SiscoVanilla Hits The Bricks

Went to Trader Joe's for the first time ever. Found some interesting veggie fare. Look forward to making these yummy selections. Any recommendations? Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

I've realize that I've been kind of puttering about when it comes to my exercise. So I decided that I would try to ramp up the Peloton bike riding. Now, I regularly do the scenic bike rides on the Peloton. I like them. But I find that they are limited in terms of discipline. What do I mean by that? The scenes are timed...and that's it. The rider can change the resistance (pressure) and cadence (speed of cycling) at any time but there are no cues as to when to do so. The classes are a bit more disciplined since the instructor continually tells the rider the ranges of the ride they are giving, in terms of resistance and cadence. In following their cues, you find that you have a much more intensive workout than just pedaling to a scenic video. Again, I like the scenic rides and will continue to ride them but I will just do them when I want to get my time on the bike. But I want to start using the classes a bit more for a more diverse workout. Today I did a five minute w...

I finally opened the boxes of the @drpraegers veggie burgers that I was able to find at my local @shopritestores. I simply sprayed my skillet pan with cooking spray, no seasoning and cooked the patties from frozen for a couple minutes on each side. Both patties are on potato rolls with mayo and shredded mozzarella cheese.  On the top is the Super Greens and the bottom pattie is California Veggie Burger. So what did I think of the patties? First the Super Greens pattie. The box says that the Super Greens patties have a slight hint of cayenne. Aside from the obvious taste of the greens, the cayenne stands out...and I like it. I find that it doesn't need any additional seasoning. If I can find a negative, it would have to be that inside of the pattie is a little "mushy", but I guess that's better than being hard or dry. Next was the California Veggie pattie. After taking my first bite, I can see whole pieces of peas and carrots in the pattie. Bites have a nice...

Travel onward on the path to self discovery. You're stronger than you think. Give yourself the chance to find out. Unitl Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

A little more than a year ago I posted On The Hunt for Veggie Fare at Yankee Stadium June 14, 2018 concerning my attempts to find veggie fare at Yankee Stadium. This year I'm still on the hunt and finding that the struggle is real. I went to two games this past week and both times I found that I was stymied to find some veggie grub. There were a couple of excuses that I was given from "we're out" to "the delivery never came" or "the food was never made." Lo and behold that makes for a frustrating interaction. Luckily those excuses are never made for the beer 😂. But I was able to find something to eat both times and wanted to describe to you all what they were. On Thursday I visited the Sushi stand on the main level. Considering that I was getting freshly made sushi at Yankee Stadium, paying $30 for two rolls was fairly economical. The roll on the left was the Rainbow Roll (California Roll with Shrimp on top) and a Bronx Roll (Spicy Sal...

Change is not only good but necessary. Don't fear change. Embrace it. But first and foremost, it needs to come from you by you and for you. Rock on!!! Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

This week was an positive week for stepping though I was short about 9,000 steps from the week before. As you can see I hit my daily step goal of 12,500 six times last week with Sunday coming pretty close. My best day was last Wednesday with 18,390 steps. Consistency is key folks. Last week was a pretty consistent week. Here's the breakdown of the steps: June 10: 17,095 steps June 11: 15,893 steps June 12: 18,390 steps June 13: 13,653 steps June 14: 17,310 steps June 15: 14,394 steps June 16: 10,410 steps As I mentioned last week, I ordered a Peloton bike. The bike has come in and I've already given it a few rides. I'll post more about it in a separate post. But I have to say that I'm pretty excited to have it in the house. I'll keep all you gals and guys posted. Until Then Keep Stepping, SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

While some situations can be tough for us all, often it isn't what we do that makes it easy but how we look at it is what solves the issue. If you look at it negatively, then you set yourself up for the harder road. In turn, if you try to find the positive in the situation, you can find ways to resolve your issues. Bad enough we are going through things, but its even worse if we just choose to dwell on the bad. Change your outlook and inject some positivity into your lives. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

Love this quote by author Og Mandino. It's absolutely true. Hard work will always yield the best rewards. Some benefit from cutting corners and not putting in the effort, but more times than not getting your hands dirty and rolling up your sleeves will beat half-assing. So go out there and do your best. Happy Fathers Day to all the Fathers out there. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

This is my mantra for the time being. "Why stress what you can't control." Am I right?⁣ So let that shit go!!! Until Then Keep Stepping #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

Last week was an amazing week for stepping. As you can see I hit my daily step goal of 12,500 six times last week with Sunday being my rest day. My best day was last Monday with 21,436 steps. That was highlighted by my walks throughout Midtown Manhattan and the East Village. Here's the breakdown of the steps: June 3: 21,436 steps June 4: 13,628 steps  June 5: 20,164 steps June 6: 19,217 steps June 7: 20,894 steps  June 8: 15,102 steps June 9: 5,820 steps I'm slowly getting back into the rhythm of putting together 20,000 step days. I had three this week where back a year ago when I was working primarily days I would get between four and six of the same kind of days. Going back to working nights has been an adjustment in many ways. Some good and some bad. We just have to take it day by day and step by step. I have ten days to go before my new Peloton bike gets delivered. I'm really looking forward to kick it up a couple of notches and get back to the under 250 l...

