Bike, Losing Weight

Riding

Richard Ha writes:

On January 7th, I started on a program to lose a half pound per week.

Weight on Jan. 7, 2007: 204.5 lbs.
Weight on Sunday, Feb. 25th: 199.6 lbs.
Target weight today: 201.0 lbs.

I am 1.4 lbs ahead of schedule.

Last week, I wrote that I’m in training for a mountain bike Poker Run on April 15th. My plan is to be able to ride my bike for three continuous hours by then.

Today I rode for two hours and 35 minutes at an average heart rate of 126 beats per minute. I’ll probably be able to do three hours within two more weeks.

Although I was not able to go this week, I still plan to practice in Kulani twice per week. This past week, I did a cross country ride through the farm, going up and down four hills. This week I’ll add one more hill, and so on. The whole ride takes less than an hour.

It’s obvious to me, though, that the single most effective thing I can do to increase my performance on April 15th is to lose weight. So in between the heavy training, I’ll spend at least an hour per day burning fat at a very low heart rate. I say a “very low heart rate” because my objective is to avoid training so hard that it affects my training schedule. This takes a lot of self discipline. One needs to force oneself not to charge, and train too hard.

Company News, Recipes, Salads

State of the Farm

Richard Ha writes:

We had a short employee meeting at lunchtime yesterday, to look back a bit and see where we are today, and also to catch everybody up on what’s going on.

We had a similar meeting three years ago, when we had a crisis. I told our workers that C. Brewer was selling all of its sugar lands, including the land under our banana farm, which we were leasing. We had two choices: 1) Do nothing, in which case it would be likely the land would be subdivided for home sites and we would probably have to quit farming, or 2) Buy the land.

We didn’t know how we were going to pay for the land but we decided to try. We put in an offer to Willie Tallett of C. Brewer. Our offer was accepted and we had four years to come up with the balloon payment.

That was then. Now, three years later, the land’s value has multiplied by nearly eight times. We’ve been able to sell off some of it and pay down the land note, and we’re still left with 590-something acres.

What a difference this has made. When we leased, we could not do any real, long-term planning. Now we say that we will be farming for another hundred years. And we’re serious.

In the last few years we have diversified into hydroponic vegetable production, and we’re comfortable that we’ve figured that out.

Hydroponics At our meeting yesterday, I informed everyone that we just reroofed our old sugar company warehouse, which we will start using soon as a farm stand. When we’re satisfied that we’ve figured out what we’re doing, we will move to the “Gears”—our new property across the highway, where the big gear stands—and build a farm stand and snack bar there. We hope it will be a venue for community events and festivals.

I mentioned that we are in the middle of a tomato recipe contest with the Hawai‘i Community College culinary program; we are helping our neighbors—the residents of Andrade Camp—upgrade their private water system to county standard; Chef Alan Wong will visit us soon. We were just recently on the semi-finals and finals of the Top Chef show. I asked if everyone saw our new company newsletter, which we are starting to put in each paycheck envelope. The Hamakua Springs brand is growing by leaps and bounds. Things are going well. Let’s eat.

Hydroponics

The company bought lunch, and the office personnel and management served. I even made the salad.

Hydroponics

The food was from Hilo Lunch Shop:

Real crispy fried chicken
Ono tempura
Shoyu Pork
Corned beef hash patties
Macaroni potato salad
Hamakua Springs tomato, lettuce, cucumber salad

Everyone loved the Hamakua Springs salad. I told them it was a recipe that June and I learned from Chef Alan Wong.

Recipe:

5-1/2 ounce container of Hamakua Springs Chef Select Salad. Break lettuce into bite sized pieces.

3 medium-sized beef clamshell Hamakua Springs tomatoes, cubed.

2/3 of a Hamakua Springs Japanese cucumber, cubed.

Place cubed tomatoes and cucumbers in bowl. Marinate with Hawaiian salt and black pepper for 15 minutes.

Add:
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon grey poupon mustard
1/2 tablespoon minced shallots
1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley

Toss.

