I miss bread... But its getting easier...

So I spent about 98% of my day working on Paleo recipes... Research, shopping, prepping and cooking... So I'm just going to dive in because I'm freaking stoked about how things came out!

Let me predicate by saying I'm no chef, but I love cooking and more importantly eating, and I'm DEFINITELY no baker! But I follow directions pretty well and love to try what I cook... So without further adieu:

I went to find Almond flour as most of the bread and muffin recipes call for it, but its stupid expensive(like $14 for a small package)... So I decided to try my hand at making it, so I bought Publix almonds, 2 cans at 10.5 oz each for a total of around $8.50... I have a food processor at home and all the references I looked at said just to "Blanch" the almonds to get the skin off and just throw them in the food processor... Sounds easy, right? Ha! I can make anything hard. So here's how its supposed to go:

Blanch the almonds, which is as simple as boiling water, pouring the water over the almonds and let let sit for 1 minute, draining them and then rinsing them... and the skin should "Just fall off"... I WISH!... The skin didn't loosen at all for me, so I repeated the process... Worked this time, but I had to pop the skin off of each freakin almond... I'm sure there is an easier/better way, but that was my life today... for an hour... non stop. Anyway, after that I threw them in the oven at the lowest possible temp to dry, threw them in the food processor and BOOM, you have almond flour.

So now I wanted to make what we missed the most... something like bread... So I made blueberry muffins. Recipe below... and the are flippin delicious!

INGREDIENTS

    2 cups almond meal/flour
    1/2 tsp baking soda (soooo... I used baking powder... oops.. but they turned out great!)
    1/2 tsp salt
    2 eggs
    1/4 cup honey
    1/4 cup olive oil (used applesauce instead, great option!)
    2 tsp vanilla
    3/4 cup blueberries

INSTRUCTIONS

    Preheat oven to 350F
    Line a muffin tin with paper liners
    In a medium bowl mix together the almond meal, baking soda, and salt
    In a separate bowl mix together the eggs, honey, vanilla and oil
    Next combine the dry and wet mixtures, then add in your blueberries
    Fill your muffin tin with the batter and bake for 25 minutes

Preparation time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 25 minutes | Number of Servings: 6 muffins

They little freaking pieces of deliciousness came out moist, flavorful and freaking stupid good. They are packed full of protein, low in carbs and packed full of flavor... I do have to warn you tho, because its cooked with almond flour it is around 220 calories per muffin, but almost 170 of those are calories from fat... Which is paleo strong! ... I can't stress enough how good these things were...

Next, we love (by love, I mean I dream about them) these chicken wings from a local pizza chain and I found a recipe for them so we tried them last night... Holy little baby Jesus they were good... I don't want to write the name of the restaurant because our friends and us love going there and I would hate to get in trouble for posting this recipe, but lets just say the name of the place rhymes with Smanthony's Smoal Smire Smizza... Below is the recipe, they are essentially grilled rosemary chicken wings:

Ingredients

• 4 pounds chicken drumettes or wings or both
• ½ cup lemon juice (the juice of 3 large lemons)
• ¾ cup regular olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 4 springs fresh rosemary, stripped and roughly chopped
• ¾ tablespoon coarse Kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper

Instructions

1. Place the chicken drumettes in a gallon freezer zip lock bag.
2. In a large measuring cup, mix together the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper.
3. Pour the olive oil mixture over the chicken wings.
4. Push as much air out of the zip lock bag and seal.
5. Place the bag flat in a 13 x 9 pan (as a precaution incase it leaks)
6. Place in the refrigerator and marinate for 24 hours turning the bag every so often.
7. The next day, remove the chicken from the refrigerator and allow to sit out for 30 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, place a grill pan on the grill and preheat your grill to as hot as it gets. Mine got to about 450-500.
9. Drain the excess marinade from the chicken.
10. Place the chicken on the grill and cook for about 8 minutes per side or until the skin is crispy.

 I did mine in the oven on a broil pan. 450 degrees for 40 minutes and broil 2-3 minutes (or until brown and crispy) on each side. The restaurant also serves them with caramelized onions, so I made them and served them with the onions as well... I'm all about authenticity...

I got the 4lbs of chicken for Publix for around $6 and it made about 14 drumettes, plenty left over for lunch tomorrow! They are a great dinner and I may try them with chicken breast next time and may also leave them in the marinade for 48 hours next time. Just remember, if you decoded the name of the place and want to try the real thing, this meal is a very paleo friendly dining out option!

