Ben Donahower

Once upon a time, Panera Bread had a Steak and Egg power bowl on their secret menu. It was pretty awesome. It’s no longer on the secret menu, but there a a couple of ways that you can still get it!

You can make it yourself. Hackthemenu.com has directions here.

And, you can still order it from Panera if you know how 🙂

• Order a steak and egg breakfast sandwich
• Ask them to hold the bread
• No cheese
• Add an egg
• Add salt and pepper
• Add tomato
• Add avocado
• Add pesto (it’s under ‘basil’ on their cash register)
• And ask them to put it in a bowl!

I’m not sure if there are different prices at different Panera Bread’s, but with the modifications, our rigged up steak and egg power bowl will run you $7.49.

PS. This is especially good news for the paleo community and celiac since it’s tough to find those options at Panera.

I’ve tried a number of approaches to eating: vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, paleo, intermittent fasting, cleanses, and of course, standard American. Aside from vegan and standard American, I found some health benefits associated with each of those that I tried. I’ve had the best experience with paleo, which increased strength, reduced fat, increased energy, and mental clarity. On the other hand, my wife didn’t have the same experience with paleo. Couple that with diet hopping often because of conflicting information, I’ve

Metabolism

Metabolic typing is not without its detractors. The Wikipedia article is harsh enough and links to a number of related Quack Watch articles. That said, it can’t to take an online test like this one and then see if the recommendations ring true for you. It made sense to me! Depending upon how I take the test, being more or less particular or shifting definition of occasion and frequent for example, I show up as a balanced oxidizer or better with fats than carbs.

For example, a bullet proof coffee can get me through most of the morning.

Allergies or Food Sensitives

I’m playing Russian roulette when I consume dairy aside from cultured dairy. I’m better with high fat than low but enough pizza or ice cream can really anger my GI system especially on high coffee intake days when my stomach is already sensitive because of the acid. My wife, on the other hand, craves dairy and breads aggravate inflammation and cause energy level swings.

I’d also lump in concerns with food toxicity here whether it’s heavy metals or mycotoxins.

Local Climate and Environmental Consideration

I’ve got little scientific evidence here except to say local food is likely fresher food. Also, a lot of paleo detractors and even proponents note that there was no one paleo diet. The Inuit ate fatty, read meat while other indigenous peoples were more or less vegetarian. If you were to switch the diets of a people group in the tropics with another in an extreme cold climate, but not change their environmental conditions, it just makes sense that health challenges would result. This is less of a dietary factor for modern society primarily existing in climate controlled environments, but I’m inclined to trust the innate relationship between local water and food with climate and the human nutritional needs.

Medical Conditions

Stress and anxiety caused myoclonus, twitching, day and night for several months in 2014 and into 2015. It took several more months for my body to become completely non-reactive. I’m conscious to eat magnesium rich foods and have changed my tea of choice to holy basil among other food and lifestyle changes to address my psychogenically caused nervous system disturbance and to stave it off in the future as well.

Being aware of your body’s strengths and weaknesses and addressing them as best as possible nutritionally, is going to affect your overall diet.

Life Stage

If you’re an adolescent male, there’s reason to believe that you don’t need to consume pine pollen especially as a tincture. Conversely, a middle aged man or older would have a better experience. Pregnant women shouldn’t consume all sorts of foods that would otherwise be healthy for them. My diet has changed as I have.

Other Dietary Restrictions

This could take the form of the ‘other’ climate or animal rights reason not to, say, eat meat. You may have religious objections to certain foods. There’s a host of reasons that people abstain from eating certain foods.

