Well, tomorrow I make the attempt at a marathon. I'm shooting between four and four and half hours, which is about the pace I've been training at, so now I get to see if it pays off.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Saturday, October 12, 2013
And I would walk 500 miles...
But I'm running 26.2 instead. Time for the breakdown.
1) Dropping down to 175 - It's going, but not well. I seem to have hit another plateau around 181. Granted, my diet and football season have been atrocious, but as it stands now I'd be shocked if I hit 175. However, I'm pretty happy with where I'm at, if I get to and maintain 180 I'd be pretty stoked. The flip side to that is that I need to focus on getting the crap out of my diet again. It will also be easier when I'm not scheduling runs of 10+ miles every Saturday.
2) Digitize and destroy - Ready for this? I think I've bought exactly TWO pieces of physical media this year, and both of those were video games. I have one of the first-run PS3s, so my disk space wouldn't allow it anyway. All in all, not too shabby.
3) TV time - Football's back. So there goes Sunday, though the Eagles have mostly 1pm games this season, meaning that I can actually do things after the game (though throwing on Redzone is always fun). I've been using the extra time to want to clean my house. While watching Redzone. Also, NBC has completely shit the bed with their comedy lineup. So that helps. I picked up a sidegig working a soundboard for a local bar trivia, which means my Mondays are gone, which means no more How I Met Your Mother on that night...so instead I just watch it after Parks and Rec. It ain't much, but it lets me keep it going for another year.
4) Apply to Grad School - COMPLETED - Well, I've applied at long last. And now I wait. And wait. And wait. Am I in yet?
*checks*
Nope.
Anyway, I foresee the chance to turn this blog into something really positive once I am accepted, and once that happens, I'm going to be a lot more forthcoming about who I am, what I do, and more importantly, where I'm going, because I think it has the chance to become a valuable resource for others.
But until then, YOU have to wait. Sucks, doesn't it?
1) Dropping down to 175 - It's going, but not well. I seem to have hit another plateau around 181. Granted, my diet and football season have been atrocious, but as it stands now I'd be shocked if I hit 175. However, I'm pretty happy with where I'm at, if I get to and maintain 180 I'd be pretty stoked. The flip side to that is that I need to focus on getting the crap out of my diet again. It will also be easier when I'm not scheduling runs of 10+ miles every Saturday.
2) Digitize and destroy - Ready for this? I think I've bought exactly TWO pieces of physical media this year, and both of those were video games. I have one of the first-run PS3s, so my disk space wouldn't allow it anyway. All in all, not too shabby.
3) TV time - Football's back. So there goes Sunday, though the Eagles have mostly 1pm games this season, meaning that I can actually do things after the game (though throwing on Redzone is always fun). I've been using the extra time to want to clean my house. While watching Redzone. Also, NBC has completely shit the bed with their comedy lineup. So that helps. I picked up a sidegig working a soundboard for a local bar trivia, which means my Mondays are gone, which means no more How I Met Your Mother on that night...so instead I just watch it after Parks and Rec. It ain't much, but it lets me keep it going for another year.
4) Apply to Grad School - COMPLETED - Well, I've applied at long last. And now I wait. And wait. And wait. Am I in yet?
*checks*
Nope.
Anyway, I foresee the chance to turn this blog into something really positive once I am accepted, and once that happens, I'm going to be a lot more forthcoming about who I am, what I do, and more importantly, where I'm going, because I think it has the chance to become a valuable resource for others.
But until then, YOU have to wait. Sucks, doesn't it?
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Thursday, August 8, 2013
I want to throw this computer out the window
But I live in a single-story house, so all I'd have is a broken window and a computer that's probably indestructible. I really want a Chromebook. I keep trying to justify the cost, but the reality is that I don't need it, and with football season slowly approaching, all sorts of secret costs are going to creep up on me as well. It doesn't help that I'm still slightly recovering from my trip home, and that I have a laptop that's in good working order. I just really hate this desktop computer and I hope it becomes unusable so I can justify it.
There's really not a whole to talk about. I'm on pace with the weight loss, working on applications for grad school, and not really watching too much TV lately. Though Breaking Bad is coming back, and Netflix had the decency to put season five up and I binged the entire season. Best Saturday EVER.
I did, however, decide to downsize some of the clutter in my house, particularly my clothes. Want to feel really good? Try stuff on, realize you're swimming in it, and then donate it. T'was great.