There are two great recipes to try! Jill Boo Boo has been a good sport with my cooking attempts and she loved both of these... At least that's what she has told me... I love her for that, and for waking me up every morning at 7am to work out... which is not fun... Next blog will have some more baked goods and more dinner options including Jill Boo Boo's zucchini Noodle spaghetti and meat sauce!

Paleo Weekend; Friends, a fire pit and animal carcasses

Our first weekend with our changing lifestyle and it was our first big test. Friday we went to a dinner party which could be an awkward situation seeing as how most people don't eat the way we eat. Luckily we were with a group of friends who are like minded so we had a little healthy eating/Paleo dinner party. Skirt steak, salmon and chicken skewers were on the menu with healthy sides like broccoli and Brussels sprouts. I did cheat and use some butter on my veggies... I had a couple squirts of "I can't believe its not Paleo(butter)" spray... As my friends and I liked to call it all night.

Beer is my other weakness. I love beer. Like in the way a fat kid loves cake or the way my friends love craps in Vegas. There are many gluten free options out there, but I haven't found one that pleases my pallet. So what I am willing to do for you guys out there, I'm only doing this for you and research purposes, is trying all of the gluten free beers I can and review them here for you at a later date. For now, I'll stick to red wine and vodka/soda (or vodka/water with lots of lemon) when I am in a social drinking setting and want to partake (obviously we are going to try and not drink alcohol as much as possible... God I sound like an alcoholic right now).

I found a ton of Paleo friendly recipes for things I missed most and I'm going to try them this week including:
biscuits, bread, muffins, tortillas, etc. We were going to make a run at making them this weekend, but we had issues finding almond flour locally. We did do some more grocery shopping this weekend; we got our meats (mostly organic when we could find it) at a local superstore and reserved the fruits and veggies for the local farmers market.

Speaking of farmers markets, I love the one we have locally Check it out. It seems like every time we go there, no matter what we pile into our cart, we only spend $20... Obviously the produce you get from a farmers market is usually fresh and organic, but it also supports local farmers and growers. A word of advice, only buy what your going to use in the coming days because these foods aren't usually treated with the nasty toxic preservatives to help them keep longer. We usually purchase for a week out for most of the produce. This week we started our "spice garden" in the kitchen window sill with pre-grown Rosemary, its about 12 inches tall already and was only $1.99... Kidding me?!?! We've already used some in lunch and dinner!

Saturday we went over our friend's house to watch the first week of playoff football; another awkward situation as most football parties include buffalo wings dripping with blue cheese, chips, cheese dips and our weakness... Pizza. Luckily our group of friends choose a healthy lifestyle as well, but we didn't want to impose so we packed a lunch! We made lettuce wraps with chicken, avocado and homemade salad dressing, brought a couple pieces of fruit, veggies and some homemade granola. They also had some food made there; vegetarian chili, Mike's chicken concoction (chicken, potatoes and sauerkraut- delicious!) and chips and salsa... Seeing how were not eating corn or grain but love salsa, our friend Jenna found some carrot chips in her fridge and those worked out perfectly!

We will be stepping up our cooking skills this week, trying out some new recipes... were excited to bring you some new choices for you. Good luck this week, and look for a new blog soon!

Day 2... I want to crawl in a Cave.

Alarm clock went off at 6:15 this morning. Who's idea was this? We decided to do an early morning workout with our friend (and personal trainer) Drew and his girlfriend Ashleigh. I'm going to predicate this post by saying they are both in waaaayyyy better shape than I am. Needless to say I almost threw up/passed out/died... And while I made it through the workout, when I got home I stood at the bottom of the stairs for 20 minutes pondering how I was going to hoist myself up them. As you could probably predict, we somehow talked ourselves into doing a high intensity circuit workout on day 2... The Workout... Its a CrossFit style workout that we did in a normal gym with normal equipment... so no need for specialty items.

As far as our meal plan is concerned, we got a little more creative but still nothing too extreme; again we want to make it as simple as possible at the beginning.

