The Billy b's First Annual Bloggie Awards: Blog of the Year (Last Blog of 2014 and 2014 recap)

How does one go back through year in which so much change happened and pick one moment that stuck out more than the rest.  How do you say this is the moment in time when everything started to click for you and you started to change?  How do you find the moment in time when you started to pick your way out of the darkness, only to find more darkness to wade through.  For me the last month of my life has been liberating.  I have seen a fundamental change in my actions, and in my relationship with food.  I actually go some days forgetting to eat lunch.  I no longer get weak and the shakes and feel like I am going to faint if I don't get food.  I am not really sure if you realize how fucking huge that is for me.  Friday of last week was the perfect example. I ate breakfast and didn't even think about food until my balls were ready.  That is huge. 

I think this all comes down to a matter of perspective.  One can say Billy b you are still 450 lbs, you have high blood pressure and it put your heart out of rhythm and makes you a high risk of stroke. You might have to get a pace maker or have your heart jump started, so how can you say you are healthy and feeling great going into a new year.  Its simple, I feel better than I have felt in a long time.  And I know 21 lbs is only 20% of my goal of losing 200 lbs.... wait, I am at 20% of goal, that is fucking awesome!!! I never thought of it like that!!! Yahoo!!!!  20% of goal since November 15, and over the holiday's ... Fuck you, if you can't see we are on the path then you, well fuck you.  That is so huge.  Such a great way to end a year on.  However, I hear ya, heart problems, risk of stroking out and not off, and 450,  however, think of all the other stuff we did this year.  We went into rabbit hole.  We opened up old wounds and dealt with them.  We forgave.  We were forgiven.  We let people back in.  We realized that time was just a face on the water.  It ripples away and passes on.  Most of all we let go.  We decided to stop wasting time and start moving forward. We Got Over it!  That leads us to the Blog of the Year, which the year.  I basically picked this blog because it was simply the one that was viewed the most.  158 views to date.  That isn't to shabby, now is it? 

I think if you read the blog it sort of captures and rehashes what I was saying above.  It doesn't matter what was, it matters what we do and are doing.  We have to rise above and realized we are worth it.  That we are worth fighting for and saving.   That I am worth saving!  That I am walking the path of the beam and.....



THE TOWER IS CLOSER




Blog of the Year 2014:

http://thebuddysystem22.blogspot.com/2014/01/get-over-it.html

The Billy b First Annual Bloggie Awards: Best Blog Theme

"Pippin: I didn't think it would end this way.

Gandalf: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path... One that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass... And then you see it.

Pippin: What? Gandalf?... See what?

Gandalf: White shores... and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Pippin: [smiling] Well, that isn't so bad.

Gandalf: [softly] No... No it isn't."

 - The Return of the King

 

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

- Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

I think the most important thing I learned this year is you have to have some guiding factors in your life.  Even when I was a follower of the Man Jesus, I was more so a follower because I feared going to a lake of fire and frying.  I think I have learned in my 39 years is the soul is immortal.  That is travels through the universe and it is trapped here in this time and place only for a small brief portion of its overall existence.  This time and place is just one time and place on the journey and we are here to learn something so that we can move onto the next phase, so we can rise and go to the next phase with our heads held high.  Is this blasphemy?  Some say Si, some say no.  I say is it what my heart tells me, and my heart tells me much like the great grey wizard once said, all I have to do is to decided what to do with the time given.  However, while we are trapped here and I am not saying that is a bad thing you see.  I want to be here.  No place and not time do I want to be more.  While am here I found principles to live my life by.  Good principles!  Solid principles that one can build a life to be proud of.  I think I expressed this best between March 31, 2014 and April 4, 2014 however, I think all my blogs for 2014 pretty much render the same positive and forward looking statements and that is simply to live our life while we have it to live, something that that first 19 years of my adult live I don't think I always took advantage of.  That is why I developed and believe in these 5 core principles and I try to live and guide my life by them:

1.  Be a Dreamer
2.  Honest
3.  Free
4.  Fearless
5.  Live to Get Radical

These are documented and detailed in the blogs to below.  I think 2015 is going to be a great year!   I think that because I am living my life by these principles.  I am got a lot of living to do before I die and I am going to make my dreams come true!

