that I have found very useful for tracking my progress.
Add comment April 14, 2009
Personal Business Cards?
One thing I have been thinking about lately are personal business cards or “Profile Cards” as they are sometimes called. I think it would be useful to have something with my personal contact information to hand out to people when my business contact information just wouldn’t be right. For instance I was taking some pictures of people kite skiing on the lake a few weeks ago and one of them asked if they could get a copy of the pictures, it would have been great to have a card to hand them and say check on my flickr page. There’s a couple of different formats they come in, the normal business card size and a smaller “profile card” size. I am kind of leaning towards the profile size as it seems a lot less formal. Now the question is what do information do I include on it? I’m thinking, name, phone, website, twitter and linked in. To start off I am going to order some small profile cards from Zazzle (shown in picture) and some business card sized ones from MOO. I’ll be sure to post pictures when they arrive and some more thoughts. In the mean time what are your thoughts on personal business cards and what would you include?
Add comment April 9, 2009
The Primal Blueprint
One of the more interesting diets/lifestyles I have stumbled upon is the Primal Diet. It is based off of a Paleolithic Diet. Basically it is returning to eating the way humans originally did, when they were hunter gatherers. The Paleolithic diet consists mainly of lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts; and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils. It is based on the the theory that the human body developed and evolved to sustain itself on these types of foods. From what I have read up on it so far it seems to have good points going for it, and is something I am going to explore in more detail. I agree with a lot of what it based on, and have started to avoid all the processed foods I can. Mark Sisson of Marks Daily Apple has come up with the Primal Blueprint and is currently writing a book on it. He is also a former professional triathlete and runner and has his own supplemeent company Primal Nutrition which specializes in high quality high potency supplements. I am just starting out on his Damage Control Master Formula and will post more about that at another time. To read more on the Primal Blueprint you can read his blog and his Primal Blueprint page: What is the Primal Blueprint?
1 comment April 9, 2009
What is the bradk way?
Well I’m not exactly sure…yet. Thats kind of the whole purpose of this all, to figure out what it is. Will it be your way? Probably not, but maybe I can help you figure it out. I’m by no means an expert on any of this stuff, and will researching all of this along the way. I am going to be working on improving all aspects of my life and my interactions with the world and others around me. Sounds impossible doesn’t it? Well its not really a list of things I can check off it will be a work in progress, and continue to be one for the rest of my life. I am doing this blog as I think it will make me more accountable and help me to track my progress. As Confucius said:
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
So this is the first step. I am initially going to focus on my physical body, i have for too long abused it. I also am going to to focus somewhat on organization and getting things done, as without that solid foundation I won’t be able to follow through on any of it.
Add comment April 8, 2009
Welcome to my new(est) blog
So I’m going to try this blogging thing again. This time with hopefully better results. I am embarking on a personal journey to try to become a better human being as a whole. I am going to work on being healthier, happier and greener. Hopefully others will be bale to learn from successes and mistakes.
Welcome!
-Brad
Add comment April 8, 2009
