Friday Windy Hike

A view of the Park

Today I decided to get out of bed early and make my wife a good Paleo breakfast.  I made her an omelet with peppers, onions, mushrooms (yuk) and it little cheese than added a few sliced avocado.  Of course no Paleo breakfast would be complete with out bacon.  I did the same for me, no fungus, and no cheese but I did it scrambled.  I had opened a can of coconut milk last night for the Salisbury Steak  I made for dinner.  I added some of the milk to the scrambled eggs and it helps keep the eggs fluffy.

So, after breakfast my wife left for work and I headed up to Lone Mountain for a hike.  This week I did something to my back and I have been really sore and tight.  I have had a long history with back problems and had surgery in 1984.  I was running track and field at USC and ended up watching the Olympic Games in Los Angeles from the hospital bed.  I knew that I need to get out and do some type of exercise and it will make me feel better.  I went to Lone Mountain for a hike.  I was thinking of going to Lake Las Vegas to  paddle board but the 30+ mile an hour winds killed that idea.

Lone Mountain is a small isolated mountain that is surrounded by homes and a new beltway.  It is really not a mountain but a large hill.  The summit is about 600 feet above the surrounding area and has a few routes to use for the hike.  I started from the parking lot at the City of Las Vegas Lone Mountain Park.  I started with a slight easy jog up the dirt road that leads to the mountain.  I was not able to jog the whole way but I am getting better and stronger.  Some day I will run the entire hike.  I started the climb from the North trail and worked my way up along the ridge line.  The wind caused this to be a little difficult and I really had to work hard to keep my balance.  According to my Garmin 305 my heart rate was around 160 bpm in the jog and down to 153 bpm for the hike up.

I made it to the summit and enjoyed the views for a little bit.  The wind made this difficult and it was hard to stand still.  I have noticed that I am getting a lot better with balance.  I am able to walk over rocks and keep a good strong balance.   After the hike I did a little work out in the park.  I found a good strong tree and did some pull ups.  When I started this Paleo-Journey I could only do 2-3 pull ups.  Now I can do 3 sets of ten.  At the park I did pull ups, push ups, and squats.  I feel great and my back is also feeling better.  It does a body good to get out and move.  By the way during the entire hike I enjoyed listening to the Latest in Paleo Podcast by  Angelo Coppola.  I can’t think of a better way to listen to the podcast.  Thanks Angelo.

"Top of the World" kind of

Read Full Post »

Welcome to the Primal Desert

Welcome.  I am glad that you were able to find me here on the web.  I am new to Blogging as well as to the Primal Lifestyle.  I have done some web design and blogging on the Mac using iWeb, but it just did not seem to work out so well.I did some searching online for Primal/Paleo blogs and found a lot of them were done on Blogger.  So I started this blog to have a place to write about my adventures and lifestyle.

First let me give you a little history about me.  I am currently 47 years old, 6’3″ tall and weigh 210 lbs.  I was an athlete in college and since then have been active off and on.  I really do not want to get back in to competing, I just want to keep in good healthy shape.  I was a Track and Field athlete competing in the half mile and mile.  I earned a scolarship to the University of Southern California where I graduated with a degree and Exercise Science Sports Medicine.  I competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in the 2-Man Bobsled Event for Puerto Rico.  I was born there and lived on the island for about 3 years.  It was a wonderful experience and I will post pictures and a blog about that soon.

I currently live in Las Vegas Nevada and work for the Las Vegas Water District as an inspector.  I am married to my wife Kim and we have 4 wonderful children.  The two oldest are hers and the younger ones are mine.  Together we enjoy riding the ATV’s, camping on our toy hauler and playing on the river at Parker AZ.

I decided in January of 2011 that I was not going to be out of shape and die at a young age.  My wife talked me into trying to do the Atkins thing and we started that on 1-17-11.  I weighed in at 237 lbs when I started.  I liked the idea that I can eat eggs and bacon, as well as hamburgers just no bun or carbs.  I did the induction thing for the first two weeks and felt fine.  I lost a few pounds but not a lot.  I was not doing any exercise at this time just not eating carbs.  After the first three weeks I was doing a google search for Stand Up Paddle Boards and came across Marks Daily Apple.

Since than I have been trying to eat like a cave man and have not had any processed foods.  I feel great and have lost 27 lbs to date.  I started to ride my bike a lot more as well as exercising like Grok.  I work out when I can and do as much as I can.  The best part is that I started to get out and Play a lot more.  I get on my Kayak, started to do SUP and working on running in a 5K race at the end of the month.

I have found lots of ideas for foods and recipes and will share them here.  I will write about my work outs as wells as my adventures.  Stay tuned and sign up for the updates.

Read Full Post »