The goal you don't start won't ever be finished. So stop procrastinating and do right by you and your dreams and aspirations. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

The last six days have proved to be an awesome exhibition of stepping that I haven't had in a while. Look forward to continuing the positive walking and exploration. And thanks to everyone who has joined me on this ride in terms of positive comments, recommendations and good vibes. Much love to you all. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

There was some nice weather here in NYC on Monday June 3rd and I decided to take advantage and get some steps in. I took a longer walk to the ferry in the Bronx that was two miles long. Since I was meeting friends in Alphabet City, I took the ferry to 34th Street on the East Side and walked with a couple of pitstops at Union Square. In total that walk took 4.40 miles.  As you can see in the above picture, for the day I had a total of 21,284 steps. Definitely a very good walking day. Let's see what can I come up with for a walk during this upcoming week.  Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

Wow, well that went by rather quickly. 370 days of no meat!!! Whoda thunk it!!! Honestly, couple of years ago I wouldn't have thunk it. 🤣🤣🤣 But here I am a year and five days in without having consumed any beef, chicken, goat, lamb or pork. To be honest, it was actually quite easy to do, especially for those of you who know me, I was quite the carnivore. Now that's not to say that certain aromas don't trigger that pavlovian response (looking at you bacon 👀👀🥓🥓). They absolutely do. But I've been able to resist breaking my Meatless vow. Other aspects about having no meat are a bit more difficult. Allow me to elaborate. One thing was that while I found myself to not feel as bloated and weighed down as I did when consuming meat, I found that I was always tired and rundown. I attributed that to not getting enough protein and iron in my diet. Aside from ramping up eating foods such as legumes, nuts and greens like spinach and kale I found that I had to supplement...

Fifty days ago I decided that I would abstain from drinking any hard liquor. Now as a bartender in New York City, that can be a difficult proposition since there are times that customers ask for you to join them in a round of shots. To be perfectly honest, I find that these days one shot, let alone a number of shots cause me to wake up the next day feeling as if I was hit by a truck. My body just can't handle the booze anymore. Plus I hate having to feel that way. Being hungover leads me to either lose a day off by spending it in bed recovering or having to go into work feeling like shit and not being at my best. In addition, the drinking of hard liquor doesn't work in favor of trying to get my health in order and offsets whatever gains I have from walking. I decided to take some time off from booze and downloaded the EasyQuit Drinking App to keep track of the time I've abstained from hard liquor. I still partake of a beer or two since I personally find my body tolerates...

This is really amazing advice. I do have to say that I find myself feeling refreshed after a long walk. As I like to say "Walking is better than therapy." Many a creative person such as Dickens, Thoreau and Twain to name a few engaged in walking to get the creative juices flowing. In the following quotes from Professional Pedestrian Edward Payson Weston, he recommended doing 10 miles a day which for me translates to roughly 20,000 steps (2K steps per mile.) 10 miles a day might not work with everyone's schedules, but we all should make an effort to got out and get a couple of miles in at a time at the very least. How can we do that? - Sleep less and get an early start - Walking to and from the train rather than taking a bus - Getting off a few stops earlier than your destination and walking - Walking to a train stop further away on the line you are riding - Take a walking lunch - Take a walk after dinner to get your body active while digesting - Plan adventur...

I'm starting to restart my stepping discipline after a few months of just lolligagging about. Here are my steps for the period of May 20 -May 26: As you can see, I just barely missed a full week of hitting my step goal of 12.5K steps a day. In total I had nine straight days of hitting my step goal, which I hadn't done in a while. My best day was last Monday when I took a walk through Roosevelt Island. I look forward to continue on building on my steps to get back to where I was last year at this time. Until Then Keep Stepping #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

So we're almost halfway through this year 😖🤯😖🤯. Crazy, right? Well, as I posted on January 8th, I was going to follow the following plan to sock away $1,000 by the end of the year. Here is the plan I'm using courtesy of @getjoemoneyright: Now here is how it looks today. All number amounts "X'd" out are what I've been able to sock away: I'm ahead of the pace since I've had a couple of awesome weeks at the bar. I've doubled or even tripled the amounts put away. Safe to say I'm already more than half way to $1000. The key is to bang out all the big numbers first if possible and coast the rest of the way with the smaller amounts.  Anyone following a different plan? Hit me up and let me know whatcha doing. Until Then Keep Stepping #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

