[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”52″ gal_title=”food and fitness pics September 6 2016″]
Hey Folks!
Well, I bet you thought that I had bailed on the “getting fit” message that I’ve been preaching since the inception of livedeckerscolorado.com? Good news my friends, I have not! I’m here today to begin the second half of this blogging mission I’ve created for myself, by sharing with you my recipe to achieve optimal health and wellness. Catching those back up to speed who have been following along, and just to give those that are reading for the first time, I’m in the process of trying to shed 100 pounds in one year’s time. I am trying to accomplish this enormous, life-changing task by completely changing my lifestyle, implementing a consistent daily exercise routine, and taking control of my diet by eating mostly a plant-based diet, with minimal protein intake from red meat and poultry. Back in October of 2015, I was seen by my Cardiologist after having a third battle of congestive heart failure, due to an out of control arrhythmia and my hearts inability to regulate it’s own rate. After getting the situation under control, medications adjusted, a clearance from the Doctor to get back into a fitness routine, and the desire to really change the way I thought about food and daily life, I was ready to get rid of this life-controlling 100 pounds! On this date, October 21, 2015, I weighed in at a whopping 289 pounds! As you know, I live in the mountains of Colorado, and cycling in February typically isn’t the most opportune time to get a 20 mile daily bike ride in each day, so I basically let the physical activity diminish to a casual walk along the river, as I fly-fished for physical activity through the winter months. This simply did nothing for the message I was have supposed to have listened to in October, resulting in poor energy, painful joints, and an overall “bad attitude” in general. In April of this past year I was fortunate to attend Major League Baseball’s Spring Training, in Clearwater Beach, Florida. Upon returning from this trip and looking at the pictures of myself on the beach, I was frightened at what I saw! I saw someone who didn’t look happy in his own skin! I saw a guy who desperately needed to change “his ways” when it came to eating and exercise, or I was going to simply going to continue to gain weight, most likely develop diabetes, or worse yet, succumb to the heart condition.
The first week of May, 2016, I began to take daily walks on forest roads surrounding my community, and shortly after, those “daily walks” turned into 3 hour hikes, climbing upwards to 1,000 feet in elevation, 3 or 4 times a week. After getting my legs back and some cardio work in for a month, it was time to get back on the road bike that helped me lose the 100+pounds I had lost between 2012-2014. Around the first week of June, I began to ride my daily route from Decker’s/Trumbull, to Nighthawk. This is a 10 mile stretch of road that offers an excellent training route, comprised of a 5 mile hill climb section and a 5 mile valley section that both follow the South Platte River. I am currently doing this ride each morning at about 8:30am, and finishing by 9:45. I’m currently on a training schedule of 7 days on/ 1 day off. After the bike ride, which I am keeping interval numbers from, that I’ll be sharing periodically, I am using an “Old School” aeROBICRider. This is one of those early/mid-90’s pieces of exercise equipment that looks like a stationary bike seat with a cross-bar to pull yourself up with. You are basically doing a pull-up with your own body weight, while doing a pseudo crunch at the same time. Check out the picture in the gallery! Ok, enough background, let’s get to some of the results of all this work! As of this date, I’m currently weighing in at 220 pounds and have lost about 7 inches off my weight. This is a total weight loss of 69 pounds since October of 2015, with the last 50 pounds coming off since about the beginning of May.
In this paragraph, I would like to share with you some of the dietary changes that I’ve made, along with some of the reasons I have chosen my new, mostly plant-based diet. In July, I attended a culinary demonstration with a message, by Chef Mark Anthony.http://www.chefmarkanthony.com You may have seen him on the Food Network. http://www.fooodnetwork.com. After listening to Chef Mark speak about the mind blowing numbers of Americans suffering from diabetes, heart disease, and as Chef Mark likes to say, “the killer diseases” I decided that I was going to give his way of eating a try. The “message” that I eluded to earlier is pretty simple. By taking care of the body, you are also taking care of the mind. In return, you will be closer to your higher power, ultimately taking care of the soul! As a Chef of over 25 years myself, I found it refreshing to actually spend the time to create MY food for MY health reasons and focus on what I should be putting into my body each and every meal. Planning my meals around my exercise and workout routine has been key to the successful weight loss. Each morning, I’m up by 5:30am and begin my morning routine of feeding the dogs, checking the river flow reports, and assembling my “already made’ meal components for my morning power breakfast of good carbohydrates such as brown rice or barley, protein from beans or lentils, one over-easy egg, 1/2 of a whole wheat bagel, single banana, and about 2oz. of non-fat vanilla yogurt! This usually gives me enough energy to make it back from my ride and eat again, usually before noon. I then usually have a small mixed green salad, with about 4-6 oz. of deli turkey or some grilled chicken breast, sometimes just the greens and raw vegetables. For the rest of the afternoon, I like to snack on mixed nuts, dried fruits, raw celery and carrots. My evening meal is mostly just some assorted pieces of fruit, a remix of the breakfast components, less the egg! more raw or grilled vegetables and that other half of whole wheat bagel from breakfast! That’s basically it my friends! This is how I’ve been losing the weight! I will add that I am drinking about two and a half gallons of water each day! My goal is to give you a weekly update on the weight loss and dietary choices. If you would like to join along, please do! Subscribe to my blog and you’ll be emailed whenever I publish a new post!