I'm gonna go through some of my other stuff and see what I don't use. I'm thinking of turning my one room into a sort of "limbo" where I'll put things for a month, and if I don't find myself needing or wanting it, then I'll get rid of it. I guess you can do this with a spot in your garage or closet if you don't have a whole room to spare. I'm not trying to preach minimalism here, but I figured that since I've done so well with the books/movies/music goal, this is a good way to reduce my clutter a little bit more.
There's really not a whole to talk about. I'm on pace with the weight loss, working on applications for grad school, and not really watching too much TV lately. Though Breaking Bad is coming back, and Netflix had the decency to put season five up and I binged the entire season. Best Saturday EVER.
I did, however, decide to downsize some of the clutter in my house, particularly my clothes. Want to feel really good? Try stuff on, realize you're swimming in it, and then donate it. T'was great.
I'm gonna go through some of my other stuff and see what I don't use. I'm thinking of turning my one room into a sort of "limbo" where I'll put things for a month, and if I don't find myself needing or wanting it, then I'll get rid of it. I guess you can do this with a spot in your garage or closet if you don't have a whole room to spare. I'm not trying to preach minimalism here, but I figured that since I've done so well with the books/movies/music goal, this is a good way to reduce my clutter a little bit more.
Friday, July 19, 2013
It's mid July and I'm feelin fly...
BAM!
ZING!
ZLAM!
I'm as energetic as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!!!!!
Seriously, the past month has been hectic, but holy hell has it been a wild ride, and really I'm just starting to feel like everything is coming together.
Going home has always presented various challenges to lifestyle changes, not that much different than when anyone goes on vacation. There's a certain 'not giving a fuckness' in regards to diet and exercise, doubly so when your state is known for cheesesteaks, pierogies, and Wawa. So I came up with an action plan that would ensure that I A) Wouldn't miss out on any of that goodness, and B) Wouldn't blow everything I've worked so hard to achieve. And hell, it was only ten days or so, but I've been dumb enough in the past to screw it up. At least during my ten hour drive I was smart enough to try Hardee's low carb lettuce wrapped cheeseburger. God knows I wasn't moving much on the way up.
As I've been writing this year, I've mostly been sticking to a low-carb diet, which isn't an issue when I'm in my regular routine. But one thing that I've taken away from this year, and I know this isn't a groundbreaking theory, but eating 1000 cheesesteaks in a week doesn't make any individual one taste any better. Same with Wawa hoagies. Same with birthday cake.
So I let myself splurge, but I had kind of a "food bucket list" that I stuck to. I have a list of places and friends that I always hit up when I'm home, so it made sense to apply it to food as well. And in the situations where I wasn't able to order whatever I wanted, and the food was heavy in carbs, I just made sure not to eat as much as I normally would, knowing full well that I'd be fine. Did I take a bit of shit for it? Yeah, of course. But I also used to be the kid that would eat as much french toast as my mom was willing to make. And eat as much meatloaf as I could fit in my gullet. And don't even get me going on college.
I also made sure to keep up with running, albeit at a lesser distance than I normally do. But I made sure to get my ass in gear a bit more, and made the most of those three miles. I took advantage of some great hiking trails available to me, and did a nice little 8 mile hike. And as a result of watching the food I was eating, and moving when I got the chance, I only gained a pound or two that damn near vanished by the second or third day once I was back.
Speaking of which, I'm under 185, meaning I'm once again in the normal BMI range for my height. BOO YA. I'd like to thank the academy, Kanye West, and Jesus. But mostly I'd like to thank Goldfish. The running probably didn't hurt, especially completing my 2nd 10k, which was changed to a trail run at the last second. In spite of that, I still managed to run it in about 56 minutes, nothing mind blowing, but considering 90% of my training is on flat ground, I'm still pretty happy with it. And I still got to eat an entire pizza guilt free as I sat on the couch and played video games for 10 hours straight afterwards. FOR AMERICA.
Next up on the "race" (against myself) schedule is an alien themed half marathon next month, interestingly enough, just after my one year anniversary of quitting smoking. I've also finally signed up for the Rock n Roll marathon in November, so I'll be getting Eye of the Tiger on that.
About 9.5 pounds with about 5.5 months left..I don't foresee this being a problem. I'm not sure if its a mental or physical thing, but hitting 185 has made me feel invincible.
Anyway, outside of that, I've continued not buying any physical media, and since CDs are pretty much worthless these days, I'm just gonna hang on to what I have. Sure, it's more of an avoidance thing, but I really don't have a freakin clue what to do with them. Plus, someday I think it'll be pretty cool to be able to flip through them, like people do with vinyl now. I may go through and get rid of ones that scratched beyond usefulness, or are pure garbage, but that's about the extent of it.
