Day 378-380: Reveille Weekend Success

Great News, I received the OK to return to full activity from all surgeons, doctors and even my guardian Eeyore gave his OK. Excellent, no time to waste!...

With the weekend here I got busy getting the heart rate and sweat pumping once again. So Saturday morning my wife, one son & I headed off to the YMCA. My wife got her workout on in the swimming pool as usual; a fish she is. Andrew & I hit the weights, above you see him working the lat-pulldowns which seemed like a fine machine to get started on.

Below is the rest of our routine that day...

Rowing

 Iso-Pulldowns

 Assisted Pull Ups

 Calf Press

 Tricep Presses

 Leg Press

 Horizontal Chest Press

 Incline Sit Ups

It felt great to get back in the gym. There were a few other exercises we did which I forgot to take photos of, e.g.squats, flys; we got in good variety in the hour we were there.

Sore, sore was the word of the day for the rest of my weekend. Amazing how muscle-memory works, it was like I hadn't skipped much of a beat. I felt a bit awkward on some of the exercises, felt a tad weak on triceps; but otherwise I was owning the steel.

Sore or not on Sunday, it was time to get in some more. I was determine to make this my Reveille Weekend and awaken from the stagnant slumber that I had been in for too long. Sunday, cardio! My wife was not feeling good so she didn't join as as she wanted to. Andrew & I got after it at the Rollins Savannah...

Last year I put in some great efforts here and put up a streak of personal records here as well. My best time last year on this 3.6 mile loop was 54:49 minutes. We set out with the idea of getting as close to it as possible. No way was achieving that time going to happen this day; No Way! I hadn't put in any consistent cardio in April, I still haven't shed that 10 pound regain from the winter, and my sore muscles weren't feeling extraordinary effort within them.

Never Say Never!

We smashed that PR in a big way.

I came in at 52:04 minutes...

Andrew at 51:35 minutes.

I feel an Oh Yeah!

Did you feel any Oh Yeah's this weekend/recently?

Final thought: We have Never Forgot 9/11 and those murdered, maimed and devastated. The news of OBL's termination is reason for pride swell and affirmation in our determination for justice; but it is not reason to now forget. The cause continues, sadly in the throws of war. Never Forget means just that; NEVER FORGET!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 288 - Saturday Scrapbook

Saturday is here, and this weekend I am NOT SICK, sweeeet! So looking forward to some fun this weekend, although I have nothing planned at all... what about you, any plans?

Today I have a bunch of photos for you. Ok, not a bunch, just a few. More than 1, less than 10 is what I am thinking; let's see how many I find. Here we go...

Up top there you see a shot of me from yesterday, just decided to pose & shoot in the mirror. That is not a pic to celebrate any milestone being achieved, nope; it is just a pic for the fun of it. Below here is another from the side striking a dopey smile...

I did not eat this apple-fritter for breakfast...

Instead I ate this Chobani with fruit concoction...

A peek into one of my desk drawers at work, Hot Sauce & Excedrin are essential tools of the trade;
also the name of a bad Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute garage-band...

Oh come on, BOIL ALREADY...

source

My truck dashboard is where Eeyore calls home...

Crime is up and as well so is the attitude of this victim...

source



Last but not least, my weights-workout board...

Always a work in progress...
with the addition of free weight equipment you can see I am still noodling routines.
I also have scribbled in a core-routine including planks inspired by Yum Yucky.
Ignore the shopping list there, I was pondering a new creation; the Adult Ho-Ho Smoothie.


HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 168 - October Challenge: OCTGTD

To date I have not joined any challenges because, well, because it has been challenge enough to do just what I am doing. But yesterday I joined one simply because it fell in line with what I am hoping to improve upon this month as it is. It is the October: Going the Distance Challenge being sponsored by Fat Girl vs. World.


Even if you are not interested in the challenge itself check out her post and blog if not familiar with her; not likely as she is quite popular not to mention cool. As for myself,  as I replied to her after submitting myself for the challenge I am just progressing from walking to a combo of walking & jogging so that is how I will be meeting the challenge. Just 25 miles, which I bet I complete easily to be honest. My inner side-challenge to seriously attack this will be to see at least half of that be jogging vs. walking. So there you go, challenge on!