Pre-workout: Since it was super early and we needed something in our stomachs we cheated a bit and used a brand name soy based protein powder. Could have been a ton worse, but we will be reviewing some Paleo friendly protein powders in the coming days.
Breakfast: Two eggs over easy (I cooked mine in left over bacon grease, I poured out the greases and just left the pan coated in it... Jill cooked hers in butter) with sea salt and pepper and 3 pieces of bacon.
Lunch: Basically same as yesterday... Spinach salad with carrots, green and orange peppers... But today we used tuna instead of turkey and added mushrooms. We also used our homemade salad dressing... and it was freaking awesome (recipe below).
Dinner: Spaghetti and meat sauce... with a Paleo twist. We used spaghetti squash for the "pasta" and our meat sauce was a Paleo friendly sauce (recipes are everywhere online) with ground turkey for the meat*. It was absolutely delicious! The spaghetti squash was sort of sweet but very close to the consistency of pasta. Next time we will try zucchini noodles, as friends said they love that as a pasta substitute as well.
Here is how we made it:

Take a medium spaghetti squash and cut it in half:

Scoop out the insides with a spoon:

Put one squash in upside down in a bowl with 1 inch of water, microwave for 7 minutes (repeat for next half)

Careful! Its flipping hot! Now, use a fork and scrape against the walls of the squash and take your bounty and put it in a bowl. When your finished with both squash, add your meat sauce and Bon Appetit!

*We use, and have always used, ground turkey for anything that calls for ground beef as it tastes almost identical and is much healthier. On that note, I learned this lesson a couple months back (thanks Ashleigh), there is ground turkey(usually 80/20 lean to fat ratio), lean ground turkey (93/7) and lean ground turkey breast (99/1)... For the most part we try and get the turkey breast, but at minimum get the lean ground turkey. Try it for tacos (Taco Tuesdays!), meat sauce, hamburgers or whatever else calls for ground beef.

We also made homemade salad dressing (Delicious!) and homemade granola.

Salad dressing: It is super simple and very tasty if you like balsamic vinaigrette.

• 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar;
• 1 crushed clove of garlic;
• 1 tsp dried oregano;(I think it would be better if fresh but we just used the ones from our spice rack to see if we would like it)
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil;
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste;

Put ingredients into a a jar with a lid and shake well.

We've used quite a bit already in the 2 days we've had it. :) The above recipe makes almost a full salad dressing jar.

Granola:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, unsalted
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 2 tbsp raw honey
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup dried cranberries OR blueberries OR raisins (or combo)

**I don't like coconut so we didn't use it, and we also used a raw, unsalted mixed nut blend (No peanuts!) instead of just pecans. For the dried fruit we bought a organic mix of dried berries (no sugar or sugar substitutes) from Publix in the Greenwise section.

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Add nuts, seeds, and coconut to large mixing bowl. 
3. Melt coconut oil in microwavable dish, then mix in honey, maple syrup, cinnamon, and salt. Stir until consistency is even.
4. Pour onto nut mixture and toss to coat evenly. 
5. Spread thin on a baking sheet (parchment paper makes for easy clean up.)
6. Bake for ~20 minutes or until coconut browns, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
7. Mix in dried fruit.
8. Allow it to fully cool before eating. Enjoy with plain Greek yogurt or milk (as you would with traditional cereal.) 

It was good, nothing too amazing, but good. The reviews I read on it says its a good substitute for cereal if used with almond milk or raw milk for all of you dairy users. I'm going to try that in the next couple of days... Because I looovveeee cereal! I also took a scoop and added some almond butter to it, rolled it into a ball and froze it... I think I will do that for the next batch we make as it was easier to grab and snack on (plus I freaking love almond butter). Either way, throw some granola in some Ziploc bags and they are a great snack( good for the sweet tooth too).

Nothing too crazy went on today. It was a Thursday so we didn't have to worry about the weekend bug biting us to cheat. I will say that we are still learning as we go; our good friend Jenna pointed out that butter is NOT Paleo... Something that we have been utilizing with all of our meals. I have read numerous articles, many from Paleo sites, stating that using butter with vegetables helps the absorption of nutrients of up to 75% better than eating them alone. So with that in mind we are going to continue to use butter for now as I research this more. We also decided to have a cheat meal (meal, not day) once a week to keep ourselves sane... $10 says that the meal will be pizza every week.

I noticed that I had a bit of a headache later in the day. Not sure if it had anything to do with my body detoxing, as I have read about the "Low Carb Flu" that some people experience on the Paleo diet. I will keep track of this and mention if it continues.