TV...I watch what I watch. Somedays its less, somedays its more, but I guess as long as I don't look or feel too much like a couch potato, then it doesn't bother me.
Still need to write my stupid personal statement for grad school. I'll get there. Personal deadline is the end of the month.
And in other news, I'm starting my "Troll Tour" this year by visiting at least one away game of the Eagles each season. Can't wait, looking to either DC for Week 1 or Tampa Bay in week...6 I think.
ZING!
ZLAM!
I'm as energetic as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!!!!!
Seriously, the past month has been hectic, but holy hell has it been a wild ride, and really I'm just starting to feel like everything is coming together.
Going home has always presented various challenges to lifestyle changes, not that much different than when anyone goes on vacation. There's a certain 'not giving a fuckness' in regards to diet and exercise, doubly so when your state is known for cheesesteaks, pierogies, and Wawa. So I came up with an action plan that would ensure that I A) Wouldn't miss out on any of that goodness, and B) Wouldn't blow everything I've worked so hard to achieve. And hell, it was only ten days or so, but I've been dumb enough in the past to screw it up. At least during my ten hour drive I was smart enough to try Hardee's low carb lettuce wrapped cheeseburger. God knows I wasn't moving much on the way up.
As I've been writing this year, I've mostly been sticking to a low-carb diet, which isn't an issue when I'm in my regular routine. But one thing that I've taken away from this year, and I know this isn't a groundbreaking theory, but eating 1000 cheesesteaks in a week doesn't make any individual one taste any better. Same with Wawa hoagies. Same with birthday cake.
So I let myself splurge, but I had kind of a "food bucket list" that I stuck to. I have a list of places and friends that I always hit up when I'm home, so it made sense to apply it to food as well. And in the situations where I wasn't able to order whatever I wanted, and the food was heavy in carbs, I just made sure not to eat as much as I normally would, knowing full well that I'd be fine. Did I take a bit of shit for it? Yeah, of course. But I also used to be the kid that would eat as much french toast as my mom was willing to make. And eat as much meatloaf as I could fit in my gullet. And don't even get me going on college.
I also made sure to keep up with running, albeit at a lesser distance than I normally do. But I made sure to get my ass in gear a bit more, and made the most of those three miles. I took advantage of some great hiking trails available to me, and did a nice little 8 mile hike. And as a result of watching the food I was eating, and moving when I got the chance, I only gained a pound or two that damn near vanished by the second or third day once I was back.
Speaking of which, I'm under 185, meaning I'm once again in the normal BMI range for my height. BOO YA. I'd like to thank the academy, Kanye West, and Jesus. But mostly I'd like to thank Goldfish. The running probably didn't hurt, especially completing my 2nd 10k, which was changed to a trail run at the last second. In spite of that, I still managed to run it in about 56 minutes, nothing mind blowing, but considering 90% of my training is on flat ground, I'm still pretty happy with it. And I still got to eat an entire pizza guilt free as I sat on the couch and played video games for 10 hours straight afterwards. FOR AMERICA.
Next up on the "race" (against myself) schedule is an alien themed half marathon next month, interestingly enough, just after my one year anniversary of quitting smoking. I've also finally signed up for the Rock n Roll marathon in November, so I'll be getting Eye of the Tiger on that.
About 9.5 pounds with about 5.5 months left..I don't foresee this being a problem. I'm not sure if its a mental or physical thing, but hitting 185 has made me feel invincible.
Anyway, outside of that, I've continued not buying any physical media, and since CDs are pretty much worthless these days, I'm just gonna hang on to what I have. Sure, it's more of an avoidance thing, but I really don't have a freakin clue what to do with them. Plus, someday I think it'll be pretty cool to be able to flip through them, like people do with vinyl now. I may go through and get rid of ones that scratched beyond usefulness, or are pure garbage, but that's about the extent of it.
TV...I watch what I watch. Somedays its less, somedays its more, but I guess as long as I don't look or feel too much like a couch potato, then it doesn't bother me.
Still need to write my stupid personal statement for grad school. I'll get there. Personal deadline is the end of the month.
And in other news, I'm starting my "Troll Tour" this year by visiting at least one away game of the Eagles each season. Can't wait, looking to either DC for Week 1 or Tampa Bay in week...6 I think.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
I'm still alive - yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!
But there really hasn't been much going on. Well, there has been, I guess.