Make a mixture of 1 part balsamic vinegar to 3 parts extra virgin olive oil. Shake well before use.

Place lettuce in a bowl. Add tomato, cucumber, garlic, mustard, shallot and parsley. Add oil to coat lettuce leaves, toss and serve.

At the end of the day, every worker took home a container of Chef Select lettuce and tomatoes.

Where We Live

Where We Live: Alia Stream

The area of the Big Island’s Hamakua Coast where we farm gets about 140 inches of rain per year, which is why everything is so lush and green. Also adding to the beauty we see every day is the fact that there are 30 streams along these 40 miles of coastline. Four of those streams run through the farm.

This one is Alia Stream.

Aliastream

Bike, Losing Weight

Poker Run

1 Comment

Richard Ha writes:

January 7th I started on a program to lose a half pound per week.

Weight on Jan. 7, 2007: 204.5 lbs.

Weight on Sunday, Feb. 18th, 2007: 200.3 lbs.

Target weight today: 201.5 lbs.

I am 1.2 pounds ahead of target. Resting heart rate is 64 beats per minute, which is 10 beats per minute higher than usual. This probably means I am not completely recovered from two hours on my bike yesterday.

I’m training for a Poker Run on April 15th. I just learned about this from Chris Seymour, elite mountain biker and owner of the Hilo Bike Hub. It’s a mountain bike event where jugs, with playing cards in them, hang from trees along the way. You collect one card from each jug you come upon. The further you go, the more cards you collect. And at the end of the day the best poker hand wins. This will be a fun ride.

The route is long and tough. Chris told me there will be a beginners’ loop, which will continue on as the advanced riders’ loop. When I asked him how long it would take, he said it might take him 45 minutes or so for each. I know it would take me at least two hours for the beginner loop. This is off road, and there is a world of difference.

On Monday, when I first heard about it, I thought the Poker Run sounded interesting. On Wednesday, I thought, “Hmm.” By Friday, it was “Where am I, and what do I need to do?” On Saturday, I took a two hour ride. On Sunday, I was totally committed.

I have eight weeks to train before the Poker Run. My goals:

• To be able to ride continuously for three hours by systematically increasing the length of my long rides.
• To be comfortable riding off road by practicing in Kulani twice a week.
• To increase my ability to ride at high heart rates for short frequent bursts by doing off road hill climbs, where I reach high heart rates for short periods.

What would help me the most is losing weight. I’m like a 170 pound guy in fairly good shape who’s carrying a 30 pound pack. Any weight I lose between now and then will allow me to go faster for a longer time. So I plan to cut way back on sugars and fats. I’ll be careful to eat the amount of carbs and proteins I need, but not go much over. I’m eating salads every night.

Now I have real motivation to lose weight. I have a hard time getting motivated by things such as, “You will look better,” etc. But mention a race and I can really relate and focus.

I’m busy making up my training schedule. This will be a lot of fun.

Lettuce, Science, Tomatoes

Nutrients & Ethics

1 Comment

Richard learned something the other day that he called “kind of shocking,” and he’s already taking action.

What he learned is that data collected over the last 50 years by the U.S. Agriculture Department show a decline in the nutritional value of our fruits and vegetables—in some cases, a dramatic change, ranging from a 6 percent decrease in the amount of protein to 38 percent less riboflavin.

“As soon as I read that article,” he said, “it came to me that we don’t normally focus on nutrient levels in our vegetables. So to the extent we can do something about it, we’re going to.”

He added, “We aren’t going to go off the deep end, but we are going to tilt in this direction. If we can get great taste, happy plants and plants that are more nutrient-dense than they were six months ago, we’ll be really happy.”

Charlotte Romo, the farm’s hydroponic crop specialist, agrees with the scientist quoted in the article that the nutrient decreases are likely due to changed agricultural practices. “After WWII, they started using synthesized chemicals out in the fields,” she said, “and based everything on what the plant needs. But they never really looked, I think, at what they were getting as far as the fruit. They try to pump up the plant to grow fast and yield a lot of fruit, but that doesn’t necessarily yield quality fruit.”

