SiscoVanilla Hits The Bricks

Once again I mine Men's Health Magazine for some interesting factoids relating to food and health. This time I search through the April 2018 issue to find the following two factoids: Coming from a family that has history of Diabetes, it is always something that I try to keep in mind when eating. Add to the mix that I have a sweet tooth, it doesn't make things any easier when the sugar craving emerges. The tip of having almost 4oz of Greek yogurt to try and keep Diabetes Type 2 at bay is a godsend. The key is not to have the Greek yogurt with the added fruit which can lead to higher sugar levels than plain Greek Yogurt.  So go ahead and have your fill of Greek yogurt. Just don't let this guy near it: The second factoid has to do with which is the best salad dressing. I'm guilty as the next person of using the goopy and creamy store bought dressings and drenching the salad in it. Like the old adage says: Less is more.   Make the basic vinaigrette that ...

Welcome back folks. Just wanted to post the result of the Weekend Warrior steps for the weekend of June 23-24. Here they are: I almost hit goals for both days. I fell somewhat short on Sunday. I shut it down with the intention to get some necessary rest Sunday night and the entire day of Monday. In total I amassed 33,020 steps/15.77 miles. Not a bad weekend worth of steps. This upcoming weekend will be interesting. I have inventory on Saturday in the café. That's always good for a bunch of steps. I start a rare five days off in a row on Sunday. I'm going to have to find ways to create my steps. Maybe a few field trips?  I'll keep you all posted on what I come up with. Until Then Happy Stepping, #SiscoVanilla  #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks 

One of the things that I wanted to do with this blog was to give you all a little view into some of the sights that I come across when taking some of my walks. I knew that this past Tuesday I would have a busy day/night at Finn's Corner (660 Washington Avenue corner of Bergen Street) where in case you don't know, I bartend every Tuesday night. Since Tuesdays are my late night, I often find it hard to get my steps in since I try to rest before my shift. But this week I decided to throw all caution to the wind and take a walk from Downtown Brooklyn, through the Brooklyn Promenade to the bar, which is in Prospect Heights. While I tracked my walk through the FitBit App with the GPS on, I couldn't get a map of the route that I took. But I did snap this awesome picture of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower which is located at 1 Hanson Place and at one time was the tallest building in Brooklyn. In total I walked roughly three miles in 62 minutes burning 709 calories. Wal...

I just got the most recent issue of Men's Health in the mail and I wanted to share with you three readers questions that stood out to me. As of late I keep hearing about the effects of grilling meat and cancer. One such article is Chemicals in Meat Cooked at High Temperatures and Cancer Risk from the National Cancer Institute .  It was good to see that grilling vegetables doesn't have the same carcinogenic effect. The question about beer is also very informative, especially since I bartend one night a week and often get asked which beer(s) have a lesser or greater effect in terms of caloric intake. If you're curious, here is a Caloric Chart of a variety of beers from the Get Drunk Not Fat websitte. And carrots? Can't go wrong with them regardless of their color. Eat them all folks. Have you come across any interesting tidbits and factoids in your reading travels? Let me know what they were. Drop me a comment in the comment box and keep me informed. Until...

Hey peeps, I'm back with another infusion for your drinking pleasure. As I did with my post Infused Organic Iced Mango Green Tea With Mint and Lime June 22, 2018 , I've decided to take Organic White Tea and infuse it with Strawberries and Mint for a hopefully refreshing drink. Before I go into the drink, I wanted to delve a bit into the health benefits of each ingredient. I have been a coffee drinker for a very long time. Now, I'm not trying to give up drinking my cuppa joe, but I'm trying to look into different things to drink. Organic White Tea is something that is new to me. What health benefits does White Tea provide? According to the article  10 Amazing Benefits of White Tea from the Organic Facts website: Health benefits of white tea include a reduced risk of cancer , cardiovascular disorders, and an improvement in oral health. It has antioxidant and anti- aging properties which help in maintaining good health and wrinkle-free skin . It protects th...

Just some Fitbit Humor to lighten up the bane of many a person's existence: MONDAY MORNING!!!! Any of us who have a Fitbit can relate to any or all of these memes.  Start this new work week strong my friends. Stay positive and productive. Work hard, laugh hard, live hard. Enjoy the life that we've been given. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed to any of us. EVER!!!  Rock on. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaisStepping #SiscoVanillaHitstheBricks

Welcome back peeps. Here are my results for the Workweek Hustle for the Monday to Friday period of June 18 to June 22.  While I petered out on Monday and kept the steps short on Tuesday morning due to working an earlier bar shift because of the World Cup, I finished the week strong with three full days of goal achievements. Actually, I placed first in two of the five Workweek  Hustle Challenges that I entered in. Two out of five ain't bad. In total I had 85,355 steps for a total of 40.93 miles. One of the participants who I profiled in my earlier post of Creating Steps, Ryan just earned his Earth achievement. The Earth Achievement is given when someone logs in over 7,900 lifetime miles wearing their Fitbit. That's basically the equivalent of walking around the earth once along the equator. I have a little ways to go to get that achievement. As per the Fitbit.com website, I'm currently sitting at 7,562,468 steps for a total of 3,578.46 miles. This is since Fe...

