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February 29 Jeezus is this thing bigSo for many years i've been using dual monitors, particularly a pair of Princeton Graphics VL1812 18" LCDs. Particular reason for them was low resolution, they were the only 18 made in 1024x768, all others were 1280x1024. And I liked the lower res since its the standard for web sizing, and also easier to read from a distance. Well yesterday the lamp ballast in one of them started to go, when it would go into sleep mode, it wouldn't come out. turing it off and on over and over would eventually get the ballast to kick on again and it would be fine till the next time it went off. Looking at it, it was built in Nov 2002, so pretty old. So I decided to pick up a replacement, and went with the Acer X243Wbd. Office depot had them on sale for $279 (same price as on black friday) and I had a $20 off coupon from staples which they accepted. So now on my desk is a 24" 1920x1200 and a 18" 1024x768. Jeez but is the 24 huge. So far in a day I haven't used the 18 once, everything has stayed on the 24. Loaded up some high def movies on it, and its gorgeous. Oh yeah, and its DVI in is HDCP compliant, so I could use an HDMI -> DVI adapter with it and use it as a display for an Xbox 360, PS3 or cable box too if for some reason I needed it for that. not too shabby for the price! damn its big, a 22 would have worked just as well :D February 17 Some new picturesSo loren has made me be handyman for a while now. Been painting, doing baseboards, etc. Loads of fun. Its looking good tho, the whole house. The most recent is Davids bedroom. I guess last update here we weren't pregnant (that was after the hawaii trip in july). But he's due April 26, so we needed to get his room done. Decided to go with Noahs Ark for the theme. Found a nice bed set that had good little accessories so we got that, and then did murals + animals on the wall. Just finished the scallop chair rail today. To be honest, that was really the only part I did, I left the animals up to loren :) June 27 Threshold eventsHaven't written in a couple weeks, i'm all involved in working out (spending near 2 hrs a day now!) and updating logs for that and some supplement testing. That plus all the rest of my life takes up so much time. Anyhow, I have 2 entries for here in my head, so I'm putting up the threshold events one now.
Threshold events are fairly self explanatory, they are those events where the buildup over time causes something to pass a threshold. The event itself can be innocuous such as a snowflake falling on a roof, but once the weight capacity of the roof is met, the next snowflake becomes a threshold event. All around us, in many areas of our lives these events occur on a regular basis. I find them really intriguing as such simple events can become a catalyst for such a huge change, yet the events are nothingness themselves. For instance, seeing your father in the hospital after a lung removal is a very climactic event, but not a threshold event even if it makes you quit smoking. But waking up in the morning and coughing and saying "I can't keep waking up like this" and quitting IS a threshold event. It really is the magic among the mundane. For myself, i've had a few threshold events this year alone, which is amazing. The biggest one was stepping on the scale and seeing 245 pounds. That simple act of stepping on the scale (something I did and do every day) and seeing my weight continuing to go up crossed a threshold inside. But try it yourself, start looking around for the things you see that are threshold events. Look at how the simple event that has happened over and over suddenly becomes something different, and suddenly has a major impact.
The idea wont make you more successful, it won't grow hair, or make you loose weight. But maybe it will help you have more appreciation for the little things. You can never tell which leaf that falls onto a bridge may be the one that collapses the bridge... June 08 Working outShort update today, but a new picture tomorrow
I've started logging my workouts here
This way i'll keep the listings of my weights (both body and moved), etc all in one spot. I also got selected to do logging on the use of Millenium Sport Technologies' Shred-XS
Which is way cool! I've already spent a jillion dollars or so on supplements, so it will be nice to use something free. Plus its a product unlike others I am taking, which I like. I'm probably going to buy their Kreaceps-XS for my next round of workout, in late september. From early august till then I plan to work out, but supplement free, just to let my body flush a bit.
Tomorrow is the end of 4 weeks doing body for life. So i'm going to weigh in first thing in the morning, and also take pictures again. Its 1/3 of the way through the challenge. I think i've made excellent progress, and i've gotten situated in doing this, so I'm feeling good about my goals. Its going to be interesting to compare them to the 8 week pictures a month from now... June 03 The tile is done!It took a little longer than expected or hoped, but not by long. The real delay at the end comically was the grout for the backsplash in the kitchen. We decided to go with a grout that has metal flakes in it, and no one carried it locally, and the first 2 attempts the distributor sent the wrong metal flakes (silver once gold once).
looks pretty sweet tho! The whole job turned out really nice, the kitchen looks even nicer now.
All of the floor looks really cool. Its amazing how much visual impact this has, vs what it cost.
And of course the mosaic
right as you walk in, it turned out great too. The shower was an unexpected plus out of this all, as I when we first started looking, we hadn't really thought about doing the shower
but it truly looks phenomenal. Now i'm thinking about all the stuff upstairs that needs improving to match how good the first floor looks. It was suggested by my installer, Joel Perez of All-Tile. http://alltile.typepad.com/ . I'm really glad he did, it is such a nice look.