“Fifty years ago there were lots of little farms located everywhere,” she said. “Now there are giant farms and they do what’s good for shipping, but not necessarily good for food quality.”

And so, the plan: First, to determine the nutrient levels of the farm’s tomatoes and lettuces right now. Charlotte is sending tomatoes off to the lab on O‘ahu for nutritional analyses on the fruit itself, whereas previously they have only checked the leaf. “I don’t think it’s common practice to do the fruit analysis to check for nutrients,” she said. She explained that normally they do leaf analyses, which tells them what the plant needs—but doesn’t tell them about nutrients found in the fruit, which we actually eat.

They will also see about increasing nutrients in the lettuce, if necessary, for which they already have leaf analyses.

“Increasing nutrients is not something most people talk about, and I don’t know of anything in terms of recommendations along those lines,” Richard said. “I’ve never heard of fertilizing and growing plants for their nutrient component. But it just makes sense to me that the vegetables should have as many nutrients as possible in them. It just makes common sense.”

I asked Richard if it will be a selling point. “I don’t know that it’s going to be something we can advertise,” he said, “and say ours is better than the next. I just know it’s the right thing to do, so we’re going to attempt to do it.”

“It’s like when we decided to become Eco-OK. We were first to be certified Eco-OK. Or when we decided to become Food Safety Certified. That, too, was just the right thing to do.”

[Editor’s note: I had to fight Our Modest Farmer to allow me to include this next part, which he didn’t know about until he previewed this blog post]:
When I talked to Charlotte about this, she acknowledged that these extra fruit analyses and possible increases in what they feed the plants will be extra expenses. Referring to Richard making these decisions merely because it’s the “right thing to do,” she added, “Isn’t it amazing to meet an ethical person? I think we all try to be ethical, but sometimes our pocketbook gets the best of us. Even really nice people that I’ve worked with, they don’t always do the right thing.

“I keep flaunting Richard to all my colleagues back in Tucson,” she said. “I tell them, ‘You won’t believe it—he’s an ethical person! I get to work with an ethical person!’ It’s so refreshing.” —posted by Leslie Lang

A conversation between Richard and Leslie:

Richard: You know, I knew that Charlotte liked working here, but I had no idea she thought that way. But posting what she said makes me a little uncomfortable. I don’t know if I like the idea of putting myself out there as though I am some sort of “ethical person.” I really don’t think of myself that way.

Leslie: Well, you are.

Richard: You know, I have kind of a kolohe past, from when I was a kid! I don’t walk around thinking of myself like that, or like I’m different or better than anybody else.

Leslie: What if we posted what she said, but also had you write a disclaimer stating that in no way do you consider yourself ethical?

Richard: Oh, well, maybe we could do that. Let me think about it. You know, I’m not doing this for any sort of “ethical” reason. I’m doing it because I sort of take a long-term view of things, and as long as it doesn’t destroy our business financially, it just seems like the thing to do.

Leslie: Richard, that’s the definition of “ethical.”

Richard: Well. You know, when I really think about why this label of “ethical” makes me a little uncomfortable, I realized my decisions always come back to our employees. When they go home and tell their families what we’re doing here, what are the reactions going to be?

Leslie: Positive.

Richard: That’s right, and it will make them feel good about their jobs and what they are doing. That’s really my focus. You know, another example of that is that we host young schoolkids at the farm a lot. And when they come, we always have the farm all cleaned up, and when everything’s so clean it really makes everybody feel good. My decisions really all come back to how they make the employees feel.

Leslie: You’re still ethical.

Richard: Maybe my employees are ethical people and that’s what makes me do what I do.

Leslie: Okay.

Losing Weight

Dressing Up

Richard Ha wrote:

On January 7th I started on a program to lose a half pound per week.

