4/30/2017 – This post is part of a large release of “DRAFT” entries. Many of these these entries were never finished (and may still not be) or were composed but never published for one reason or another. If you run across one of of these in a strange spot or out of chronological order that may be one reason.

Fran and the kids went to see her parents. That’s a big deal since they are in Reunion. That’s two eleven hour plane trips. When you travel that far you’re gone for a few weeks. And your husband gets to paaaarrrtyyyy! Alright, so I didn’t do that much partying, but I’ve gotten a lot done.

I eat when I get stressed. That’s how I cope (emotional eating). With the family gone, as much as I hate to say it, it knocks out a big chunk of my stress. It I can keep my stress under control then control my eating. 1600 calories a day (give or take a hundred) for over XXXX weeks now!   This is a fun little calorie calculator. It shows roughly the same thing I found out in a nurition class at BYU. Given my stats (m, 32, 280 lbs, 6’3″- that’s where I started) & being alsmot complety sedentary (10 resting, 10 very light & 2 light- I think I underestimated)  means that I burn a little more than 3500 calories a day.  Throw in one super workout every day (moderate cardio & weight training for a couple of hours) and you can burn another 400-500 calories. That means I run a calorie defecit of about 2400 a day. The result is weight loss.

So how has 1600 calories a day been? Honestly, not too bad. The trick is, of course, to eat the right things. You can’t feel hungry. I cut out nearly all candy (I find that gum & a piece of hard candy can really help, but things like peanut butter cups, Twix, donughts and the like just don’t work). No sugar soda. I try to eat three small means and then have snacks in between (fruit, nuts, juice, etc).  You have to make sure that you still give you body what it needs though- fiber, sugars, protein, etc. You can’t just drink apple juice the whole time (well, you can- but it won’t end well). I can still eat at In-n-Out: two Protein Style cheesburgers with a total of 680 calories. I’m eating like a king and losing weight!

The best part- I can run a mile in X minutes now instead of 13 (took me a little over a month to get there, but it happens).

For Mother’s Day I put up Fran’s laundy room cabinet! I also installed a new stereo in her mini van! She wanted a way to listed to her iPhone while on the road. Now she’s got it.

What’s that? Why yes, I do have over 700 wheel horsepower! Thank you for noticing.

My car had been getting really crankey (idling issue, suring problems, boost pressue malfunctions) and driving it was kind of a downer. I had finally gotten the wideband (esential if you’re going to try to tune the car) installed so I took it over to the fine folks at STS (Squire Turbo Systems) in Orem. Marc M. was kind enough to be an HP Tuner expert. He fixed the wastegate reference hoses, upgraded the car’s OS, switched to a 2-bar system, and reworked the tune. And since the car was there I had them put in a methanol system. Normally the car runs six pounds of boost but when the methanol is on it boosts to 8 pounds (courtesy of an electronic boost controller) and this is what creates the whopping 700 whp and 680 pound of torque (easily a “10 second car“).  Marc did a great job with the tune and if anyone in Utah has an a Chevy that needs a tune he’s your man. The car drives like a dream now and the power on tap is unreal. Now it just needs to make it through the summer!