Breakfast Up Close
A sample of my meals
Here is a sample of my meals from this week. I follow the paleo lifestyle and stick to mostly protein and veggies with some high quality fats like olive oil, coconut oil and avocados. The last photo is a giant paleo cupcake. I used a mixture of almond and coconut flours instead of wheat flour.
Kiva
We're having a boy!
Kings of BBQ Facebook page
Enlightened
I just started playing Ingress last week. I joined the enlightened and am almost to level 2. Sign up at ingress.com if you have an android phone. Become enlightened.
Paleo dark chocolate bundt cake
Sugar Detox
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!
Book of the Month: The Paleo Diet
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!
Valentine's Day
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.”
Kings of BBQ 2013
This is my redesign of the Kings of BBQ logo for 2013. I was the designer last year and they decided to do it annually every September. I designed the site as well. Check it out and let me know what you think. mallbbq.com
Pizzachu
Altoona - An Epic Ride
In 2011 RAGBRAI stopped through my hometown, Altoona, Iowa. City Council ran a contest for the logo design so I made this.
I didn't win as you can see in the gallery above, but I wanted to post this so I could critique myself. The contest rules stated that we use the four spot colors chosen by the council and that the slogan is "An Epic Ride". I honestly didn't spend much time designing this. The bike is from the DOT's Bike Crossing sign used by the government. The colors were chosen already. I didn't add them til the end, as a background. I thought about the meaning of Altoona, which comes from the word altitude, because Altoona is supposedly the highest point in Iowa. So that idea put the "mountain" behind the bike. The bike is supposed to be going across Iowa with Altoona as the highest and middlest part of the RAGBRAI race. If I were to change anything now that I have 2 more years of experience, it would be the font. I still like the style, but I think it would've been more epic if everything was a little more jagged, as if I cut everything out of construction paper. It also might help if the weight of the stroke on the bike wheels equaled the thickness of the ALTOONA font. The white box shape would've been cool to use in other applications such as name tags, signs and maps for the riders.
Let me know what you think.
Book of the Month: America Again
I have a goal of reading a book every month this year. I realized that I have about 17 unread paper books, 10 or so e-books, and 6 audiobooks. I only read 3 books last year and that is pretty sad. So this month I read America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't. It definitely filled the gap of the Colbert Report being off air over the holidays.
How a Squirrel Makes a Friend - Children's Book
This is a book I made in high school for a creative writing class. Originally it was made by cutting out colored construction paper, but I decided to re-draw it a couple years ago for my cousin Kelly.
Comic
Tipsy Tees
This year my biggest project was Tipsy Tees. Amy Chapin stumbled across my site last year and came to me with her business idea. First off, I made a logo. It took awhile to get the right font. We went through a lot of different versions and eventually came to this.
She had loads of shirt ideas, so I started drawing. We got to about 30 shirts and then it was time to order the transfers and shirts. She did all the printing in her home and built up her inventory a little.
Meanwhile, I started to design the website. She chose Big Cartel as the store management system and I started with the theme she chose. It took a couple months to get everything figured out, but we got there.
Here is one of my favorite illustrations from the holiday site update.
I hope you enjoyed the breakdown. Please go check out the site to see all of our shirt designs.
Kings of BBQ
Kings of BBQ was an event this year that I did all of the graphics for. It was put on by Chris Brennick of Rockstar Satellite (one of my main clients).
Check out more event photos at Picture Iowa.
Tully Law Office, P.C.
Mr. Tully came to me early this year wanting a logo. He just started practicing law on his own and this is what he wanted. Mr. Tully made this himself to give me an idea as to what he wanted in a logo.
“The logo looks AWESOME... having a lot of compliments so far!”
Thomas P. Tully
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Des Moines & Polk City, IA.
515-556-4692
Tom@TullyLawOfficePC.com