Weight on Jan. 7, 2007: 204.5
 lbs.
Weight on Monday, Feb. 11th, 2007: 200.9
 lbs.
Target weight today: 202 lbs.

I lost .4 pounds this week instead of the .5 I’d planned. But I am still 1.1 pounds ahead of target. Resting heart rate is 55 beats per minute. This is fine. I exercised and rode my bike at a relatively easy pace everyday.

I put an air shock on my bike. Chris Seymour, who owns Hilo Bike Hub, noticed I was leaning too far forward at Kulani. Also, my bike’s front end had too much sag so we adjusted that. With some practice, perhaps, I can keep from going over the handlebars. The position feels much better and it’s easier now to lift the front end, such as when I need to go over logs.

I am trying to eat a salad for dinner every evening and practicing what I learned from Chef Alan Wong recently about making my own salad dressing. June and I were fortunate enough to sit in a salad dressing class that Chef Alan recently gave his new chefs. He is an excellent teacher and said to think of the lesson like karaoke, in that the basic principle is like the melody. Once we understand the basic principles of salad dressings, he explained, we can improvise and "sing it" our own way.

For salad dressing, he said a ratio of 1 part vinegar (acid) to 3 parts oil is fairly well-balanced. One part acid to 2 parts oil would be fairly acidic for most people, he said. If one wants to neutralize the acid without adding oil, one can add sugar.

Since I want to lower calories, I used less oil and added Splenda to neutralize the acid. This worked fine.

Some of the basic ingredients he uses are chopped parsley, mustard, minced scallions, minced garlic, Hawaiian salt and ground pepper. I could make the oil and vinegar mixture and then whisk in the rest of the ingredients and pour it over salad greens. If I bottled that mixture, I learned, the oil would eventually separate out. But if I beat in an egg, it would stabilize the mixture and keep it from separating.

Chef Alan cubed some tomatoes, salted them and let them sit for 15 minutes. Liquid came out of the tomatoes and settled on the bottom of the bowl. Next, he added his basic ingredients (described above) and lightly tossed it. Then he poured this over salad greens and tossed that. It became a tomato and lettuce salad. I liked that.

One day I experimented by replacing the tomatoes with ponzu sauce and oil and cubed ahi. I added this to the basic ingredients, tossed it, poured it on some lettuce and tossed it again. This was simple and good. I’m starting to hum along to the melody.

So I’m still experimenting. I’m eating a lot of salads from the lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers we grow. Now that salads are becoming such an important part of my meal plan, I’m glad we are moving toward seeing how nutrient-dense we can make our vegetables.

I’ll write more about my journey as I continue learning about making salad dressings.

Government, Seal of Quality, Sustainability

Seal of Quality

Richard Ha wrote:

Our farm is one of 12 founding members of Hawai‘i’s “Seal of Quality” program, which includes some of the state’s most progressive farmers in partnership with seven of its highest profile chefs.

After nine months, we now have 26 farmers in the Seal of Quality program and more are coming on board.

This Department of Agriculture program aims to brand high quality, locally grown products in such a way that farming in Hawai‘i is a sustainable occupation.

Govsoq_1

Founding farmers, at a luncheon with Governor Lingle to kick off the Seal of Quality program

That’s a pretty heavy concept. And it’s one that all the farmers involved are taking pretty seriously.

I attended a meeting recently of the 12 founding members, all farmers. I looked around the conference room at the Department of Agriculture on O‘ahu and it struck me, hard, that this is a group of “do-ers.” Each is successful in his or her own right and I have tremendous respect for each one.

It’s a group of dynamic entrepreneurs and some synergy is starting to happen. None of those people had to be there at that meeting. They were only there because they considered there to be some real benefit to being there.

The Seal of Quality members are feeling like this might be the start of something really important and big.

To give some history on this Seal of Quality program, let me tell you a story.

Many years ago, when “Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine” chefs were just starting out, chefs over in Kohala, like Peter Merriman and Alan Wong, couldn’t get fresh produce locally. They had to import produce from the mainland.