Busy weekend planned here. Soccer games for two of the boys. Getting the hunting gear ready and zeroing in the rifles at the range with all of the boys. Daughter will be off doing home coming stuff so we wont see much of her. And between all of that the usual errands, exercise and healthy eating.

What about you?

Plans for the weekend?

Taking it easy?

Both?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 76 - Low-Key Friday

The holiday weekend is upon us and a low-key Friday is on tap for me. So before I go for a walk I sit here pondering completely random oddities...

Will McDonald's ever sell hotdogs and if so what would the call it? Have to be careful with this one...Mc Frank? Big Dog?

Last time I went bowling the guy in the next lane would throw the ball & then sway his throwing arm back and forth like crazy. Did he really think this was going to help his bowling ball hit the mark? Or did up his cool factor considering he was wearing shocking purple and yellow bowling shoes?

I have two bottles of ketchup in our refrigerator; can someone please tell me the difference between normal ketchup and fancy ketchup?

As I kid I watched the Lone Ranger. Yet nobody could answer my question as to why he was 'Lone' when Tonto was always with him?

Weathermen think they are funny; partly cloudy and partly sunny are different how?

I ain't 'fraid of no ghosts - they walk through walls yet they don't fall through the floor and we're supposed to believe they are real?

How easily we are sold to; we go nuts for anything "new" AND "improved"? If it's new, how is it improved?

And just how fast do hotcakes sell anyhow?

Hawaii has interstate highways, I suppose that was government officials thinking ahead just in case a hurricane picks up the islands and slams them into California?

Do Chinese & Japanese people get English letters tattooed on their bodies? I'm thinking a letter 'Z' would be so rad!

And speaking of the Chinese, for a formal dinner what do people in China call the good dishes they set out?

How about you, what are you pondering today?

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 65 - Back To It

Welcome to Monday. Yeah, that means the weekend is done.

Feeling relaxed & ready for a new week?

I can not answer YES to that question myself. I believe it comes with the territory that when you have a busy weekend, especially one away from home, that you don't really relax. As if we need a weekend after our weekend to actually relax before starting a new work week. Yeah, that's it; can we get legislation to make that happen?

We had a fantastic weekend at the wedding and getting away from the everyday. There you see my wife sleeping there as I drive home, a bit too much rum the night before for her. Me, well you see I am just trying to drive & blow a bubble at he same time. Please, please do not try this at home; I am an under-paid professional.

Rested, relaxed or not, today is Monday. That means back to work. Back to parenting. Back to getting healthy in earnest. Forecast calls for allot of rainy and stormy days ahead here, so what I say! I have an elliptical and a treadmill and unless someone moved my gym and dumbbells onto the patio those are inside too. So I have zero, zip, ziltch excuses for getting my healthy on.

How about you, ready for this newest week of being healthy?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 42 - Scallops & Dumbbells

Welcome to the weekend Bloggers, a holiday weekend at that!

Scallops anyone? There on the left you see last night's dinner, bacon-wrapped scallops hit with some mesquite seasoning; these came off the grill 5 seconds after I took that pic. Accompanying them were some fresh green beans lightly sauteed in garlic - Oh my it was good!

Ok, enough food chat. Let's talk exercise shall we? My dumbbell routine has been on my mind so I thought I'd share it below. For all of these exercises I do 3 sets of 12 reps; except the 10th exercise which is a repeat of the 1st but for the 10th exercise I do 7 sets of differing reps; 6, 9, 12, 15, 12, 9, 6. Why do I do that for exercise 10? Really I don't know if it is wise or not, but it seemed to make sense when I cooked it up as a means to give the arms some added attention. Probably a guy-thing. My dumbbells range from 5 to 50 pounds. Currently I use from 10 to 25 pounds depending on the exercise and muscles involved.

1-Seated Concentration Curl

2-Lateral Raises

3-Two-Arms Triceps Extension

4-Bench Press

5-Triceps Kickback

6-Lying Fly

7-Shoulder Press

8-Kneeling One Arm Row

9-Straight-Arm Pullover

10-Seated Concentration Curl (again)

Aren't those animated gif's cool? They are them from dumbbell-exercises.com which I've found to be quite informative. The above dumbbell routine was put together on my own before I found this site. My idea was that it is supposed to strength train a variety of upper body muscle groups in one exercise session. Now having looked a bit more at this site and specifically at the page for Workout Routines for Dumbbell Exercises I wonder if I need to mature my routine a bit. I probably do but I'll need to do some more reading first and of course welcome advice from you.

