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This month I attempted to do a sugar detox. I limited myself to less than 2 pieces of fruit a day and tried to cut out all sugar. I gave in 3 separate times to small pieces of chocolate and I had a sip of orange juice a couple times.
I don't see much change in the photos. Some bloat went away. I noticed a change mentally. I had less energy spikes and dips throughout the day. I could concentrate better. I could also get by with less meals in a day. I rarely had intense hunger, although that is mostly due to my paleo diet.
I plan on keeping my sugar low from now on. I need to not buy any dark chocolate and only have sweets once a week at the most. There is a whole guide to it if you want to try. I didn't read it, but the idea inspired me. I hope I inspire you to set a goal today!
My mom gave me this book for christmas, among others, off of my wishlist. I just finished it 2 minutes ago and it has convinced me to get a little stricter in my diet and exercise.
I read The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf about a year ago after listening to his Paleo Solution podcast for awhile. I started the diet pretty slowly over the course of a couple months. I had been gluten free for a couple months after a doctor diagnosed me with ulcerative colitis and prescribed 4 pills a day. I figured out that I didn't suffer the symptoms when I went gluten free and even more so after cleaning up my diet to paleo standards. Anyways, in that book he recommended this book as a resource, so I finally got it a year later. This is one of the first books on paleo. It originally came out in 2002, but this is an updated 2010 version. The newer version includes some of Dr. Cordain's updated stances on certain foods. He originally listed canola oil as a healthy oil, but has changed based on newer research. The book goes over the course of human history and the foods we evolved on. He explains how the agricultural revolution introduced new foods like dairy and grains that we weren't designed to eat. And in the 10,000 years since, most of us do not have the gut to deal with these foods. I have lost more than 20 lbs in the last year and it was extremely easy. I love food and I was never hungry. I basically eat some good protein, lots of veggies, some fruits and nuts and then treat myself to the occasional coffee, dark chocolate and wine. I would really recommend this book along with The Paleo Solution. You will lose fat, get healthy, be happier and live longer!
This is my Valentine's Day "card" for my wife. I made this from one of our wedding photos that I had on my phone. My wife loves Edgar Allen Poe, so I customized one of his poems at the end there with her name. I added the text using the Phonto app on my Galaxy Note II and then edited it in PicSayPro and Instagram.
“But our love was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Alyssa B.”
Dear family, friends, clients, and random people that stumble upon my site. This is my first attempt at a holiday letter. Feel free to skim through, as I am sending this to a wide variety of people, all with varying levels of interest in my life.
I started my new year's resolution with an intense 10-week workout program. I signed up for KOSAMA. It was pretty tough, but I enjoyed it and would recommend it. Then, Alyssa (my fiance) won a free 10-weeks at KOSAMA at a bridal show, so I signed up again to do it with her. Overall, I lost about 6% of my body fat and I looked pretty ripped.
Alyssa moved on from DMACC to Grand View's education program. She wants to be an elementary teacher.
At my job at Gannett I design digital ads. This year I learned Adobe Flash and how to animate things. I have gotten a lot better at it over the year, and I have been assigned to many special projects for our bigger clients.
In February, Alyssa and I moved from our apartment to a duplex. We have a yard now and I have a man-cave in the basement, complete with a pingpong table, foosball table, mini-fridge, and couch. We finally have enough room to throw lavish grill outs and beer pong tournaments.
In March, I turned 22.
In April, I bought my 1st new car. My old Buick Park Avenue became unfixable for me, so I bought a 2011 Ford Focus in white. I really like it, especially the remote start.
In May, My little cousin Kelly passed away. He had more health problems than anyone I know, but he was always smiling and laughing.
The weekend before my wedding my best man Andy threw me an awesome bachelor party. He rented a party bus and we went downtown to all the bars. I threw up at the Hessen Haus and at Fong's Pizza and then later that night at my house. Good times. Oh and my friend Justin made me a Groom shirt that had Tweety Bird and the word "Trouble" on it.
On May 28th I got married to my love, Alyssa. We have dated since May 11th, 2007. And since then we have been inseparable.
Our photographer, Laura at LifeArtPhoto was awesome. We love all the pictures and the photo booth was a hit. Friend Alyssa on Facebook to see more wedding photos.
Our video was taken by Brad at Virtual Waters Productions. In exchange I am rebuilding his website for him. Check it out!