Best Blog Theme: From 3/31/2014 – 4/4/2014 - The Core Principles that govern my life!

http://thebuddysystem22.blogspot.com/2014/03/fearless.html

http://thebuddysystem22.blogspot.com/2014/04/honest.html

http://thebuddysystem22.blogspot.com/2014/04/free.html

http://thebuddysystem22.blogspot.com/2014/04/i-want-to-be-dreamer.html

http://thebuddysystem22.blogspot.com/2014/04/they-only-live-to-get-radical.html

The Billy b First Annual Bloggie Awards: My Favorite Blog of the year!

As we enter into the last three days of the Calendar year, I do want to take some time, very little to look back and reflect on the year that was.  2014 was the year I changed my life.  21 lbs I have lost cooking for myself, abstaining from sugar, wheat, and dairy.  Other than the occasional curveball thrown at me with my heart, WHICH, by the way was the biggest wake up call in my history and is viewed as a good thing now, rather than a bad, I made long last, changes, that I know will endure the test of time.  I found a love I didn't know was there in cooking.  I continued to write, and write, and write some more. I completed one short story, and two novelettes, they are, super rough, but, I am writing!!! I will also admit the last two days I have felt better than I have in a long time!  Things are definitely changing.  The world is moving on and I with it in step following my path to my tower.  I think losing 21 lbs between Thanksgiving and Xmas is pretty bad ass, and yes, I will keep talking about it and patting myself on the back about it, because I am proud and I have every write to me.  This year I went from having someone cooking all my meals for me, to taking the ownership of it and doing it myself.  So, there is so much to be proud of!  This was so our year and guess what 2015 will be even better.  I see in 2015 some great things such as the 100 lbs Paleo Party, which I will host once I reach that milestone.  The party will be all Paleo food, but there will be wine and beer there, so I can share with people my favorite homemade foods.  There will be a return to the bicycle.  A return to the pool.  Perhaps even a sprint at PG but we won't get ahead of ourselves b/c we have so much to do to get there, but we are dreaming big in 2015!  Now to our first of three Bloggies!  My Favorite Blog of the year!

The winner was easy for me, because the winner was my first short story that I ever wrote start to finish.  I did it in one afternoon at the office, I should have been working but I was not.  I was working on my dream. 

My Favorite Blog of the Year:

“He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts”

http://thebuddysystem22.blogspot.com/2014/05/he-thrusts-his-fists-against-posts-and.html

I was in the in between when I wrote this short story.  Some where in between being in and out of depression. My hearts which has had been broken the previous fall, but it was on the mend.  I started to see a bigger picture.  I learned I was playing a longer game and this story sort of represented coming to terms with that.  I think rock bottom is a strange place, and you have to do some much to bring yourself back from it.  I did a lot of that in 2014, and every time I thought I was out and moving on I let myself get sucked back in.  Everything in our life is perceived from a point of view.  It can be taken from the point of view depression and hatred which is what the fat bearded man represents.  It can be taken from the point of view of the complacent man, which is the focal point of the main character, or it can be taken from the view of the self we want to be, our best self, who we are supposed to be, and that of course is the role of the reaper, the Black Reaper.  The mind is a power, powerful tool, and it is our best ally in life.  In 2014 I started to and almost completely shattered the prison of my mind.  This blog, and this post, this story, represents that to me.  I have come so far down the path and the tower is waiting!

Paleo Fajitas, Paleo Rice, and getting ready for the last week of the year!

Did you know there is absolutely nothing in the world I love to eat more than Mexican.  I think Mexican might be right up there as my favorite thing to eat.  I am pretty sure I do love it even more than a good deep dish from Chicago or even a burger from the Counter.  I mean I could do a taco, nacho, burrito, fajitas rotation and be happy.  Of all Mexican my favorite food is the fajita.  See the Fajita in and of itself lead the way.  IF there would have been no fajita I could assemble myself, I would not have loved fallen in love with Mexican.  After all I used to get sick at the sight of re-fried beans and guacamole. I mean I love me some fajitas.  Ask my wives Dorothy and Rachel they will tell you 99.9% of our dinners out have me getting fajitas.  If it is Chili's then it is the 99.99% because I do love their chicken boob fajitas.  