The chefs made it known that they would pay well for fresh produce grown locally. They encouraged local farmers to start growing specifically for them, and to just come to the back door where they would pay them directly. That was pretty revolutionary at the time, and it was the start of Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine.

So what was being grown locally started being diverted to the chefs. Farmers started making more money and so they could afford to grow their businesses. What was happening gave farmers hope that they could produce a good quality product and be sustainable.

At that time I heard that Peter Merriman, who was working at one of the Kohala Coast resorts, said, “I’d like to see one of my farmers drive up in a Mercedes Benz.”

What was happening over there didn’t affect me at the time, as I was growing bananas on the other side of the island in Hilo. Peter probably had no idea who I was. But I was so impressed by his statement and what it represented that I called Peter at home and thanked him on behalf of farmers everywhere. We both remember that day many years ago.

If you fast-forward 15 years, now there’s a market for fresh local produce, and a big movement to support local produce—and it’s driven by those same Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine chefs. Are there farmers driving Mercedes? I don’t know! What I do know is that the Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine chefs have changed the way we eat as well as how consumers perceive locally grown products.

Weigartlingleaionasay

Lani Weigert, co-owner & marketing director, Ali‘i Kula Lavender; Governor Linda Lingle; Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona; Speaker of the House Calvin Say

And now, 15 years later, seven of those top Hawai‘i Regional Chefs are officially partnering with and supporting this group of Seal of Quality farmers, as they have supported so many farmers since those early days.

Maybe ten years ago, Chef Sam Choy did a free cooking demonstration at the Pearl Harbor Commissary with us. Our grandson was walking around in a banana suit then. (Recently, the military buyer there asked me to have our grandson wear the banana outfit again. I told her that Kapono was 4 feet tall then; he is 6 feet tall now. I don’t think he is into banana costumes any more.)

Roy Yamaguchi did a segment on our banana farm for his cooking show more than 10 years ago, and our picture and a description of what we do appear in his cookbook. He has done similar things for many other farmers.

And Chef Alan Wong recently invited several Seal of Quality members to attend his birthday party, where contestants from Top Chef, the country’s top-rated reality cooking show, prepared the food as the show’s semi-final competition. An estimated two million viewers across America saw the farmers on TV.

The Seal of Quality group was also invited to bring its products to the Top Chef final competition—the program’s finale, aired a week later—which taped in Kona at the Hilton Waikoloa, and where Chef Roy Yamaguchi was a guest judge. I represented the Seal of Quality producers who could not attend at a mock “farmer’s market,” where the contestants sampled and selected ingredients for their final competitions. Other Seal of Quality members set up their own displays.

As the Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine chefs profoundly changed the way we eat, this partnership between the chefs and Seal of Quality farmers has the potential to change the way Hawai‘i farms.
Farmers_and_chefs_poster

The very high-profile chefs use our products when they make their presentations to their guests. What they are doing is giving us a venue to show off our products, which adds a lot of value to our products.

And the effect of that is it makes farming sustainable.

What do I mean by "sustainable?" People say that the next generation doesn’t want to farm. But I believe the next generation would be more than willing to farm if they saw a vision for the future that was profitable.

A lot of our vision for farming goes beyond the traditional fertilizing of the plant and harvesting the fruit. The next generation is looking for something exciting—and watching plants grow is not exciting. We’ve got to stretch their imaginations; give them hope and things to look forward to. This is what will pull the next generation along, and this, I think, is the biggest benefit of the Seal of Quality program.

 

When I look around at the founding Seal of Quality members, most run family farms with children who are actively involved in the company. These farmers’ children see their parents’ vision for the future. They have learned that it’s possible to shape that future and also be profitable and successful.

Soq_doa_photos_020


Dean Okimoto of Nalo Farms; Rep. Ryan Yamane, Chairperson of the House Tourism Committee; Speaker of the House Calvin Say; Dr. Cal and Kay Lum, North Shore Cattle Company.