Chris
September 7, 2016 Fishing report
fishing reportGood morning my fellow fishing enthusiasts!
Got up early this morning at 3:30 in anticipation of my trip to the Dream Stream, to realize that we actually had planned the trip for Thursday! Oh well, guess I’ll do some reconnaissance in the Decker’s area today! We saw a pretty big bump in the flows yesterday afternoon. We’ve gone from 284 cfs in Trumbull, to 409 cfs this morning. 418 cfs in the canyon, with Decker’s at about 400 cfs. We’ve got a bit of chocolate milk for a river this morning and I’ve seen some pretty good amounts of grass and other river bank debris floating downstream. Usually, within 24 hours or less, the sand and mud settle and the fish return to normal behavior. This doesn’t shut the fishing down, it just changes a bit, but offers chances to try other bugs and different tactics. One of the things I like to do when this occurs, is to throw on a San Juan Worm and work the banks where the worms are being dislodged with the rising water level. Going out in just a few to try my luck with the Trico’s, but going to toss that worm and probably trail something flashy like a bead-headed pheasant tail or a dark, two-bit hooker! It’s going to be in the upper 70’s today, with clear skies and some wind. If you’re making the trip up to see us, be sure to stop in to Flies and Lies, http://www.flies-n-lies.com to pick up all the flies and gear you’ll need for a great day on the South Platte River, Decker’s, Colorado. Have a great day and I hope to see you on the river!
Trumbull, below Brush Creek
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September 6, 2016 Lifestyle update!
lifestyle and fitness[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”52″ gal_title=”food and fitness pics September 6 2016″]
Hey Folks!
Well, I bet you thought that I had bailed on the “getting fit” message that I’ve been preaching since the inception of livedeckerscolorado.com? Good news my friends, I have not! I’m here today to begin the second half of this blogging mission I’ve created for myself, by sharing with you my recipe to achieve optimal health and wellness. Catching those back up to speed who have been following along, and just to give those that are reading for the first time, I’m in the process of trying to shed 100 pounds in one year’s time. I am trying to accomplish this enormous, life-changing task by completely changing my lifestyle, implementing a consistent daily exercise routine, and taking control of my diet by eating mostly a plant-based diet, with minimal protein intake from red meat and poultry. Back in October of 2015, I was seen by my Cardiologist after having a third battle of congestive heart failure, due to an out of control arrhythmia and my hearts inability to regulate it’s own rate. After getting the situation under control, medications adjusted, a clearance from the Doctor to get back into a fitness routine, and the desire to really change the way I thought about food and daily life, I was ready to get rid of this life-controlling 100 pounds! On this date, October 21, 2015, I weighed in at a whopping 289 pounds! As you know, I live in the mountains of Colorado, and cycling in February typically isn’t the most opportune time to get a 20 mile daily bike ride in each day, so I basically let the physical activity diminish to a casual walk along the river, as I fly-fished for physical activity through the winter months. This simply did nothing for the message I was have supposed to have listened to in October, resulting in poor energy, painful joints, and an overall “bad attitude” in general. In April of this past year I was fortunate to attend Major League Baseball’s Spring Training, in Clearwater Beach, Florida. Upon returning from this trip and looking at the pictures of myself on the beach, I was frightened at what I saw! I saw someone who didn’t look happy in his own skin! I saw a guy who desperately needed to change “his ways” when it came to eating and exercise, or I was going to simply going to continue to gain weight, most likely develop diabetes, or worse yet, succumb to the heart condition.