So it actually surprised me that it took me so long to get around to trying Mexican on Paleo.  I think part of it is that I have been in love with just eating a shit load of meats.  Also, I think I worried now that without refried beans and cheese, perhaps I wouldn't love Mexican as much.  Also, the chip factor.  I have come to thinking of eating Mexican as eating chips and salsa too. I mean I get a burrito I cut it up into pieces and eat it with chips.  However, I I finally found a recipe I that got me excited.  So, it was time for Mexican.  It was time to make fajitas.  BTW... I was scared doing this today, because I will admit, I didn't love the meatloaf last night.  I think there was to much veggie pulp in int and I just didn't enjoy.  So, I was really hoping making something today, even with a pot of chili would be good, so I had food for the week.  

The Marination:

Add four chicken boobs a bag.

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tbs of RWV

Add Lemon and Lime Juice, not pictured because I am an idiot and it took me for ever to realize, I could just cut the lemon and limes into wedges and spray them over the chicken, and that I didn't have to actually juice them.

Boobs ready and in good marination.


Food Prep:

Peppers, Onions, and stuff!

Isn't my new knife bad ass, one of a set from El Beav, wow look at my feet too, don't they look wee?

The produce:

 Onions

 More Onions

 Red Peppers

 some green

 more green

 All done chopping :D

 Add them to the crock pot

Add in a couple teaspoons of cumin and some onion powder..

Add four marinated chicken boobs.

add salsa, I used Casa Sanchez Taqueria Chipotle style.  tis my fav 

Cover the Boobs... which is really a terrible thing to to!

cook for 8 hours on low...

Aren't my new knifes awesome!!

Oh and look at my new door bell!!! WELCOME!


Making of the Rice:

So, I made Paleo rice. I know what you are thinking isn't rice on paleo not allowed?  The answer to that is yes, it is not allowed.  So how did you make rice. Well, I made it from Cauliflower.  Cauliflower?  What you talking about Billy?  Yes, apparently you can make rice out of Cauliflower?  I didn't know that. I know it now, but I didn't know it.  That is why I had to get me a food processor :D

so you dice a head of cauliflower.  I am not sure why I didn't take pictures of that. I think it was b/c I was watching Supernatural and I was very into it.  so you add the cauliflower in and you pulse 15 times and boom you have rice.  Well, or in my case really, really tiny rice.  I think I should have used the dicer blade.

First half of the cauliflower

 2nd half of the cauliflower.

 Then it is time to do some cooking!!!

Chili Mix, that is a nice mix of turkey, sdt, celery, carrots, onion.  Good stuff, great turkey.

Then we decided to slow cook some apples with dried cherries and walnuts.

 Have to give my roomy a huge assist here.  She peeled and sliced the apples up.

Check on the chicken, all looks good.

Mix onion powder, garlic powder, mrs dash, chili power, cumin together to season the rice.

Pot ready...

See those tomatoes, diced them myself, same with the jalapeño, onions came that way :)

Chicken broth is needed.

Another great tip from my roommate, put the coconut oil in hot water and it will liquefy.  Then you get to TBS and add it to the hot pot.

Saute onions till translucent.
 

Add in tomatos to open them.  I still don't know what that means but it was in the recipe.  So that is what I tried to do.

Mix in the peppers...

The spices...

the Cauliflower Rice

Then you get Mexican rice?   Or so they say?  i honestly think I diced the cauliflower to much. It is really more a like a cauliflower corn meal thing.  It tastes ok.


Chicken Time!!!!

So, I pulled these out after 8 hours... Looks pretty good right!

Nice veggies!  Looking good!

Got my chicken claws out and then

I shredded the boobs.  It wasn't hard at all. I mean it mostly just fell apart.  It was awesome and it was so juicy good!

Veggies looking good.

Any chance the rice look better, no, no there isn't

Time to eat :D

It was really good, I was really please with the meal. I mixed it all together and added more salsa to it, I loved it.  I was really impressed.  Not the best Mexican I ever ate, not even close.  However, it was damn good and the chicken was amazing!

All do more apples next week and I will let them go another hour or two.  I mean these apples were damn good!  However, they could have gone a little long. 

And FUCK, I forgot I still have to go make smoothies for tomorrow.... Damn it!  The Chef's work is never done!

Night!