We Seal of Quality members are also trying to make decisions for our mutual benefit. For instance, one of the Seal of Quality members is Jim Reddekopp, who owns the Hawaiian Vanilla Company. In addition to farming he organizes farm tours, and recently he asked if we would host a group of 20 people at Hamakua Springs for an hour. I would normally have declined, just due to the logistics of it, but because he’s a Seal of Quality member, I said sure. I would make similar decisions for other members, too, as the opportunity arises.

Building alliances is another tool that will help agriculture in the future.

What is the Seal of Quality exactly? On one level, it’s a sticker.

Seal of Quality products are, by definition, “Genuine, Hawaii Grown, Hawaii Made, Premium Products.”

I’ve heard that tourists from Japan are told about the Seal of Quality label and they look for it. When they see a product that doesn’t have the label, they think it must be off grade or something. So the message is getting out. I’m realizing we cannot get lazy and forget to label any of our products!

We’ve had labeling programs before that started out standing for quality, but you’re only as strong as your weakest link. In the Seal of Quality program, we don’t have any weak links.

Together, the Seal of Quality farmers can influence consumers to purchase locally grown products instead of imported ones. They can also influence decision makers on important issues concerning Hawai‘i agriculture.

Richardjuneericcliftontsuji

Richard and June Ha of Hamakua Springs Country Farms; Eric Tanouye of Green Point Nurseries; Clifton Tsuji, Chair of the House Agriculture committee

It’s a program our legislators should support as they work to make Hawai‘i agriculture sustainable into the future. A bill in the legislature right now would deposit the proceeds from Seal of Quality labels into a special fund, rather than have them go into the general fund. This will allow the program to use those funds for advertising and marketing activities, and to draw down federal matching funds. They will be monies from members, to members, and for members – A self-sufficiency concept.

Most importantly, it would allow the program to plan long term. Monies would likely be available consistently, in good times as well as tougher ones, which is precisely when targeted marketing is important. In other words, it will allow the Seal of Quality program to operate like a business.

The Seal of Quality stands for quality, and we plan to maintain and defend that quality.

Click here for a list of the founding Seal of Quality farmers and chefs.

Television, Tomatoes

On the Tube

Want to see some of our tasty, sweet, colorful, juicy heirloom tomatoes? There’s some video of our heirloom tomatoes up at the Kama‘aina Backroads website.

These are amazing tomatoes. They’re the kind of tomatoes people dream about. When you watch Richard slice into them and see what they look like inside, you can almost taste them.

Our friends at Kama‘aina Backroads, of course, are exploring the Big Island bit by bit. Along the way they are documenting some of the interesting traditional, cultural, and other Island ways of life we enjoy here. The Kama‘aina Backroads television program is broadcast throughout the state on Time-Warner’s OC-16, where it reaches more than 800,000 households.

That’s a lot of households that got to watch Executive Chef Bill Heubel, of the Sheraton Keauhou Resort & Spa, work with and display our heirloom tomatoes to their best advantage. By the way, black Moloka‘i salt – who knew? If your answer was, “Not me!” go watch the video. (I didn’t know about it, either).

Watch the video to the end and you’ll see a bit of what it looks like here at Hamakua Springs Country Farms, and see and hear Richard talk about how he got started in farming.

Have a look! —posted by Leslie Lang

Contest

Recipes Everywhere!

"It’s really amazing," Sonia Martinez told me.

She was sitting in her office, thumbing through 92 entries to our "You Say Tomato" tomato recipe contest. Ninety-two entries! We’re excited.

Recipes came in from as far away as Gainesville, Florida. (Unfortunately, our rules specify that entries must be from Hawai‘i residents—but thanks, Gainesville!)

Sonia told me she hopes these recipes teach us something exciting and different about cooking with tomatoes.

She’s sorting the recipes into categories right now. We are offering a grand prize, second prize and third prize in each of three categories—"Entrees," "Salads," and "Preserves & Condiments."