Now, to humble me a bit... Below are my starting measurements:
Weight: 188lbs This is the heaviest I've been, at 5'8 I've normally stayed around 170lbs
Calf:14.5"
Thigh: 22.5"
Waist: 36.5" I'm a slim guy and have always been in decent shape, but I've never been over 34" in my life.
Chest: 40 3/4"
Arm:14.5"
I will re-measure at least once a month and track my progress of here.

Roses: Jill- Dinner and the homemade salad dressing  Keith- Same

Thorns: Jill- Lack of options (we'll get better as we go)  Keith- Continuously hungry, lack of snacking.







Here are some interesting books I came across... I want to note that I have not read them nor have a review for them, but just wanted to give some more references for people looking for more! :)

Caveman Day 1

With day 1 in the books, excitement was more of a motivational factor than actually enjoying the food. Jill and I woke up, made breakfast together and designed our day's meals. Jill is in a tough position because she is left to the mercy of just a cooler for lunch (no microwave or any way to cook lunch) but we made due and hopefully it will help some of you out there.

Before we started our mission to a healthier lifestyle in 2013, Jill and I decided to have a fat day (as if the last 6 months wasn't enough) to end 2012. This is going to be disturbing, but we had fun doing it, until our bodies hated us for what we did to it. We went to both Chick-fil-a and Burger king for lunch (we wanted the Chick-fil-a sandwich and of course the sauces that comes with it, but wanted burgers too... and of course, onion rings) and had Chinese food for dinner. While this was a great idea at the time, I feel as though it hindered my first day as I felt bloated, lethargic and just plain gross all morning... And for good reason, here is a break down of my last crappy lunch and dinner:
Lunch: BK Double whopper, Chick-fil-a sandwhich
Dinner: Chinese take out- broccoli and beef with lo mien and wonton soup
Totals:
Calories: 3245 Carbs: 438 Fat: 120g Protein: 154g

As I write this, I'm shaking my head... It's insane to think that I can pass my daily intake(in the most unhealthy way) in two meals. The most amazing thing? I forgot to add my soda intake (I splurged since its my last time drinking it and had 3 cokes yesterday) when I did, it added almost 1,000 calories and doubled my carbs! Thank God this is all changing!

We are going to keep it simple the first couple days and not get into the hardcore Paleo recipes until we get some days under our belt... But believe me, the world of Paleo has a ton of great tasting recipes at its disposal. Day 1 went like this:

Breakfast: 2 eggs over easy (cooked in butter with sea salt and pepper) and 1/4 avocado, I had a coffee as well
Lunch: Salad- Baby spinach, Carrots, 1/4 avocado, 2oz turkey, 2 tbs of gluten free dressing
Snack: 1 cup mixed unsalted nuts(No peanuts! Peanuts are not nuts, they are legumes and are not Paleo!)
Dinner: 1 tilapia filet cooked in butter, with lemon juice, garlic, sea salt and pepper, steamed mashed cauliflower (mashed potatoes consistency) with butter sea salt and pepper.
We ended somewhere around 1500 calories, 81g protein, 57g carbs (majority of carbs came from the cauliflower and mixed nuts 22g and 14 g respectively)

*So we are all on the same page, anything I mention we ate should be assumed organic unless noted. In this meal plan we were finishing our non-cage free eggs and haven't made our dressing yet, so we used store bought.

Jill refers to herself as a crack addict going through withdrawals from missing carbs in her diet. If she had it her way she would eat bagels with cream cheese for all of her meals. Jill also wasn't a fan of the cauliflower mashed potatoes... when I asked why, she said she doesn't like cauliflower... I then proceeded to stare at her blankly for 2 minutes, seeing as how she failed to mention that as I slaved over them for 30 minutes... She did say that they matched the consistency of mashed potatoes though.

I got extremely hungry around 5 pm annnnnd I'm already sick of nuts. I made a cup of green tea and it managed to curb the appetite a bit, as I read an article suggesting that. I really enjoyed the mashed cauliflower potatoes but I'm not hard to please because I eat pretty much anything.

