Kopi Luwak - Indonesian Monkey Butt Coffee

Monday, November 03, 2008

Kopi Luwak - Monkey Butt Coffee...

I promised a review... here it is...

Ummmm... Now that's some good $hit...

For those who have not heard of Kopi Luwak - this coffee made from coffee beans that have passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet... Yes... you read that right... passed through the digestive tract.

While in the stomach of the Luwak, digestive juices leech out many of the proteins responsible for the bitterness in the coffee resulting in a smoother, sweeter cup of coffee...

or so the drinkers claim...

Back in the office today an my buddy Astr0wiz and I sat down to enjoy our first cups of that fine Robusta Monkey Butt Coffee.

The beans ground well. The aroma of the grid is good. It has a very robust smell, like a fine French roast with a trailing hint of... something "earthy" in the finish.

The first pot I mixed exactly as I would mix any blend that I buy. 2 scoops, 4 cups... The smell of the brew was again, strong, but pleasant.

Time to cup it... great dark black pour... I usually have sugar and cream, but I wanted to try this black first to get the full head from it. Small Sip... Bold... Very Robust... Hint sweet... A little earthy... but the striking thing... no bitterness what so ever.

Usually with a coffee this Robust, it will all but pucker your face with bitterness in the finish... but not this. This was as strong and bold as a cup of Turkish coffee, but with the smooth finish of a light roast... I've never had a combination like that in one cup... both Bold and Smooth in the same sip...

For the final finish... I only need 1/2 as much sugar and 1/2 as much cream to saver this cup of fine Indonesian Monkey Butt...

I have to add that after the finish of the cup, this $hit has one HE11 of a kick... It got me all but buzzing... WOW...

If your into coffee... and you're crazy enough to drop $100 for 1/2 a pound... and your brave enough to drink coffee out of a Cat/Monkey's a$$...

Kopi Luwak really is some outstanding coffee...

Check this one off the Life List - Drank coffee out of a monkeys A$$...

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My Advise To A New Member

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

A new spark member had questions to me on where to begin, and after I finished writing to them, I felt I wanted to share it with more people.

I HAVE NO MOTIVATION FROM ANYONE...

This is the best benefit of SparkPeople... it a site FULL of motivation... all you have to do is reach out to it and it will give back to you. Spark is one of the few places you will ever be in life where everyone here knows what your going though and what your dealing with. The more you reach out to others, the more that will come back to yourself.

Now... First things first...

Face the truth:

I strongly recommend you take a picture of yourself as you are now. "Ewww... No..."... Nothing like a dose of reality to slap you in the face... but as you start to make progress and you start to see change it will be come more and more of a motivator to you. My "fat" picture is right up on my spark page and I look at it every day... "NEVER AGAIN"

Take and weigh yourself for your starting weight... then take that scale and put it in the bottom of the closet and bury it under the kids toys. Don't take it out again for AT LEAST 90 days. The scale is NOT your friend. Especially in the beginning. In the begging the only thing you need to feel in yourself is the fact that your energy level is starting to grow and your cloths are starting to fit better.

I did not loose a singl pound of weight for the first 2 months that I was exercising... but I went down 3 inches in my waist... Toss the Scale OUT. It means nothing right now. Focus on the positive.

Be honest with yourself:

It's not going to go away over night. It took you a long time to put the weight on. It's going to take a while for it to come off. You are going to have to face the fact that it's just going to take time. The best thing to do is just worry about today. Each day we faced with choices. We can make good choices or bad choices... and the choice is ours... You can always pick... Do you want the apples or the Twinkies? Use every day to make the best choices you can and the pounds will take care of themselves in their own time.

Be Active Here:

Do not be afraid to ask questions of the community here... every one of us is in the same boat here. We are all either there with you... or have been.

Be active in a few of the Message board groups of people who have similar interests to you. The Memphis board itself is not all that active, but there are 100's that are... stop in and say hi! People with similar interests can help to motivate you.

There are 1000's of articles... READ... you're a teacher... educate yourself here... there is so much good free info on this site... you can dig around here for a few years and not read half of it...

Exersize:

In the begging, let spark put you program together for you for a few weeks... that will get you soeme strength training that is so key. Muscle burns 12 times the cals that fat does... There is no feeling like feeling strong again. Trust me. After that, there all all kinds of workout vidieos here on spark that are quick and good... toss a few of them in the mix...

Logging your food:

You said below "I know the drill on how to eat"... that's great... but trust me here..

Take your first week here and just eat how you think is healthy for you and log EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth into spark... I mean EVERYTHING. It's time to be honest with yourself. The only person your going to lie to here is yourself. You just may find that what you think is healthy may just be far from it. It made a real impression on me when I did... Then you can start making adjustments each week as you go along and your eating will get better and better.

A word of warning... collecting spark points here gets to be an addictive game... you'll get close to your next trophy and you start looking around for things to do to make those last few points...

That should be enough for a first mail...