Here are four inspirational sets of words for you on this Saturday afternoon. Hope all is well for you all. Be strong and take care of yourselves. Just get out there and do whatever it is you want to do!!! Until Then, Keep Stepping #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

If you've followed my booze blog SiscoVanilla Serves and Drinks ,  you've might have seen the posts where I was making infused spirits. For example I would make a Raspberry Vodka by taking a bottle of Vodka and adding fresh raspberries to it and letting it sit until the Vodka took all the flavors and colors from the berries. Voilá, I had Raspberry Vodka. For today I took a page from that book along with a recipe I found online and made an Organic Iced Mango Green Tea With Mint and Lime. Apparently combining green tea with mint and lime helps with fat burning, digestion and headaches. Here is how I made it. 3 Touch Organic Mango Green Tea Bags 1 Lime 1 Stalk worth of Mint leaves 20oz Hot Water In a carafe add tea bags, mint leaves and hot water. Juice the lime, add into tea water. Cut up lime carcass and also add to the tea water. Cover and let steep for as long as you like. I did it for about 20 minutes. Add cold water to near the top and refrigerate. To serve st...

I found the following nine Fitbit tips for ways to creating more steps. The tips come from Jaime Keiser who I believe runs the following blog page: JaimeKFit There are some great tips here. You gals and guys have any more? I'm all ears. Drop me a line in the comments and let me know. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaisStepping  #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

Welcome back folks. Had a rare Sunday off in honor of Father's Day. Since I was chilling out at the local Y by the water, my steps for the Warrior Warrior were less than they were normally be. Here they are: In the two days I tallied 30,315 steps which was less than the weekend before. For the weekend of June 9-10, I had a total of 36,408 steps which is a difference of 6,093 steps or roughly three less miles walked. But since it was Father's Day on Sunday and I was relaxing with my feet up (for once,) its all good. Sometimes you just need to be like Ringo Starr... Its back to the grind since I started a seven day work week as of Monday, I'll be back to my normal step routine for the week and weekend. Hope everyone has a great week. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

Sometimes it feels like some of my followers on Social Media feel this way when I post about my Fitbit: This what I think of that: Oh well 🙈🙉🙊 😝 . Hasta next time. Until Then Keep Stepping #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaisStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

Happy Fathers Day!!!!! Hope all the Dads out there are enjoying their Fathers Day. Rock on. You're earned it!!! Keeping with my Meatless in June pledge, I'm having a traditional Dominican breakfast: Mangu (mashed plantains) with fried cheese and fried eggs. I don't even want to even think about how many calories this meal has. There's not much more of a manly and Fatherly meme than this one. Happy Fathers Day. Until Then Happy Stepping #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

The post The Weekend Warrior on Fitbit June 11, 2018 highlighted the weekend warrior challenges that I engaged in through the FitBit app from June 9-10. In similar fashion, the Workweek Hustle is a challenge that encompasses the traditional workweek of Monday to Friday. I find that this one is the more popular challenge since some people take the weekend (Saturday/Sunday) off from stepping. Since my schedule is never traditional or consistent in any way, shape or form I very rarely take off from logging steps. I might not walk as much on my off day(s) but I strive for hitting at least half of my daily goals. That being said, here are my steps for June 11-15, 2018: I put together 83, 203 steps during these five days which is a decent week. A solid week is reaching 100,000+ steps for the week. I tend to get those during the weeks when I don't have an off day in the middle of the week. Tuesdays are my late night, which I find that it's hard to balance some rest early wi...