On the diet front, I'm starting to slow down losswise a little, only having lost around 5 or so pounds over the last 2 weeks. That still leaves me with a loss possibility of 20-25 pounds over the remaining 9 weeks in my Body For Life challenge, so I'm good. That would put me between 180-185, which is about as low as I expect to go. Also, i've jiggled around my supplements some more which I believe is going to help add more muscle during this time. Friday before my lower body workout I took for the first time NO-Shotgun http://www.noshotgun.com/ which is some seriously freaky stuff. I accidentally put 20 pounds more on the leg extension machine and didn't realize it. Tons of energy, easily cruised throughthe workout. I've also moved to trying to keep over 200 grams of protein a day, and still staying as low calorie as possible. I'm managing it at around 1200-1500 calories, so i'm still in weight loss mode for sure. I can't wait for tomorrow to use the NO-Shotgun with the upper body workout. That alone speaks of the change in working out regularly like this, that i'm actually excited to go hit the gym! May 17 Well this is interestingIn January, I hit my peak weight ever, 245 pounds which is pretty bad for 5' 9" (maybe 9 1/2 but still). I was at the point where 38 waist was getting too tight, and I probably should be buying some 40s. So it happens, that was something (for whatever silly reason) that I had always had in my head, that a 40 waist was unacceptable. That was when I started a diet + excercise routine. Basically I started cutting back on the quantity I ate, and going to the gym (maybe i'll post some pics of our community center, its pretty impressive for being in a neighborhood) 3 times a week.
On the diet, I wasn't doing anything too special, but I was at first taking Trim Spa with it (thanks Anna Nicole-Smith!). Strangely to me at least, I wasn't really a big eater of what you would consider the "bad foods" beforehand either. I just about never ate fast foods, had plenty of vegetables, some fruits, etc. My real issue was always quantity. Sure potatoes are ok, but a half pound of french fries isn't. Nothing that horrifying with a small serving of them. Same goes with other things too, salmon is good for you, eating a 1 pound fillet isn't. I also started doing a bit of the "smart choices" thing. When I'd either order a meal, or be cooking at home (i'm the primary grocery shopper + cook) I'd look at the options, and for what I was going to personally eat I'd take larger portions of things with low energy density (high fill factor for the calorie) and smaller portions of things with high density. Also, I'd go even further in that direction when I knew there was something I had already eaten, or planned to eat later (a beer, a piece of cheesecake, etc) that was high energy density. Quantity continued to go down to now where I have a really hard time when we are out. A few times I've ordered kids meals, and it works out.
As far as the gym goes, I started with relatively light to medium intensity strength training, with 30 minutes on the excersize bike also at light intensity. Bit by bit as I could, I've been raising weights, and resistance on the bike. For the bike, at first I was keeping my heart rate in the 150s, but i've slowly raised it to going as intensly as I can and keeping my heart rate under 180. For weights, I started with a fairly quick lap through all of the nautilus/universal machines. Basically I'd do 1 set of 6-12 reps on each machine, then go back around and do the same again. Whenever I hit a weight where I could do 12 on a machine, i'd raise the weight. After the first month or so, I started to repeat this weight routine before and after the bike.
Fastforwarding to today... I'm now doing a slightly modified Body For Life weight training http://www.bodyforlife.com/exercise/weighttraining.asp , also taking a whole heap full of supplements. The modifications are due to the machines I have available, so I can't do their quick excersize switch on the last set for all of the muscle groups, just some. On the ones I can't I just shoot for 24 reps with the last weight. I've only been doing that one for a week now (today is only my 2nd upper body day), but its showing results already! Its brutal, but if you have serious commitment, it will definitely show results. Its a very fast, high intensity workout. Also, I'm now shifting to their scheduling, where you are in the gym 6 days a week. It seems like a drag in some ways, but I am spending less time per day now than I was as I was doing a little over an hour a day before, and now its between 30-45 minutes.
So the moral to the story and why I posted about this? Last nite I had to go out and buy 34 inch waist pants and shorts  . Kinda sucked, as I had bought a bit of fairly nice 36 inch stuff that I didn't get much use out of. I'm only down to a little under 210, so I still have a ways to go. My target is around 175-190, its really more a looks target than a strict weight target. I'm basically trying to reach somewhere between the bowflex dude and Brad Pitt as he looked in Babel. With this new Body For Life regimen, I think it won't even take that long, which in its own way is crazy. But... its crazy like a fox, not crazy like a rabbit!! Soon I'll try to find some before pictures, and post some current ones. Its funny, I guess I tried a little to avoid the camera when I was really getting up there weight wise, as I can't find much I was in where I wasn't carrying a kid or behind something. I realized retrospectively I should have been purposeful and taken a whole set of before pics from a bunch of angles to compare with after, but hindsight is 20/20.May 15 Saturday + Sunday was horseySylvia had her 11th birthday party this weekend. It was a horse/western themed, and as per usual, a sleepover. Attendance was almost perfect this year, a total of 9 girls at peak, and only 3 slept over. I couldn't ask for better. It was a lot of fun for them, and almost no fights broke out. The girls all were excited to get to watch a movie on a 10 foot diagonal screen, but only watched one - Night at the Museum. They did crafts, had cake, and also as per usual a pinata. Not one of the Viva Pinata Hudson Horstacios (although they were hung up as decorations), but a yellow one. It was a fun time all around, I think possibly one of the best parties she's had.
Separately I've started a lightly modified "Body for Life" strength workout, and boy that is rough. Its the combination of the amount of repetitions plus the timing of sets that makes it really hard. And like everything else I do, of course i'm trying to do it as hard as I can, so it really hurts
 .The travertine is starting to get put in place today, i'll put up pictures tomorrow or wednesday. |
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