SiscoVanilla Hits The Bricks

Hey peeps, how are you all doing today. I hope everyone had a safe 4th of July. Waking up today to silence (after the pomp and circumstance of the rockets red glare) was indeed golden. So to stay active today I decided on taking a 15 minute scenic ride on my trusty Peloton.  Today's ride was the Midwest Scenic Ride which takes a ride by Mount Rushmore, through Beartooth Pass and Yellowstone. Definitely an interesting ride to observe. Here are the metrics for the ride: The ride felt good. Looking forward to building up my stamina. See you gals and guys soon.  Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

With today being July 1st, I've decided to shake off some rust and hop on the trusty Peloton bike and do a quick 10-minute scenic ride. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Peloton scenic rides, they range from 10-60 minutes and you basically ride to a recording of outdoor areas. Some are nature scenes. Some are city scenes. You set the resistance and pedal to your desired cadence. Below is a breakdown of my workout. The ride felt good. I'm looking forward to being consistent and riding the bike daily. On to tomorrow.  Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

WWE Wrester Kevin Owens recently posted a personal and powerful video on how COVID-19 has affected his family and what his views are concerning the wearing of PPE and other face masks. He also touches on those people who chose to belittle and ridicule those who have made the choice to take such precautions. Check it out below: Let’s try this. pic.twitter.com/SJXJSpNfd7 — Kevin (@FightOwensFight) June 29, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic isn't over as we see the rise of cases throughout the United States. Take heed of the precautions. Don't think you are affected? You are. Maybe not directly but your resistance to do something as simple as wearing a mask can affect the lives of those you come in contact with, regardless if they are young or old. Be safe out there.  Until Then Keep Stepping, #SiscoVanilla #SiscoVanillaIsStepping #SiscoVanillaHitsTheBricks

Hello everyone. I know, long time no see here on this blog page. I can give the same old schtick: I've been busy, or I've been working on other things...yada yada yada. Nope, I've just been here not doing anything with this page. Nada, zilch, nothing. But I'm going to try and remedy that with the following post. So here were my steps from the past week of June 15 - June 21. I've been trying to get out a bit more while under COVID-19 Staying at Home. This week was harder to get steps for than the week prior.  The week prior (June 8 - June 14) saw four days of more than 12.5K steps including the massive 22K+ steps accomplishment on Wednesday June 10.  I just didn't have it in me to push ahead like I did the week before. And that's ok. I'm not putting up the steps that I used to when I worked at Barnes and Noble or even at the bar pre-COVID-19. This is a "new normal" that we are living with. So I need to adjust and evolve along with it.  Any sugge...

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...

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

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 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

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...

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

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

  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...

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 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...

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