The first week of May, 2016, I began to take daily walks on forest roads surrounding my community, and shortly after, those “daily walks” turned into 3 hour hikes, climbing upwards to 1,000 feet in elevation, 3 or 4 times a week. After getting my legs back and some cardio work in for a month, it was time to get back on the road bike that helped me lose the 100+pounds I had lost between 2012-2014. Around the first week of June, I began to ride my daily route from Decker’s/Trumbull, to Nighthawk. This is a 10 mile stretch of road that offers an excellent training route, comprised of a 5 mile hill climb section and a 5 mile valley section that both follow the South Platte River. I am currently doing this ride each morning at about 8:30am, and finishing by 9:45. I’m currently on a training schedule of 7 days on/ 1 day off. After the bike ride, which I am keeping interval numbers from, that I’ll be sharing periodically, I am using an “Old School” aeROBICRider. This is one of those early/mid-90’s pieces of exercise equipment that looks like a stationary bike seat with a cross-bar to pull yourself up with. You are basically doing a pull-up with your own body weight, while doing a pseudo crunch at the same time. Check out the picture in the gallery! Ok, enough background, let’s get to some of the results of all this work! As of this date, I’m currently weighing in at 220 pounds and have lost about 7 inches off my weight. This is a total weight loss of 69 pounds since October of 2015, with the last 50 pounds coming off since about the beginning of May.
In this paragraph, I would like to share with you some of the dietary changes that I’ve made, along with some of the reasons I have chosen my new, mostly plant-based diet. In July, I attended a culinary demonstration with a message, by Chef Mark Anthony.http://www.chefmarkanthony.com You may have seen him on the Food Network. http://www.fooodnetwork.com. After listening to Chef Mark speak about the mind blowing numbers of Americans suffering from diabetes, heart disease, and as Chef Mark likes to say, “the killer diseases” I decided that I was going to give his way of eating a try. The “message” that I eluded to earlier is pretty simple. By taking care of the body, you are also taking care of the mind. In return, you will be closer to your higher power, ultimately taking care of the soul! As a Chef of over 25 years myself, I found it refreshing to actually spend the time to create MY food for MY health reasons and focus on what I should be putting into my body each and every meal. Planning my meals around my exercise and workout routine has been key to the successful weight loss. Each morning, I’m up by 5:30am and begin my morning routine of feeding the dogs, checking the river flow reports, and assembling my “already made’ meal components for my morning power breakfast of good carbohydrates such as brown rice or barley, protein from beans or lentils, one over-easy egg, 1/2 of a whole wheat bagel, single banana, and about 2oz. of non-fat vanilla yogurt! This usually gives me enough energy to make it back from my ride and eat again, usually before noon. I then usually have a small mixed green salad, with about 4-6 oz. of deli turkey or some grilled chicken breast, sometimes just the greens and raw vegetables. For the rest of the afternoon, I like to snack on mixed nuts, dried fruits, raw celery and carrots. My evening meal is mostly just some assorted pieces of fruit, a remix of the breakfast components, less the egg! more raw or grilled vegetables and that other half of whole wheat bagel from breakfast! That’s basically it my friends! This is how I’ve been losing the weight! I will add that I am drinking about two and a half gallons of water each day! My goal is to give you a weekly update on the weight loss and dietary choices. If you would like to join along, please do! Subscribe to my blog and you’ll be emailed whenever I publish a new post!
Chris
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September 6, 2016 Fishing Report
fishing reportGood Morning!
Well my friends, we have arrived at a very special time here in the Decker’s/Trumbull part of the South Platte. School is back in session and summer crowds are dwindling. Honestly my friends, this is the beginning of my favorite time of year in the South Platte River Valley. Looking like another beautiful September day with high temps expected to be in mid-80’s. The fishing continues to be great, with great flows, good clarity, and lots of active fish. The more aggressive fish seem to be feeding in the riffles, but don’t miss out on your chances to pull a beast that’s feeding along the banks and in the slower moving water. Trico’s in the morning, nymphing and dry-dropping through the day, and the evening’s are full of dry-fly opportunities! Around the time the local Owl starts to show up around the yard, we’ve been seeing huge blue-wing olive hatches that have produced a significant rise of fish along the river banks and granite wall by my house. This is also a fun time to break out the streamer and go after the big, territorial monsters that seem to go nuts when that streamer hits the water! Wednesday, I’ll be fishing the Dream Stream and hope to bring back some pictures to share on my blog. I’m trying a new plug-in, so I’ve added an RSS feed for the Trumbull station flow readings. This is coming directly from the official USGS website and will be on the blog daily. Along with this feed, I will also provide an estimation each day of the flow in Decker’s and the flow below Cheesman Dam. Today, it’s approximately 280 cfs. in Decker’s, with a measured flow of 281 cfs below Cheesman Dam. Have a great day and I hope to see you on the river!