1) Apply to grad school - Took the GRE, and dammit, I got in the 80th percentile for the verbal portion, but only the 25th on math...I fucking hate circles. You perfect little 360 degree bastards and your bullshit irrational number. Next stop, writing a personal statement and hoping they like the rest of what they see (hence the weight loss goal ;) and let me in somewhere. I'm also kicking around taking the LSAT, but I'm going to hedge my bets and continue applying to other programs.
2) Digitize and destroy - I finally found one of those giant binders that holds 100+ cds that I have completely filled, so I started uploading those. I'm also highly tempted to take advantage of Google's $8/month music subscription service, because come on man, that's a crazy good deal...except with the amount of music I already have, I'm not entirely convinced that it would be worth it for me, especially since Spotify is free at home. Tempting as shit though.
3) TV time...not quite down to 5 hours, I've been bored as shit lately, and Arrested Development just came back. So I give myself a bit of a pass there. Finished up The Wire, started watching Fringe, only to discover Lt Daniels made his way to that show. CREEPY.
And this ties into both 2 and 3, but I got my library card again. Woo woo. Ham on Rye bitches.
4) Losing weight...strangest thing. I cut out apples and bananas from my diet and I'm dropping weight. What the purple donkey fuck. I mean seriously. For more, we turn to Dr. Me:
Weekly WTF Health Moment, brought to you by Cheez-Its!
So I've been making little tweaks to my diet since the beginning of this year, and usually I'll try to change up one thing a week and see what impact it has. This past week, I eliminated the apple and banana from my lunch.
Still ate Cheez Its in the afternoon.
Hell, I ate a fucking chicken parm sandwich in addition to my regular dinner the other night.
Drank a few beers last night and had half an italian hoagie.
And promptly lost slightly over a pound. Kiss my ass, Chiquita and Granny Smith.
No changes anywhere else, ran roughly the same amount (except I'm really starting to turn it up now in terms of speed) and I've been hitting the pullup bar outside my office a bit more, but DAMN. I said at the beginning of the year I was going to tweak things, but this was by far the most unexpected result so far. I mean cooking your own food instead of eating out is almost a given to lose weight, of course exercise will make you more fit, but I guess I've finally hit that point in eating "faileo" (a non-hardcore paleo devotee, I guess?) that the extra carbs were preventing my body from burning more fat. More to come on this one, trust me.
As far as how I feel...shit, I don't think I've ever felt in as good a shape as I'm in right now. Without a doubt, I'm getting leaner, and everything feels like it's tightening up.
So that's that....as I'm approaching the halfway point of the year, it's nice to know that I'm making great progress! And even better, I'm working towards that one goal I didn't quite get to last year, running a marathon.
1) Apply to grad school - Took the GRE, and dammit, I got in the 80th percentile for the verbal portion, but only the 25th on math...I fucking hate circles. You perfect little 360 degree bastards and your bullshit irrational number. Next stop, writing a personal statement and hoping they like the rest of what they see (hence the weight loss goal ;) and let me in somewhere. I'm also kicking around taking the LSAT, but I'm going to hedge my bets and continue applying to other programs.
2) Digitize and destroy - I finally found one of those giant binders that holds 100+ cds that I have completely filled, so I started uploading those. I'm also highly tempted to take advantage of Google's $8/month music subscription service, because come on man, that's a crazy good deal...except with the amount of music I already have, I'm not entirely convinced that it would be worth it for me, especially since Spotify is free at home. Tempting as shit though.
3) TV time...not quite down to 5 hours, I've been bored as shit lately, and Arrested Development just came back. So I give myself a bit of a pass there. Finished up The Wire, started watching Fringe, only to discover Lt Daniels made his way to that show. CREEPY.
And this ties into both 2 and 3, but I got my library card again. Woo woo. Ham on Rye bitches.
4) Losing weight...strangest thing. I cut out apples and bananas from my diet and I'm dropping weight. What the purple donkey fuck. I mean seriously. For more, we turn to Dr. Me:
Weekly WTF Health Moment, brought to you by Cheez-Its!
So I've been making little tweaks to my diet since the beginning of this year, and usually I'll try to change up one thing a week and see what impact it has. This past week, I eliminated the apple and banana from my lunch.
Still ate Cheez Its in the afternoon.
Hell, I ate a fucking chicken parm sandwich in addition to my regular dinner the other night.
Drank a few beers last night and had half an italian hoagie.
And promptly lost slightly over a pound. Kiss my ass, Chiquita and Granny Smith.