I'm always here for your questions... You CAN do this.

Do you have questions or answers? Reply and add your comments!

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Running On Auto-Pilot

Friday, October 10, 2008

Well... talk about an "auto pilot" morning (Roll Eyes)



Woke up this morning. Looked at the clock...



Quarter till my mind says. Time to get up.

Put on my trunks, put on my flip-flops... it's pool day...



get in the car... head down the road...



radio's on... Humm... the news is usually on... oh well... Oh... Cool... the traffic light's flashing... head on through. Traffic's lite this morning... that's good...



get to the gym...

wow... only three cars... everyone must be sleeping off the bad market yesterday... Ummm... have the pool to myself...



Lynn gets up to scan my card...



Morning Frank!... You're here early today... Ummm... blink... blink...

Early?... Ummm... blink...

look at clock on back wall...



blink... 4:05....



blink... blink... 4:05?!?!?! What the...



Sigh...



Going to be a long day...

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Surviving the Junk Food Weekend - SENSIBILITY

Monday, October 06, 2008

Now, let's talk about SENSIBILITY.

I had a junk food weekend. I had my MIL at the house and we did the Craft Fair "thang". How did I survive AND keep my numbers in line? It really wasn't all that hard... with a little SENSIBILITY.

First MIL "just wanted a little burger".. from where? Sonic... So.. instead of the Sonic Cheese Burger with Mayo, I had the Sonic Hamburger with Mustard - 647 vs 481 cal - Save 166 Cal. Next... Instead of that Large Tater Tot - I went for a serving of Lays Chips - 365 vs 150 cal - Save 215 Cal

Savings this meal by going SENSIBLE - 381 cal...

Then it's off to the Craft Fair... Surrounded by all that GLORIOUS Fair type food... elephant ears, funnel cakes, pronto pups, Ahhhh!!!! What is a poor old EX-fatboy to do! First off, I HAD to have SOMETHING. You can't DEPRIVE yourself. If you do you'll end up in a binge. I had to have my Hand turned Home Made Ice Cream. It was like nectar from the Gods... but it was a FULL cup of it... How did I got SENSIBLE here? 2 ways. First I picked Strawberry which usually has less cals then other flavors second I shared it with my DW. 250 vs 125 - Save 125 Cals

Now Dinner - Where to eat... They pick Texas Roadhouse. How did I survive the Red Meat gauntlet of DOOM at the stake house? Easy... I got the grilled Pork Chop. 2 sides... lets go with the Baked Sweet Potato and the Salad with Lite Dressing. Now I ate the salad with lite dressing - 315 vs 70 cal - Save 245 Cal. When the meal came I took and cut both the pork chop and the sweet potato in half and didn't even let them BRING the peppercorn sauce to the table. I'll take that half a chop and half a potato home and freeze it and have it as a Lunch at work this week. Compared to a 6oz strip with a loaded potato - 969 vs 174 - Save 795 Cal - This meal - Save 1040 Cal

Now to be honest here - They made us wait a LONG time and I feel to my carb craving and ate 2 yeast rolls in the 1.5 hours they made us wait so I must add a Plus 360 cals so meal save overall - 680 cals - Still pretty good...

Right here I saved myself 1186 Cals... In just one day...

Now on to Sunday...

Sunday we take the in laws home - They all want BBQ for lunch... Ok... instead of the Jumbo BBQ sandwich we'll go with the regular one - 610 vs 306 - Save 304 cals. Instead of the usual beans and slaw on the side we'll go with the Lays Chips again - 370 vs 150 - Save 220 Cals

Here I had a point of weakness in my weekend and indulged and had a piece of Lemon Ice Box Pie - Marie Calendar So I blew 260 cals here but we're good for the weekend - Again... Don't Deprive yourself. Be Sensible.

Now we get home and DW want's Chinese... Sigh... one more Cal laden meal to work through... and what does DW want? General Tso's and Veggie Fried rice.. When I get THIS diet buster home I cut it into 4 servings and put one of them into the freeze before I even ate (have it for lunch one day this week) so now instead of eating half and order with her... I'm only eating a quarter - 818 (half order) vs 409 (1/4 order) Save - 409 Cals

So this day I saved 675 Cals... even WITH the lemon ice box pie.

Over the weekend I saved a total of 1861 calories that I would have eaten in my old ways - That's more then half a pound of added fat... And have two lunches for work this week on top of that.. Save some money as well as calories.

Everyone. Try to Apply SENSIBLE to every meal you eat. Even when you're in a place where you don't think sensible exists.

Can you do the same? I know you can...

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Topz is Tops with me.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Wow... a healthly, low cal hamburger and fries?

Are you kidding?

No I'm not. They just opend a Topz Healthlyer Hamburger Grill near our house and we went to try it out tonight.

You can check them out at www.Topz.com.. they give all their nutrition info on the site.

Check them out. I recomend them 100%

I had a Turkey Burger for 390 Cal and an order of Aero Fries for 170 cal...

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