Conclusion

My diet plan has evolved, but following these principles has helped develop my individualized diet in a way that has improved my overall health. Here’s how:

• I consume far more fat than the US dietary guidelines would recommend
• I eat very little dairy except yogurt and when I’m willpower, I take my chances with ice cream
• I guard against eating too much if any sugar especially added sugar
• I juice green vegetables and consume yogurt and dark chocolate for magnesium regularly
• I cleanse or fast to slow and reset my metabolism, which reduces my overall food volume intake for some time
• I take supplements that address specific deficiencies
• I buy organic and local produce as well as free range meat

I’m not always steadfast on the last one, because it gets expensive, but generally speaking, these practical changes have improved my overall level of wellness. Speaking of practical, individualized diets can be challenging for families everyone has individual needs that may conflict with one another. It has been for me, but hey, there’s a lot of opportunity to improve how you eat within the context of your lifestyle.

I’ve owned a Jansport backpack since, I think, 10th grade. After about 15 years, the poor thing was in need of repair. Jansport has a lifetime guarantee, but I was hesitant to send the old guy in because I had become oddly attached to it. I sent it in crossing my fingers they would repair it instead of replacing. They did!

I’ve got some stiff nylon to contend with now, but I understand putting it in the wash with fabric softener and in the dryer with a tennis ball should help. We’ll see! Here it is; back in tip top shape:

From a durability and customer service standpoint, I’m really happy with Jansport. Here’s the interesting part… I had a brand new, cheap backpack to hold me over while Jansport was repairing my back. By the way, they turned it around pretty quick. I was without a backpack for less than three weeks including shipping back and forth across the country.

This is what happened to my temporary replacement backpack over that time:

Basically, this thing is junk:

I couldn’t believe that I’d had a Jansport for 15 or so years without damage like that and in just a few weeks a brand new backpack was basically unusable. Kudos to Jansport for a great product and guarantee to back it up!

PS. I didn’t get paid to write this. I don’t get a commission if you click on the link to Jansport’s backpack shop. I’m just a really happy customer.

I’m an OhLife user, so getting a message that the service was shutting down an hour ago was unfortunate. At the same time, it wasn’t a surprise. The service has been down from time to time, there has been little to no social media presence, and the last time I heard from them was when they offered a premium service. That, apparently, didn’t go so well.

Here’s how I’m Coping without OhLife

1. Create a subdomain on a person or existing site
2. Install a WordPress blog on the subdomain
3. Require a sign in to access the subdomain
4. Create a recurring Google Calendar event with a link to the journal log in page

For IFTT users there are already some recipes brewing here and here. The latter recipe submits your entries to Dropbox. You can do something similar in Zapier as well.

My Beef with the OhLife Shutdown

I understand that businesses fail and OhLife is among them. It looks like they are going through the standard and proper procedures to inform their users and allow them to get their data out. That said, being a blogging service, I would have really like to export my data in a format that I can easily upload to another blogging service.

The rub is this is what you get:

That’s not a lot to work with, and, of course, there aren’t images here either. You can to look through your past entries to find them. I have hundreds of entries. I’m sure many other users have many more than I do. Hunting through old entries to look for images to ultimately pair them up with the text file in some other service that you will be manually importing your past journal entries from OhLife to… Well, I’m tired just thinking about it.

I spent a fair portion of my childhood playing the Dragon Warrior series for NES. Now, I’m at most a casual gamer though when I do play I generally keep to RPGs with a strong plot or turn-based strategies games. I picked up Dragon Quest Swords in hopes of experiencing some of what made Dragon Warrior special again with better graphics and a Wiimote.

Of course, I know that a remake of a beloved childhood game doesn’t stand a chance. It’s like the great book you read, which was made into a movie that there isn’t a chance that you’ll like. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why I haven’t picked up a Dragon Warrior remake until now. I can’t look at Dragon Quest Swords on its own merits or not, but only compared to Dragon Warrior.

This isn’t, then, so much of a review as it is a comparison between Dragon Quest Swords with what I like most about Dragon Warrior NES version.

Dragon Quest Swords is Too Easy

In Dragon Quest Swords, there’s no other option than to progress in the game. You beat a level, return to the castle, buy a few things, and repeat. On the other hand, I played Dragon Warrior for hours roaming the map desperately talking to any and all villagers to find a hidden item or unlock a secret.