No changes anywhere else, ran roughly the same amount (except I'm really starting to turn it up now in terms of speed) and I've been hitting the pullup bar outside my office a bit more, but DAMN. I said at the beginning of the year I was going to tweak things, but this was by far the most unexpected result so far. I mean cooking your own food instead of eating out is almost a given to lose weight, of course exercise will make you more fit, but I guess I've finally hit that point in eating "faileo" (a non-hardcore paleo devotee, I guess?) that the extra carbs were preventing my body from burning more fat. More to come on this one, trust me.
As far as how I feel...shit, I don't think I've ever felt in as good a shape as I'm in right now. Without a doubt, I'm getting leaner, and everything feels like it's tightening up.
So that's that....as I'm approaching the halfway point of the year, it's nice to know that I'm making great progress! And even better, I'm working towards that one goal I didn't quite get to last year, running a marathon.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Woops
Shit, I totally missed the beginning of April update, and by miss, I mean I probably passed on it on purpose.
Basically, my weight hasn't changed at all. But, I've been running upwards of 20 miles a week, and I feel like I've slimmed a bit. Of course, I would have slimmed more if I hadn't drank my way into finishing a beer club, but hey, these things happen. I also didn't do my diet any favors lately. But, like with smoking, I'm back on track, and the results would have been far worse had I not been going to the gym regularly. Anyway, I've mitigated the damage done, and we're still not even halfway through the year, so we'll see how it goes with a combination of the gym AND eating right. Regardless, I'm feeling gooooooood.
As for the digitize and destroy portion, I've gotten a good portion of the digitize part down, and a small milk crate full of CDs I'll be bringing in later today to be sold. Assuming all of them are taken, that should take care of the goal to cut it down to one cd tower. Books are holding steady, and I haven't bought any new DVDs. In fact, Netflix's DVD service has made watching The Wire more enjoyable than me buying the whole damn thing and watching it in one sitting.
Grad school? Got the GRE scheduled baby! May 2nd, and I've started studying. That's about that.
TV Time - I'm getting there, slowly but surely. There's only a few more episodes of The Office that will ever air, leaving me with just about three shows next year.
So that's that...progress, for the most part.
Basically, my weight hasn't changed at all. But, I've been running upwards of 20 miles a week, and I feel like I've slimmed a bit. Of course, I would have slimmed more if I hadn't drank my way into finishing a beer club, but hey, these things happen. I also didn't do my diet any favors lately. But, like with smoking, I'm back on track, and the results would have been far worse had I not been going to the gym regularly. Anyway, I've mitigated the damage done, and we're still not even halfway through the year, so we'll see how it goes with a combination of the gym AND eating right. Regardless, I'm feeling gooooooood.
As for the digitize and destroy portion, I've gotten a good portion of the digitize part down, and a small milk crate full of CDs I'll be bringing in later today to be sold. Assuming all of them are taken, that should take care of the goal to cut it down to one cd tower. Books are holding steady, and I haven't bought any new DVDs. In fact, Netflix's DVD service has made watching The Wire more enjoyable than me buying the whole damn thing and watching it in one sitting.
Grad school? Got the GRE scheduled baby! May 2nd, and I've started studying. That's about that.
TV Time - I'm getting there, slowly but surely. There's only a few more episodes of The Office that will ever air, leaving me with just about three shows next year.
So that's that...progress, for the most part.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Marriott and Me - A love story
I freakin love the Marriott, and I want to shout it from a rooftop. Due to a major SNAFU at the hotel I was planning on staying at in Savannah last week, I had to make same-day reservations, and I decided to go with old faithful and stay at the Marriott again. And it was, of course, amazing. I love their service, their beds, and pretty much everything about them. Even their coffee is pretty decent, and their bartender can make a good martini.
Why am I boring my ghost readers and wasting my own time? Because now that I'm out of debt and rockin my finances, I've decided to do what countless yuppies and travel hackers (same group) have done for years, and get a Marriott Rewards card just for the benefits, and because it's black metal and I'm 5.
Here's the way I see it. I don't use cash most of the time anyway, and using my debit card gets me exactly zero things, other than a way to avoid getting charged interest. Meanwhile, I really like checking out new places, not paying full price, and acting classy. At this point, I'm responsible enough with credit and hopefully savvy enough to game the shit out of the system and reap the rewards.
AND ITS MADE OUT OF BLACK METAL.
With any luck, this will work out great and then I can pick up another card for airline travel, and maybe switch between the two and have all my travel covered. How cool would that be?
Anyways, brave new world!