Any thoughts? Is this routine something a trainer would give a thumbs up to, or, cringe in horror at? Do I need to modify it to do more to target specific muscle groups vs. trying to do them all in one session?

May you have a Magnificent Saturday!

Got any big plans for the holiday weekend?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!

Day 34 - Laugh

Friday is here. Did you hear me; FRIDAY IS HERE!!!

Time for another visit to the lighter side of things. I saw this yesterday and thought it worthy of sharing here. Hope you enjoy…

Ten New Diets by Judy Pokras

You've tried Dr. Stillman's Quick Weight Loss Diet, the Sardine Diet, the Grapefruit Diet, and more, but you're still lugging those extra pounds around. What's a food lover to do? Good news! Ten new diets have just arrived on the scene. One of them is bound to do the trick.

1. The Internet Diet. You lose weight because you're so addicted to being online, you don't eat for days at a time.
2. The Fantasy Diet. You eat a Collard Wrap while fantasizing you're really eating Death by Chocolate.
3. The Play With Your Food Diet. You're so busy making a castle out of your mashed potatoes, you forget to eat them.
4. The Food Chess Diet. You and a friend play chess using food tidbits as chess pieces. You are only allowed to eat when you capture your friend's players. You lose the game and you lose weight.
5. The Rolling Table Diet. You sit on a chair on wheels, trying to eat at a table on wheels. The motorized floor under your table is constantly shifting, so you don't get to eat much, and thus lose weight. (This is similar to The Seasick Diet, but takes place in your own land-lubbing home.)
6. The Fisherperson Diet. A fisherperson holds a pole whose end is attached to a morsel of food in your mouth. Every time you try to bite down on the food, the fisherperson pulls the food away.
7. The Puffed Food Diet. All your favorite foods are re-made in the style of puffed wheat or puffed rice. Your Cheese Ravioli is now mostly air, so you don't gain any weight.
8. The Mock Puffed Food Diet. In this diet, all the foods you like to eat are made of styrofoam, to resemble the Puffed Food Diet. Now you can't eat the food at all. (You try to, and spit it out.) You really lose weight.
9. The Edible Flowers Diet. You are only allowed to eat edible flowers. You get bored with them and eat nothing, thus lose weight.
10. The Love Diet. You munch playfully on your sweetheart's hand. You gain no calories; you lose weight. Your sweetheart loses interest in you because s/he preferred you with love handles.

Ok, maybe that was goofy more so than funny - but, I don't know about you but the Rolling Table Diet sounds like fun! And the Mock Puffed Food Diet does not sound fun at all.

This weekend we have absolutely nothing planned. Nothing worth noting here anyhow. Which means we should be able to find plenty of time to exercise, watch NASCAR and Hockey - Go Blackhawks!

What do you have planned this weekend?

Whatever you do this weekend enjoy it and stay healthy!

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!

Day 21 - Hello Weekend

So who has plans for an awesome weekend? Certainly Mother's Day will see most have plans of some sort with family. Myself, Sunday is just a day at home as there are kids sports activities planned. Beyond lavishing my wife with some gifts Sunday will be fairly routine. Recall we celebrated our Mother's Day with a brunch last weekend for all the moms and grandmas; so glad no buffets this weekend.

Today I get my wife all to myself so we're going on a date. Dinner will be included, Cooper's Hawk, so there will be a bit of temptation to survive. But I am trying a technique I read somewhere he on blogger; go online and preview the menu before you go and decide on a healthy option to order. The idea is doing so lessens chances you will give into temptation's best shot at beating you, when you are at the table looking over the menu on a hungry gut surveying all of the many non-healthy options seducing you. Having look at the menu this morning I am going to order the Pistachio Crusted Grouper. Now I must admit, these technique does seem a bit rigid and may take a hint of fun out of dining out. While I have decided to try this I will listen to the specials the wait staff has to offer and compare them against my choice and then make the final decision. We'll see how it goes tonight.