I had to spend a little time levelling up for Xiphos himself, but otherwise it was straight forward. While there are some tricks up Dragon Quest Swords’ sleeves, they aren’t essential to the game like Dragon Warrior.

Dragon Quest Characters (and Their Names)

There’s probably a good reason why the series is no longer called Dragon Warrior and now called Dragon Quest, but whatever it is, I just haven’t been able to let go. My problem, not Dragon Quest’s!

The characters are a different story. The Chimaera is a Wyvern for crying out loud…

Speaking of monsters, Dragon Quest Swords is crawling with slimes and despite the series title, precious few dragons. The majority of the worlds include slimes, and while they are endearing characters, they just slowed down game play aside from the occasional metal slime. One of the mirror boss’s is a multi-headed dragon – loved it! The rest of the dragons, however, were weak enemies defeating just as easily as everyone else.

I’m generally turned off by silly or stupid boss’s like Golok or Grossmesser, but Xiphos himself was pretty solid. You can’t go wrong with having two forms, cough cough, Dragonlord.

The characters are also a mixed bag. The father in Dragon Quest Swords is a middle aged guy, who drinks and picks up girls at the bar, while talking to you like one of the guys? Fleurette has gone a long way from the convent by the looks of her outfit! It’s hard to get emotionally involved with her or her brother who you don’t really know from Adam.

Compare Fleurette to Lady Lora, Princess Gwaelin, who is the quintessential damsel in distress: the King’s daughter kidnapped by a dragon.

Finally, who is the hero? I understand the appeal and usefulness of first person in the game, but one of the great aspects of Dragon Warrior was that it was both first and third person. First person was useful for fighting and third for exploring the map. Third person also gave me a perspective of what character I was. I was a hero and a knight in Dragon Warrior. By the age of the hero’s father in Dragon Quest Swords, I only presume that the hero is a tween. Maybe even with a Justin Bieber haircut?!

Dragon Quest Swords’ Storyline is Pretty Good

The mask was an interesting prop that held most of the storyline together in addition to other references to what I presume were previous Dragon Quest title references related to Xiphos and otherwise. Unfortunately, game play was so straight forward that you didn’t get a chance to participate in the story in a meaningful way. You beat this boss. There was some dialogue. You beat the next boss. More dialogue. Rinse and repeat.

Yea, So Dragon Quest Swords Doesn’t Get a Fair Shake or Does It

Though I said that I didn’t think that I could assess Dragon Quest Swords on its own merits and would compare it to the original NES game, I’m in good company with my overall assessment that this game is too simple and most everything else is a mixed bag. IGN agrees though they are a little more forgiving about it.

I couldn’t find the lyrics for this song, “Mercy Tree” by Lacey Sturm, so I gave it a shot. If you notice any corrections, please let me know!

On a hill called Calvary
Stands an endless mercy tree
Every broke and weary soul
Find your rest and be made whole

Stripes of blood that stain its frame
Shed to wash away our shame
From the scars pure love released
Salvation brought the Mercy Tree

In the sky, between two thieves
Hung the blameless Prince of Peace
Bruised and battered, scarred and scorned
Sacred Hands pierced by our thorns

It is a finished ?watch? his cry
The perfect Lamb was crucified
The sacrifice. Our victory.
Our Salvation chose the mercy tree

Hope went dark that violent day
The whole quaked at love’s display
Three days silence in the ground
This body born for Heaven’s crown

On that bright and glorious day
Heaven opened up the grave
He’s alive and risen indeed
Praise him for the mercy tree

Death has died. Love has won!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ has overcome.
He has given from the dead.

Death has died. Love has won!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ has overcome.
He has given from the dead.

One day soon We’ll see His face
And every tear, He’ll wipe a way
No more pain or suffering

Praise him for the mercy tree

Death has died. Love has won!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ has overcome.
He has given from the dead.

Death has died. Love has won!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ has overcome.
He has given from the dead.