Why am I boring my ghost readers and wasting my own time? Because now that I'm out of debt and rockin my finances, I've decided to do what countless yuppies and travel hackers (same group) have done for years, and get a Marriott Rewards card just for the benefits, and because it's black metal and I'm 5.
Here's the way I see it. I don't use cash most of the time anyway, and using my debit card gets me exactly zero things, other than a way to avoid getting charged interest. Meanwhile, I really like checking out new places, not paying full price, and acting classy. At this point, I'm responsible enough with credit and hopefully savvy enough to game the shit out of the system and reap the rewards.
AND ITS MADE OUT OF BLACK METAL.
With any luck, this will work out great and then I can pick up another card for airline travel, and maybe switch between the two and have all my travel covered. How cool would that be?
Anyways, brave new world!
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Where I is...
I had a pretty lengthy post on where I'm at with the weight loss, so I'll skip that one for now and move on to the rest.
#2 - Declutter, Digitize, and Destroy. I'm happy to say this one is pretty much working itself out one bit at a time, between selling my stuff to a second hand store and using Amazon's trade in program I've pretty much cut every down to the limits I set for myself, or at least have them set aside to get rid of one way or another.
Except for my damn CDs. Once I get into the nitty gritty of it, it shouldn't be too hard to eliminate about a quarter of them just based on tastes that have changed. And let's face it, the much bigger problem is preventing that kind of stuff from having a permanent spot to begin with, which is why instead of buying The Wire, I'm using Netflix's DVD service. Yes, it's slow, but it also ties into...
#3 - Not sitting on my ass and watching every episode of The Wire in a row. That's called transitioning. With football season over, this is a lot easier. I have about two hours worth of shows that I watch each week, and I watch my Wire dvds as soon as they come in because Omar will kill me if I don't. The only real change up here is that I find myself going to bed earlier. Working through The Wire is pushing me into six hour territory each week; not my goal, but hardly worth whining about.
Anyway, here's an ad for it! Just because I've never tried this before.
#4 - Yeah I haven't studied at all for the GRE lately. No excuse.
#2 - Declutter, Digitize, and Destroy. I'm happy to say this one is pretty much working itself out one bit at a time, between selling my stuff to a second hand store and using Amazon's trade in program I've pretty much cut every down to the limits I set for myself, or at least have them set aside to get rid of one way or another.
Except for my damn CDs. Once I get into the nitty gritty of it, it shouldn't be too hard to eliminate about a quarter of them just based on tastes that have changed. And let's face it, the much bigger problem is preventing that kind of stuff from having a permanent spot to begin with, which is why instead of buying The Wire, I'm using Netflix's DVD service. Yes, it's slow, but it also ties into...
#3 - Not sitting on my ass and watching every episode of The Wire in a row. That's called transitioning. With football season over, this is a lot easier. I have about two hours worth of shows that I watch each week, and I watch my Wire dvds as soon as they come in because Omar will kill me if I don't. The only real change up here is that I find myself going to bed earlier. Working through The Wire is pushing me into six hour territory each week; not my goal, but hardly worth whining about.
Anyway, here's an ad for it! Just because I've never tried this before.
#4 - Yeah I haven't studied at all for the GRE lately. No excuse.
Friday, March 1, 2013
For the month of February!
So a few things...as you can see, I definitely didn't lose another 10. Closing in on 5 for the month (kind of stealing the extra bit from last month), but halfway to 175 overall. Buuuuuut I've definitely started to feel some changes. I'm easily fitting into jeans and suit pants that I had struggled to put on back in November, which is freakin awesome.I realize that weight loss (specifically, fat loss) is not just a numbers game, but I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that I've added massive amounts of muscle. I'm pretty sure the body fat and muscle percentages aren't accurate.
I have also changed things up on the exercise front. I've started running and working out more, nothing too crazy, so that is probably adding a bit to the "tighter" feeling. As I had previously noted, dropping down to this point has been easy for me in the past, so going beyond it is going to be interesting. So I'll be shooting for another 5 pounds lost during the month of March.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Umm...new post!
Ugh, what a crazy busy February it's been. For a short month, I still managed to pack quite a bit into it, and yet going to the movies wasn't one of them because there hasn't been anything worth seeing since Silver Linings Playbook came out.
I'll be doing the monthly rundown Friday, but I wanted to take the time to pat myself on the back for going six months without smoking (as of Valentine's Day, I <3 me). So knowing this, I go into my dental appointment, only to discover I HAVE A FREAKIN CAVITY. WHAT THE DONKEY PUNCH!?!?!