Today's Walking Tracks post is a twofer harking back to the Island of Cuba. These booty bopping tracks are guaranteed to get you some extra steps on that next walk. First up is La Gozadera by Cuban Reggeton/Hip Hop artists Gente de Zona with Boriqua singing legend Marc Anthony. Following hot next on the hit parade is Fireball with Cuban born rapper, repping Miami Pitbull with pop singer John Ryan. Both tracks take me back to the days of hitting the dance clubs and strip clubs in NYC every weekend. While those days are long gone, booty shaking music is great to get them steps on. Trust SiscoVanilla on this one 😎🎵🎶🎵😉. Here is the video for La Gozadera: And the video for Fireball: Keep listening to those walking tracks peeps. Whatcha listening on your walks. I'd like to know. Hit me up. Until The Keep Stepping #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

Who can forget the 1990s Nike commercials with Michael Jordan and Mars Blackmon played by Spike Lee with the tagine "It's Gotta Be The Shoes." While I might not "Be Like Mike," my success in walking does indeed come down to the shoes. Since my walking shoes need to double as my work shoes, I try to go for a pair of kicks that are inconspicious. Which means? Black kicks all the way. I've loyally used the New Balance 411s since I've started this walking journey but I barely get a few months out of them before the poor kicks are wrecked. I've been asking around for pointers on what walking kicks you fine people use on your walks. For the next post I'm going to look at the recommendations and see which way I'm going to go with my new walking sneakers. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

As I mentioned in my last post, Yankee Stadium, like most Major League Baseball stadiums are a carnivorous den where the smell of cooked meat permeates the air. Now while I'm sure there are vegetarian/vegan options, I've never had to look for any. Really now, I go to the ballpark to have hot dogs, sweet sausage with peppers and onions, pulled pork, steak sandwiches and other meat delicacies. But going Meatless in June is going to prove a challenge at the ballpark. I'm up to it. Let's see what I can find in my travels around Yankee Stadium. I took my cue from the article  Healthy fare on the menu at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field from AM New York by Meredith Deliso dated April 28, 2015. The article lists the following vegetarian/healthy options at Yankee Stadium: Keep in mind that the article was from 2015, so some of the offeringa may have changed. Here we go. Walking around the stadium, I did find a number of vegetarian offerings. Though as you can see from ...

For this month of June I've decided to go meatless. What does this mean? Very simply that I will go the entire month of June without eating any meat. I'm not giving up any dairy products but my diet will consist of vegetables, beans, grains and pasta. So far I'm holding strong with the only time where I almost salivated while coming across the smell of bacon being cooked. I looked like Mickey Mouse in the picture below down to the eyes being closed and the big Kool aid smile. 😁 One thing that I didn't keep in mind is how consuming alcohol would affect me. I'll give you an example. Monday night I went out to dinner at Pizzeria UNO after we closed the store. My co-worker Charlotte recommended that I order either the vegetarian flatbread or the Farmers Market deep dish pizza. Her girlfriend is vegetarian and its one of the things that she orders at UNO. The pizza was fine with one small issue: it wasn't enough to fill me up. I ordered the portion for one ...

One of the points that I find myself coming back to when I talk to people about my walking is the need to create steps. You might ask yourself: What does he mean by that? Allow me to elaborate. I spend all my working hours on my feet. Whether I'm at the café or at the bar, I'm always moving back and forth taking care of customers, replenishing stock and undertaking other activities. The only time when I'm not on my feet is when I'm on a break or traveling to and from work. It's in the commute where I find the best opportunities to create steps. I'll give you the example of my commute to work this past Monday afternoon. I caught my first bus to the area where I needed to catch my second bus. I can take two buses to take me to the commuter rail that I catch to go to work. During the midday hours, the train runs once an hour. I give myself enough time to get to the train station. To be honest, I've walked from my home to the train. It's a decent f...

We're back with another installment of Walking Tracks. For this post I go back to the early 1990s, when I was in college and the last time I was in my 220's. This track by Cece Peniston entitled We Gotta Love Thang from the album Finally is quite the peppy and happy number. It can't help but add an extra bit of energy to your walking routine. Here is Cece Peniston singing We Got Our Own Thang: As you'll see, my musical range varies across a multitude of genres across many decades. What are some of your favorite walking tracks. Hit me up. Let's compare notes. Until Then, Keep Stepping: SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanilla  #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

As I mentioned in my initial post  New Blog and New Adventures , my road to trying to create a new way of life for myself in terms of better health came on the day when I purchased my first Fitbit Blaze. On February 8, 2017, I strolled into Walmart and said to myself: Why the fuck not. Sitting at 276 pounds, with aching knees and constantly bad back I had enough. 16 months later I'm sitting at roughly 255 pounds. My knees feel much better, the back doesn't give me nearly enough problems as before and I've dropped down to a size 44 pant from a lifetime high of a size 50. I can actually shop for t-shirts at stores like Old Navy where before I couldn't. To us big guys, Old Navy's 2X is more like an XL...but I can fit into them now. I also had clothes sitting in the closet that I had bought in anticipation for when I could actually fit into them. Now I can. My old clothes went into plastic bags and I dropped them off at one of the donation bins that are in my neig...