For our honeymoon we went to Walt Disney World for a week. It was my first time and it was a lot of fun. We rode every ride and ate some really good food. We stayed at a resort with a pool, and we went to all the parks for a day and then went back to our favorites for the other days.
This year my freelance design business has done very well, thanks to returning clients and new.
Chris Brennick has been my biggest client and has brought me even more business with all of his connections. His fairly new Directv store, Rockstar Satellite has grown a lot this year and business is booming. I designed a vinyl wrap for his van, truck, desk and a wall inside the store. I made flyers, shirts, ads for local magazines, website animations and much more. I also had fun helping out with RAGBRAI's visit to Altoona. Chris was a major player in getting the event organized, so he had me making signs and doing promotions.
A new client, Flavors of Northwest Iowa, had me design a bunch of logo concepts and they were very happy with the end result.
Tipsy Tees is another new client. Amy was looking to start an online apparel store and she found my site. We are coming up with a bunch of fun designs and she hopes to start printing in the spring once we have all the designs finalized.
I also had many small projects throughout the year. I made ads for KOSAMA and Elite Performance in Altoona. I animated Virtual Waters Productions logo. I helped Alyssa's friend Allie with a shirt design for her Grand View class. And Alyssa and I did a couple paintings to fill our new home.
Last year I had some health problems and I ended up being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. The doctor had me taking 3 -4 pills a day. I spent a lot of time this year researching and trying new things, so that I wouldn't have to take any medication the rest of my life. I started with a Paleo diet. It is a nutritional plan based on evolutionary research into the presumed diet of wild plants and animals that we used to eat before the agricultural revolution. The biggest part that has helped me is the gluten-free diet, and it has gotten me down to taking only 1 pill a day, just to be safe. I have also lost more fat than when I did Kosama and the only exercise I get now is walks with Alyssa and weight training. If interested I suggest reading robbwolf.com and marksdailyapple.com.
I will be missing Christmas with the Briggs' this year. I am staying home with my wife for our 1st Christmas.
I will be spending New Years' Eve at Alyssa's cousin's wedding in Wisconsin.
2012
Next year I hope to learn more html and app development. I am rebuilding my website on a new platform so it will be free and after that I plan on writing more posts on my blog. I want more clients, so I am going to try to promote my business.
Alyssa and I are also looking into getting a house next year, which would be nice for when we want to start a family.
Thanks for reading and please keep in touch.
Video runs kinda crappy sometimes.
Highlights start at 56 minutes in...
if you don't care about me haha
Video by Virtual Waters Productions
I have been reading a bunch of studies about how sitting at a desk all day takes years off of your life. So I figured I should at least have a standing desk at home since I can't have one at work. This was the cheapest solution I could find for the size I wanted. I checked IkeaHackers and the closest I could find was going to be $230. What I ended up making is pretty nice so far. Just two wire shelves that were $40 each and then two 2x8's that were on sale for $7 each. The planks are just laying on the shelves right now, but eventually I am going to attach them with wire somehow. The planks bent a little in the middle when they were going edge to edge, so I moved the shelves closer together and have the planks go up against the wall on the right, which ended up looking nice. Right now all I have is the Macbook Pro, but I built this with an iMac in mind, with the iMac on the top shelf and the keyboard on the bottom. When I get that I will need to get a bracket attached to the wall for more support.
I proposed to my girlfriend on Valentine's Day. She said yes. I'm excited. We got the date and place figured out already. I can't wait to start designing invites and whatever else goes into a wedding. I am just starting to collect images and links of good ideas. Our colors are red and black which makes it quite easy to make something look good.
I also just turned 21. I bought lottery tickets yesterday. I'm gonna win.
I got a job in downtown Des Moines at Gannett. I am currently getting trained to tone images for the Des Moines Register and other publications. I plan to do some freelance design in the morning, since I have late shifts at Gannett. It is pretty exciting to have a steady income now. I plan to buy an imac whenever Apple updates them. Also, I am going to buy CS4, so expect a lot more posts of cool stuff I will be working on.
I went down to the Ozarks to stay at a friend's lake house. I did some tubing... without falling off. We ate a bunch of food and did fireworks. I didn't take any lake photos, but here are some from around the house. Enjoy!
Last weekend I went to a wedding in Wisconsin and on the way home to Iowa I stopped and took a tour of Crystal Cave. I learned a lot about caves and I got some pretty neat photos. Check em out!