Our workout was light today for the first workout of the new year since Jill and I haven't hit the gym in a while. We did a light weight, two stage, circuit workout with 3 rounds of sets of 8-12 each. Looked something like this:

back squats/leg extension
split squat/lunges
bosu ball air squats/ box jumps (2 consecutive rounds of 30 each no rest between)
20 minutes of cardio on the Arc training (pikes peak level 5 for all you Arc lovers)
Again, the point was to ease us in, which is why we started with legs... I hate legs... Like every other red blooded American man... But we have to... Mainly so my friends stop making fun of my calves. Either way, we are picking up the pace tomorrow with our pseudo personal trainers and Paleo friends Drew and Ashleigh... super excited. : /

Roses: Jill- The tilapia Keith- Mashed cauliflowers

Thorns: Jill- Salad dressing (we are making our own tomorrow), Keith- lack of snacking.

Future tasks-
Homemade dressing
Homemade trail mix

Up Next: waking up way too early to work out, measurements and trip to the farmers market.

My 2013 resolution? Be a Caveman.

The new year brings people an opportunity to a sort of clean slate, a new beginning and a chance to start over. I personally see it as a cornerstone; its a good starting point and easy way to gauge a change you want to make in your life. 2012 was a yo-yo year for me, especially when it came to my weight and body composition. Early in the year I was at a point where I felt in the best shape of my life and just 8 short months later I feel the exact opposite. My terrible lifestyle choices in the second have of 2012 caused not only a 20 lb weight gain, but also a terrible bout with indigestion and a bad self complexion in the mirror. Luckily, everything is reversible and I've done it before. For those of you reading this who have major health issues like diabetes, indigestion, celiacs disease, or any other issues primarily due or controlled by your diet (unfortunately this list is grossly big primarily due to the current trend in our countries available food supply), my new lifestyle change is something you need to look into.

I have chosen a lifestyle change (notice I didn't say diet) that I'm familiar with and have dabbled in before and absolutely loved. I was introduced to the Paleo diet over a year ago through a short campaign in Crossfit. I followed the diet loosely for about 3 months and never felt better. If you are looking for weight loss (or lean muscle gain), better sleep, more energy or just an over all better feeling... Research the heck out of the Paleo diet. Below is a list of websites, apps and references that I use for information and pull recipes from:

Websites:
http://www.livingprimal.ca/
http://cavemanstrong.com/
http://www.paleoplan.com/
http://beta.primal-palate.com/
There are a ton of websites out there dedicated to paleo.
Apps:
My Kitchen App for iphone and droid free of charge. (phenomenal app)
My fitness pal for iphone, droid and blackberry free of charge.

A quick and simple way to explain the Paleo lifestyle is that it's what our bodies were designed to eat and what our ancestors ate before food was processed and mass produced. Whether you believe in Paleo or not, its hard to not agree that it makes sense. You eat lean, natural meat, fresh veggies, fresh fruits, nuts and fats. The concept is argued over because of its strong stance against wheat, grains, oats and dairy... Things our society has been force fed since we figured out how to farm and mass produce these crops. The reality is our bodies aren't designed to break down grains and especially legumes (Why don't we eat grains and legumes? for a good read on this issue). The other issue people have is that it's a low carb diet. I've done a low carb diet before and felt like punching myself in the face come 5:00 pm. The difference with eating Paleo is that it includes a high amount of fat in its diet and your body burns (converts to energy) fat way more efficiently than it does carbs. Not to mention Paleo's lack of sugar intake will stop that late afternoon crash and stop your body from going into fat storage mode.

The Paleo diet is a great concept, but it literally is all about making healthy, conscious food choices. Receiving your vitamins and nutrients from a natural, healthy food source is the only proper way our bodies were designed to absorb them... Although big pharm would like to argue with me on that.

This time around, I will be much more strict than my previous attempt at eating Paleo. I will be capturing my journey, as well as the journey of my girlfriend and friends, of our 2013 lifestyle change here for your viewing pleasure. We will have recipes, workouts and tips to hopefully guide you through the process. If you have any questions, you can reach us at ignitefitnesstraining@gmail.com.

Happy 2013 and cheers to good health!

-Keith

The year the NFL takes control of the business and treats it like a game

Week 3 in the NFL has bench marked a new standard in the business of football; the introduction of the soap opera. The NFL has long been a story of highs and lows, triumphs and failures, and comebacks of many kinds. We’ve had players guarantee win’s, “The catch”, “The miracle at the Meadowlands”, “The music city Miracle”, an undefeated team scratched from the record books with one incredible catch, but no drama has ever been induced and hand fed like the soap opera the NFL has scripted and puppeteered this year… The year the NFL takes control of the business and treats it like a game.