Let's recap. I'm 27, smoked between the ages of 17 and 26, been drinking for the past decade, was a heavy soda drinker before that, and never thought twice about high fructose corn syrup until two years ago, AND NOW I get a cavity?
There is no justice in this life.
And there sure as hell ain't any in my mouth.
...yeah we'll go with that.
Anyway, so this Valentine's Day, I treated the everlovin crap out of myself. Snagged the Bond 50 blu ray collection off Amazon for $130, $90 of which was from a bunch of old textbooks I had sent back as part of my decluttering resolution. I realize buying a 22-movie James Bond blu ray collection seems a tad contradictory, but I justified this due to the fact that A) It's Bond, and B) It's James Bond. It's not like they're gonna be keeping ALL of those on Netflix anytime soon.
I also bought some sweet pens from Tu(weird dotty thing)l. These are some nice pens! Not something I usually get excited about, but hey, when you got your pen brand figured out, it's one less thing on your plate.
I'll be doing the monthly rundown Friday, but I wanted to take the time to pat myself on the back for going six months without smoking (as of Valentine's Day, I <3 me). So knowing this, I go into my dental appointment, only to discover I HAVE A FREAKIN CAVITY. WHAT THE DONKEY PUNCH!?!?!
Let's recap. I'm 27, smoked between the ages of 17 and 26, been drinking for the past decade, was a heavy soda drinker before that, and never thought twice about high fructose corn syrup until two years ago, AND NOW I get a cavity?
There is no justice in this life.
And there sure as hell ain't any in my mouth.
...yeah we'll go with that.
Anyway, so this Valentine's Day, I treated the everlovin crap out of myself. Snagged the Bond 50 blu ray collection off Amazon for $130, $90 of which was from a bunch of old textbooks I had sent back as part of my decluttering resolution. I realize buying a 22-movie James Bond blu ray collection seems a tad contradictory, but I justified this due to the fact that A) It's Bond, and B) It's James Bond. It's not like they're gonna be keeping ALL of those on Netflix anytime soon.
I also bought some sweet pens from Tu(weird dotty thing)l. These are some nice pens! Not something I usually get excited about, but hey, when you got your pen brand figured out, it's one less thing on your plate.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Still Losing? I'm gonna need to think of better titles
I hit sub 195 pounds this week! And then promptly ate a stromboli last night, erasing most of the benefit. The good thing is that I should bounce back for tomorrow morning's weigh in, and that's good, since I wanted to at least get below 195 by the month's end. So screw it, that stromboli was delicious and I earned it.
So as of now, I'm looking at over 11 pounds lost since the beginning of the year, and I'm finding myself feeling a lot better because of it. It's amazing what not being bloated and pounding potato chips and monsters every night does to a person. I've gone into this on a whole "hack of the week" kind of approach that I do kind of regret. Yeah it was important to see the weight I could lose by not eating out, just as it was important to realize that life is gonna happen and I will eat out, but by far the most important has just been taking as much control as I can, as easily as I can.
For instance, here's a quick breakdown.
Breakfast - Two eggs, two strips of bacon, coffee with a bit of cream
Snack - piece of fruit, banana
Lunch - sausage, generous portion of frozen veggies
Snack - almonds or sweet potato chips
Dinner - Some portion of awesome meat/fish/chicken, veggies, and a possible salad
And no goddamn energy drinks. Ever. Even the coffee has felt less necessary as of late. As you can see, I'm following a low-carb approach, I'm hesitant to call it paleo, but it is sort of what I'm aspiring too. I haven't been working out very much either, mostly sticking to a 3 mile run with coworkers once a week (I'll bump it up to twice a week once I'm not dead by the end of it, somehow I've slowed down since I quit smoking). I'm also not exactly sure what calorie count all of that adds up to, only that I don't feel as if I'm starving myself. At first I felt hungry and eat just about all my food at work by noon; now I've been able to eat one piece of fruit before my lunch, and then save the other one for an hour later or so. I do know that I don't want to eat less than this any time soon, if ever, because it seems like a small amount (or more likely, a smaller amount than I'm used to cramming down my facehole).
In other resolution news, I've sold a few of my books on Amazon and sent those in. I still haven't dealt with my CD issue, but it has been kind of far down my to do list, to the point that I only just thought about it.
TV time? Not an issue now that football season is over. The only TV I watch on a regular basis is How I Met Your Mother and NBC Thursday comedies, except for 1600 Penn, that show is a horrible shit pile. However on the computer front, I found a stupid free to play Star Wars MMORPG, and yeah...crap.