What about exercise, who has exercise planned this weekend? Myself, I'll be working through a home-gym weight-workout today; actually soon after posting this. The past couple of days I have got in my cardio so not planning any today. Thursday I did a 2.2 mile / 41.5 minute walk and Friday I did 45 minutes on the elliptical. Sunday I might get some cardio in; I only say might as it is supposed to be a windy, cold, wet weekend here and I'd like to get outside for that cardio if I can. Where I'd really like to go for a walk is back to the forest preserve I walked in this past Thursday evening. This is a place nearby which I had never been to before. It was far larger than I expected and excellent for walks and runs of distances of a mile or two to five plus if you wish to make it one lap around this place. Weather permitting we will do so. Hmmm, I think you can call that a Non-Scale Victory; perhaps it's more of a discovery. However had I not decided to go on this mission I would likely have never gone to that preserve and discovered how cool it is. Yeah, I think I chalk it up as a NSV. No?

Sunday is weigh in day for me. Not expecting to have a let down today so I am hopeful to report a nice loss tomorrow. I'll be happy with anything at least 1.5 pounds less than last Sunday. That's my goal, 1.5 pounds a week minimum.

Have fun with your plans, your exercise, your day today!

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!

Day 13 - Danger Ahead

Today is a day like many others. Up around 5:30 a.m. and at the breakfast table with my gorgeous wife by about 6:15 a.m., that is pretty much the routine for us during the work weeks. And I anticipate the rest of the day to be a usual day at work, at eating healthy and enjoying some family time when back at home this evening. It's all good and I'm good with days like this.

But what about tomorrow, or, the day after? The Weekend!?!? Most weekends don’t present too much added challenge to my efforts to get healthy. This biggest challenge of weekends would be boredom, there is more free time and if not used well boredom can creep in and in days of the past I'd hit the pantry for food to relieve the boredom. Then there is a definite up side to having more free time on weekends, I have more time. More time to exercise. More time to plan for the weeks meals ahead. More time to do healthy things.

On MOST weekends those notions are true. But not all weekends are equal and this, the first weekend of May 2010, is not to be a weekend like most. It is a weekend filled with danger, filled with temptation, filled with challenge, filled with scary scary scary hurdles. Of course I am talking about food challenges. Did I say it is going to be scary?

Saturday is my nephews 1st Communion. We'll make the 2 hour drive to attend the church ceremony and then it will be back to my sister's house where she has planned a bountiful menu of delivery pizzas. Ugh, what a temptation to face at a time which will be the usual time we'd eat dinner anyhow. No doubt after the drive, after the church service, after the initial mingling at her house; no doubt by the time the pizza is served my hunger will be at a scary state and I'll be faced with the first dangerous challenge of the weekend to my success. Pizza? Thanks Sis!

Sunday is no better. Sunday we are getting the families together to celebrate the birthdays we have in May and Mothers Day even though it’s a week early. How are we celebrating that? Well how else, with a Sunday brunch of course. Oh it gets better, we're brunching at Papadeaux. Yes, I know that Papadeaux is a seafood restaurant so there will be healthy options available. But if you have not experienced a brunch at Papadeaux then let me fill you in; it's HUGE. Decadent and Sinful foods from every planet in the galaxy and lots and lots of them. So here I'll be faced with the second dangerous challenge of the weekend to my success.

So how do I get through it? My immediate thought is that if I pay attention to what is before me and am conscious of the decisions I'll need to make this weekend, then I should be fine. Otherwise if I just go into these events blind to my having to think and make decisions then I will no doubt make bad choices and do harm.

Can I handle it, I think so... Can I make the best of these challenges and at a minimum do no harm, I think so… Can I stare down temptation without starving myself and feeling like I am being punished, I sure hope so… Can I quickly book a trip to Guam and avoid it all, I think that would result in a frying pan to my head so probably the best way to face the danger ahead.

All that said I am so looking forward to these events with the family. Never do I want to dread such events because of what they may do to my health. Therefore I am just going to have to learn how to balance family festivities with healthy eating, and as well, eating out with healthy eating,

Hey, TGIF, enjoy it!

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!