It all started very coy (cue the melodramatic music). March 2^nd 2012 began the unraveling of America’s love interest with Bountygate. The commissioner and the rest of the NFL systematically destroyed the team that America had grown to love, the team that overcame a natural disaster to win the country’s heart and hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy. The NFL had created this storyline over the past 7 years; they created a romantic story for all of the country to root for. It was organic; it pulled on the heart strings of all Americans. They took a team and a city that was fraught with despair and destruction, gave us a reason to believe in the good of humanity and gave us a hero to root for; just to tear it down. Now they have created a monster, a foe, for all NFL fans to despise… They gave us a reason to side with them. Over the past 8 months, like an abusive relationship, they have made us believe that they know what’s best for us.

This season is poetry in motion. If Bountygate was the Iliad, the beginning of the NFL season is the Odyssey. The NFL initiated phase 2 in its new plan to monopolize the country’s beloved sport; replacement officials. Simply put, the term replacement official is a bit of an oxymoron. One of the most powerful corporations in the world has replaced the very checks and balances that keep its company running smoothly. This would be like running a world class restaurant with McDonald’s cooks, sure they can operate a microwave and a fryer, but they can’t perfectly execute a porterhouse, couscous or any one of the five mother sauces. More importantly, why would you want them to even try? These poor guys have been called up to the big league without even the chance to succeed. The NFL has created a villain, one for us to root against and blame our beloved team’s shortcomings on.

The NFL’s answer? A referee God. They have placed a sideline Ref that’s lone job is to communicate with another Ref upstairs to oversee that the Refs on the field are reffing correctly. Huh? So the official’s final call is divulged from a source that the public does not see, hear or know? The NFL has taken measures to make sure that the NFL’S product is the one that is on the field. The drama that has ensued from the replacement Refs is exactly what the NFL wants. Their ratings are up, they are in the headline of every story come the beginning of the week and fan’s just can’t get enough. Remember William Hung? American Idol rode that train wreck as far as they could, exactly like the NFL is doing with the replacement Refs.

So when does the madness end? The NFL has constructed a very powerful case to leverage themselves in the negotiations with the real refs. While the NFL keeps reporting on its continued negotiations, they continue to get to point the finger at the Refs union and the replacement Refs. Want better Refs? It’s the union’s fault they haven’t agreed on anything and they have forced us to use replacement Refs. The NFL can’t afford to pay pensions! That’s absurd… especially with all of the money they are raking in with the ratings increase and resurrected interest in the NFL. I’m sure the government will be looking into this soon enough, since they have their nose in every other national sport.

With every flag thrown, call missed or close field goal decided, an anticipated meltdown ensues (see Belichik). Dramatic finishes, underdogs and hero’s are in the past, the NFL had to commit to a new storyline, one to resurrect this corporation in a down economy. The business of football is a 10 Billion dollar industry and the commissioner can’t let its share holders down. Touché Roger Goodell, I’ll be tuning in again this week to watch the drama unfold! 

Life's Decisions

Life is a series of decisions. A web, woven through your life by the decisions you make ultimately bringing you to your present existence. Every choice you make creates an outcome that can be altered by another choice. Your outcome on life, no matter how positive, can be altered and turn negative by one choice, one action or one event. However, the same goes to say that your negative outlook, your depressed state or your current juxtaposition; can be altered by one positive choice, action or event. Life is what you make of it. The richest people in the world can be void of love, happiness or righteousness; because they chose wealth and greed. The poorest families can be the happiest because they control their own state of mind.
The problem with this thought is that you and you alone control your decisions. Sure others can weigh in, provoke you or alter your views... But you alone control the power to start a series of positive actions to draw a positive path. You and you alone. That's a scary thought. Leaving me to my own devices. Leaving me with the power to change my life with just the thoughts in my head; with the power to make decisions and take action to either better my life or destroy it. Have you ever been in my head? Its a scary place, and that's a scary thought.
At the end of the day, life is a gamble. You take shots at what you think at the time will be the best outcome. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. The best part about this whole thing is that you are living... Your alive... With every positive outcome and triumph you feel the ecstasy of life; With every negative outcome and demise, you feel pain and sorrow. I know now that either way it doesn't matter... you feel something... You feel alive. The best advice I ever received was "When your up you never feel like its enough, and when your down, you never feel like you'll be up again." That's life. Feel it. Live it. Love it. Hate it. Prosper. Grow. Fall and get up.... That's life.