While walking to the ferry I realized that I left something home and turned back. That detour caused me to miss the ferry by a minutes. So I walked along the water to kill the 30 minutes until the next boat. Almost 2.5 miles in 50 minutes. Not a bad pace at all. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

In an effort to get active again, I'm going to try and get out and hit the pavement like I used to. I found that working days was easier for me to get my steps in than working nights. So either during days off or before my shifts (and even after) I'm going to try and get at least a couple of miles in. As you see here I did an early afternoon walk for a little more than 3.5 miles and a pre-work walk of 2.1 miles. Have to maximize this nice weather. Until Then Keep Stepping #SiscoVanilla  #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

Just came across these words by Edward Payson Weston in the book Walk of Ages. He uttered these words over 110 years ago in 1909 and they still ring true today. Until Then, Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

One of my best stepping days in a long time. Enjoyed walking to and from the Ferry Station and walking the entire circumference of Roosevelt Island. Look forward to the next adventure. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla  #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

  I don't particularly post my daily steps anymore but I feel compelled to do so today. It's been six weeks (December 12th to be exact) since I've had a 20K or more step day. The adjustment of working majority day shifts to working exclusively at night has been harder that I thought it would be. I'm finding it harder to get those steps in that I was used to getting while working at BN.  One way that I'm looking to start building up my steps on work nights is to take a walk after work before going home. Now that's easier said that done especially on a Tuesday or Wednesday when I get in at 4pm and if I'm busy enough, I'll be on my feet for 12 full hours. I mean who wants to get a few miles in after a 12 hours shift. Well, I guess I do if I want to get back to putting up those 100K step weeks. Luckily for me I've been able to maintain my weight where it's been for months instead of gaining due to lack of steps. No one said it was going to...

I came across this phrase from Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem Ulysses in the article Børge Ousland: How I crossed Antarctica alone . The phrase is found on the monument located on Observation Hill, Antarctica in memory of those who died on Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition in March 1912. I find the phrase to be a powerful one for this Friday on a long weekend. We all should work on striving, seeking, finding and not yielding in whatever it is that we choose to do. Be it personal, business or a combination of both. Never stop trying to improve. Never quit. Never give up. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

Benjamin Franklin was an autodidact. What is an autodidact you might ask? An autodidact is someone who is self taught. The word derives from the Greek word autodidaktos 'self taught' (auto 'self' + didaskein 'taught'). Franklin's lack of formal education never stopped him from learning new things. Be like Benjamin Franklin and learn something new everyday. Never stop learning. Until Then Keep Stepping #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanilllaHitsTheBricks

Rest day is done and today means it's time to get back to the grind. As the image shows, there definitely is a lot of hard work to do to get from point A to point B. The key is to keep the goal in mind and work hard to get there. Don't let anything get in the way for your goals. You do you. Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla  #SiscoVanillaIsStepping  #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks 

I just finished doing a quick post on French writer, existentialist philosopher, political activist, and feminist Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908 - April 14, 1986) on the anniversary of her birth on both my HistorySisco Tumblr page: Simone de Beauvoir and my @historysisco IG page: Simone de Beauvoir . This quote stood out to me. Just do it. Do it now and like de Beauvoir says, do it, whatever IT is, without delay. Until Then Keep Stepping: #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

We all want to improve ourselves in one way, shape or form. But that improvement doesn't come easy not does it come by itself. Not only do we have to initiate the act of improvement, but we have continue to do so, even when the shit hits the fan and we find that we no longer want to do so. As the sign says, Don't Stop!!! Keep Moving Forward!!! Don't Quit!!! You Do You!!! Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

The old adage of "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day" is truly cliché but absolutely true. If you're trying to rebuild yourself, keep in mind that whatever it is that you want to rebuild wasn't made in a day, a week, a month or even a year. You have to stay patient and trust your journey. Walk the path and realize that the path isn't smooth or flawless. There will be bumps in the road, there will be detours and there will be challenges. Just stay the course and You Do You. Until Then Keep Stepping #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

With today being the anniversary of the passing of George Washington Carver, one of his favorite quotes stands out to me. We're a society that is driven by name brands, having the biggest and shiniest cars, electronics, baubles and clothes. Don't let me get started on the people trying to show off the size of their bank accounts. If there's anything I've learned in the last five years is that none of that matters. You can walk just the same wearing a reasonably priced $50 pair of sneakers as you can with a $200 pair. A $10K auto gets you from point A to point B just as well as a $50K auto. Having a pair of no name pants fit just as well if not better than a pair of pants with a premium brand name. A phone is basically a tool. Like most tools, you should try to maximize time and cost of your device instead of falling for the ads that say only the cool people have the brand spanking new phone every year. I get it. We all like having nice things. We ...