Sonia_with_recipes_4

Once sorted, we will make copies of the recipes and a full set will go to each of our judges:

Sonia Martinez—food writer, columnist, cookbook author and cooking teacher

Randy Nunokawa—Non-credit Culinary Programs coordinator of the Hawai‘i Community College, Office of Continuing Education

Joan Namkoong—food writer, columnist and cookbook author

Audrey Wilson—food writer and columnist for the Hawai‘i Tribune Herald in Hilo

Each judge will rate each recipe on a point scale, and the top five recipes in each category will go on to the finals.

That means they will be turned over to Chef Allan Okuda and Chef Sandy Barr at the Hawai‘i Community College Food Services department in Hilo, whose students will actually prepare the top five recipes in each category for our full panel of judges to taste and rate.

We will announce the finalists here, as soon as we determine them and before their recipes are prepared by the HCC students, so stay tuned!

All 15 finalists will be invited to attend the March 12th final testing and judging, by the way. That event will be televised on Kama’aina Backroads, Oceanic Cable channel 16. We will announce the date and time later.

Two additional judges will also take part in that final taste-testing:

Rockne Freitas—Chancellor of Hawai‘i Community College

Marlene Hapai—University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents

Our three grand prize winners will also be invited to a tour of Hamakua Springs Country Farms, with roundtrip airfare to Hilo provided for Neighbor Island winners.

"I love the concept of using something grown here on this island," said Sonia, "and I get excited thinking that what we are doing this year could eventually turn into a big, yearly event, like the Tomato Festival in Carmel, California, or the one held every June at White Oaks Plantation in Baton Rouge."

We will keep you posted along the way, as the contest narrows to a close, so keep checking back!   —posted by Leslie Lang

Losing Weight

Reinventing the Wheel

Richard Ha wrote: On January 7th I started on a program to lose a half pound per week.

Weight on Jan. 7, 2007: 204.5
Weight today, Feb. 4th, 2007: 201.3
Target weight today: 202.5

Because I was already “ahead of schedule,” I am still 1.2 pounds ahead. However, this past week I gained .8 lbs. instead of losing .5 lbs., as had I meant to.

Resting heart rate today: 53 beats per minute. I’m doing fine in this area. My heart thinks it’s inside a 150-lb. person who’s carrying a 51.3 lb. backpack. That’s pretty good if you look at it that way.

This past Sunday I rode my bike too hard and for too long. I rode around the neighborhood for 70 minutes at a pace 10 minutes faster than my previous best. I even stood up and got out of the saddle for each of the six small hills. That was a first. I almost felt like a real bike rider.

However, the consequence of riding too hard is that I was only motivated to exercise twice during the rest of the week. I’m very well-rested today and so will put in maybe 90 minutes cruising. My goal for this week is to exercise every day, while being careful not to push too hard. I intend to push hard on only one day, and only for about 30 minutes. From previous experience I know that this will not cause overtraining.

Had I not pushed too hard on my Sunday bike ride, I know I would have lost a little weight instead of gaining. Also, I was not willing to pass on the liliko‘i cheescake that June and I shared at Café Pesto. So now I owe.

Besides over-exercising, I’ve been experimenting with different salads and salad dressings. June and I sat in on a salad dressing-making class that Chef Alan Wong gave last week for some of his new chefs.

I had planned to eat a salad every night while experimenting with the new principles we learned. But instead of following Chef Alan’s instructions, I made portions that were too large and I experimented with different proportions of oil and vinegar. Some of my concoctions had much more oil than recommended.

But I needed to experience it for myself in order to understand the principles. So that, combined with hardly any exercise, resulted in my weight gain this week. I’m sure that if I had followed Chef Alan’s instructions, I would not have gained weight. But reinventing the wheel is what I do. Cannot help.

I’ve said that I would fast when I gained more than half a pound. And I will. I’ve been procrastinating about taking a blood test for a routine doctor visit that is coming up soon. Since I must do this sooner or later anyway, I’ll fast starting today at 3 p.m. and take the blood test tomorrow. This will kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.