And on the grad school front, I have opened the GRE book. The GRE book is open. Boo ya.
Anyway, weigh in posting will be tomorrow. Hell or high water.
So as of now, I'm looking at over 11 pounds lost since the beginning of the year, and I'm finding myself feeling a lot better because of it. It's amazing what not being bloated and pounding potato chips and monsters every night does to a person. I've gone into this on a whole "hack of the week" kind of approach that I do kind of regret. Yeah it was important to see the weight I could lose by not eating out, just as it was important to realize that life is gonna happen and I will eat out, but by far the most important has just been taking as much control as I can, as easily as I can.
For instance, here's a quick breakdown.
Breakfast - Two eggs, two strips of bacon, coffee with a bit of cream
Snack - piece of fruit, banana
Lunch - sausage, generous portion of frozen veggies
Snack - almonds or sweet potato chips
Dinner - Some portion of awesome meat/fish/chicken, veggies, and a possible salad
And no goddamn energy drinks. Ever. Even the coffee has felt less necessary as of late. As you can see, I'm following a low-carb approach, I'm hesitant to call it paleo, but it is sort of what I'm aspiring too. I haven't been working out very much either, mostly sticking to a 3 mile run with coworkers once a week (I'll bump it up to twice a week once I'm not dead by the end of it, somehow I've slowed down since I quit smoking). I'm also not exactly sure what calorie count all of that adds up to, only that I don't feel as if I'm starving myself. At first I felt hungry and eat just about all my food at work by noon; now I've been able to eat one piece of fruit before my lunch, and then save the other one for an hour later or so. I do know that I don't want to eat less than this any time soon, if ever, because it seems like a small amount (or more likely, a smaller amount than I'm used to cramming down my facehole).
In other resolution news, I've sold a few of my books on Amazon and sent those in. I still haven't dealt with my CD issue, but it has been kind of far down my to do list, to the point that I only just thought about it.
TV time? Not an issue now that football season is over. The only TV I watch on a regular basis is How I Met Your Mother and NBC Thursday comedies, except for 1600 Penn, that show is a horrible shit pile. However on the computer front, I found a stupid free to play Star Wars MMORPG, and yeah...crap.
And on the grad school front, I have opened the GRE book. The GRE book is open. Boo ya.
Anyway, weigh in posting will be tomorrow. Hell or high water.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Losin It!
Alright, so I got through last week's "no outside food" challenge well enough, dropping from a starting weight of 205.9 pounds to 198.2 pounds on Saturday morning. I think it's safe to say I had a lot of empty calories to lose, otherwise that would have been something to be concerned about. It also helped that I was sick as a dog after going out New Year's Eve while fighting off a cold.
Yeah, really fucking smart.
I did experience a quick uptick in weight again after drinking at a trivia night and then falling slave to Taco Bell's XXL Beef Nachos. Don't fall save to Taco Bell's XXL Beef Nachos. I've worked in the food industry before, so I'm just going to guess that they're about 1500 calories.
And now I'm going to check. 1160...yeah, not the thing you should be eating at 11pm. Anyway, I've only just gotten back down to there, and it's been three or four days later.
This week's challenge is a bit more of a challenge...eat out for one meal each day, and try to maintain weight loss. Eating out is inevitable in your 20s, so I figure that healthy dining options wherever I go should be something I should concern myself with, and to make sure that I have a healthy breakfast and lunch to hopefully offset most of the damage.
I'll post the little picture thing detailing my daily weigh-ins later when I have time to figure out the snapshot thingy on my phone and all that crap.
Yeah, really fucking smart.
I did experience a quick uptick in weight again after drinking at a trivia night and then falling slave to Taco Bell's XXL Beef Nachos. Don't fall save to Taco Bell's XXL Beef Nachos. I've worked in the food industry before, so I'm just going to guess that they're about 1500 calories.
And now I'm going to check. 1160...yeah, not the thing you should be eating at 11pm. Anyway, I've only just gotten back down to there, and it's been three or four days later.
This week's challenge is a bit more of a challenge...eat out for one meal each day, and try to maintain weight loss. Eating out is inevitable in your 20s, so I figure that healthy dining options wherever I go should be something I should concern myself with, and to make sure that I have a healthy breakfast and lunch to hopefully offset most of the damage.
I'll post the little picture thing detailing my daily weigh-ins later when I have time to figure out the snapshot thingy on my phone and all that crap.
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