Chris
Trumbull, below Brush Creek
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September 5, 2016 Fishing Report
camping, Fishing ConditionsGood Morning to everyone!
Wow, waking up to some pretty chilly temperatures this morning on this fine Labor Day Monday! Currently, it’s currently only 45 degrees here in Trumbull and feels like 30! The early morning dew, combined with the chilly temps have really made it feel like a fall morning here in the valley. Looking like were going to have a very nice sunny day, with a high temperature of 87 degrees. Alright, let’s get to some river updates, shall we? Flows below Cheesman are up just a bit from yesterday at 284 cfs, and 287 cfs in Trumbull. The fishing continues to produce as the Tricos dominate the morning dry action and the small nymphs and midges are pulling fish throughout the day! Last night was another great evening of throwing streamers and BWO’S to the banks, as the fish are really turned on around dark! On several occasions, my wooley-bugger was annihilated as soon as the impostor hit the water! As this was only the second or third time I’ve thrown fly’s in the dark, I wasn’t quite prepared to chase a trout around the Platte in the middle of the night! Needless to say, being ready for that strike was an understatement! Getting ready to go for a bike ride downstream to check out conditions and see what the fishy’s are up to this morning! As I have been riding the Platte River road each morning, I have noticed that there is still a few spots left in the campgrounds and the parking lots are not quite full at the fishing pull-outs! So, come on up, stop in to Flies and Lies http://www.flies-n-lies.com and pick up all you need for great day trout fishing on the beautiful South Platte River, Decker’s, Colorado. Until later folks, have a great day and I hope to see you on the river!
Chris
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September 3, 2016 Fishing Report
fishing report[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”51″ gal_title=”september 4 2016″]
Good Morning Everyone!!
Let’s just begin with me saying that I’ve not seen the fish this active in quite awhile!! Each morning, I ride my road bike twenty miles along the South Platte River, from Decker’s to Trubull, and then back. Yesterday morning, as I was making the return leg of the trip, riding through the Scraggy View section of the River, which is about 6 miles downstream from Decker’s, I rode directly through a Trico hatch that was the size of a small cloud! Trying my best to look for rising fish while traveling at 25 miles an hour on a 1 inch tire can make things a little hairy at times, but I honestly saw fish rising the entire ten miles back from Nighthawk to Trumbull. After returning to Trubull, at about 10am, I made my way down to the river to find one of the guides from Trouts Fly-Shop, http://www.troutsflyfishing.com. The Tricos were still coming off, but nymphing seemed to be the way to go at this point. Today’s picture gallery has a few shots of the fish they caught yesterday. This morning, below Cheeseman, we’ve got a flow of 281 cfs, with a reading of 290 cfs at the Trumbull station. The dry-fly action really begins to pick up around dark, so if you’re brave enough to navigate the willows when it’s pitch black, and the nocturnal creatures don’t freak you out, try your hand at throwing a streamer to the bank when the evening feed is full swing! You may be surprised of how aggressive the big browns get during the moonlight feeding frenzy! The usual suspects have been producing, but we have been throwing a few different flies in the last couple days. You can’t seem to go wrong lately with the Sparkle wing, grey RS-2, Chocolate Thunder, Olive Split-case, pat’s rubber legs, and of course the ever popular red and black zebra midge. Some of the newer bugs we had success with yesterday were the Red fire midge, size 22-14, red Pheasant Tail size 20 as a middle bug, and the one that I watched take fish over and over again, was the Rainbow Warrior. More to come this evening, as we will be heading out to fish in just a little bit! In the meantime, have a great Labor Day Weekend and enjoy today’s picture gallery form the beautiful South Platte River Valley, Decker’s, Colorado!
Chris
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