30 by 30

Winning

2011-05-02T16:07:00.001-04:00

Hey blogosphere!

Since we last tuned in, the Crawler has become known as the Toddler, the restaurant is now the ex-employer, and I've seen the inside of the campus rec center about three times. The Virus-of-the-Month subscription has been arriving steadily without fail, and I'm about to add the letters "MS" to my name. After, not before. All of a sudden, I've run into some free time.

The Crawler is now the Toddler

So I've been doing some reading. Mostly career guidance stuff. But I don't think I'm really looking for career guidance so much as tiny bits of wisdom that I can put into practice here or there.

One of the books was actually an audiobook by Stephen Covey of "7 Habits" fame. Another was an older book with really bad advice on investing but some creative advice on positive thinking. The other day, I stumbled on an excerpt from an upcoming book by the guy who created a semi-satirical blog called "Stuff Christians Like". I'm not sold on the author or the book, but reading between the lines, there was some good stuff there.

Covey talks alot about purpose and focusing on ways to make contributions somehow, even if they seem insignificant. The investment book offered ways to create opportunities from losses. This book excerpt I read the other day made a point about discipline and focus being contagious.

Unlike Charlie Sheen, I'm still not sure how to get a warlock brain, tiger blood, or fire-breathing fists. But these things I've read in the past couple of months all point toward "winning". All the time. No matter what.

So I'm gonna try to put wisdom into practice by entering a weight loss competition with The Wife and some friends. It's guys versus girls, naturally, in a four-on-four couples' challenge. 12 weeks - highest team percentage of weight lost wins. Yeah, kinda like Biggest Loser, except without the hot Hollywood trainers screaming obscenities down your neck. Credit for this contest format goes to our friends, The Armstrongs.

The first week's results: Women 1.7%, Men 2.0%.

Winning - it's not just for breakfast anymore.

Pardon the Construction

2011-03-08T11:21:00.002-05:00

Please excuse the apparent lack of progress on the blog. Currently, I am in the process of bringing you a better "me". For the wrap-up entry to the first chapter of 30 by 30, please click here.

Thanks,

K-love

Editor's note on pirates:

2011-02-01T13:04:00.003-05:00

Pirates are legendary. We all know pirates have eye patches and curvy swords. Occasionally, they have wooden legs. The older ones at least. Some have a talking parrot. Some are cursed. Most are really, really dumb. They salute the Jolly Roger, plunder coastal villages, hijack merchant ships, and make you walk the plank. Not the most well-behaved individuals.

The thing about pirates that unites them - that separates them from the landlubbers - is their love for what they do.

Think about this: what do pirates do with all of that booty? Are they ever in need of money? NO! They take what they need and burn the rest. Could they even spend it if they wanted to? Well, if gold doubloons are an accepted form of currency in your country, I suppose it's possible. But the authorities would be instantly notified and they'd be locked up. Do they invest it in their 401k? Only if there's a desert island nearby paying more than 3.5% interest.

Pirates never retire and stop being pirates. That wouldn't make sense to them. Meanwhile, the landlubbers are all safe in their villages, running the rat race, just trying to produce and thrive like good citizens. But the same authorities who would lock up the pirates in a heartbeat are constantly oppressing and taxing the snot out of the villagers. They'll never be able to stop working and enjoy life.

So, instead of going to work one day, a young, idealistic landlubber says, "To heck with this!" He dons a black cap, a vest, and a pair of baggy pants and sets sail to live out his dream.

The point is, pirates aren't really after the gold doubloons or the fancy trinkets or the pieces of eight. They're loving the work more than the finished product.

There, I said it. Now, go be a pirate.

A Pirate Looks At 30

2011-01-31T23:50:00.003-05:00

Let's just go ahead and get this out in the open. Clear the air.

I failed. Big time.

No two ways about it. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, whitewash it, or gloss over it. I'm not even gonna spend any more time on cliches to tell you that I'm not gonna try to hide it.

I didn't want to write this entry. I mean, I REALLY didn't want to write it. Failure's not fun. Failure is something reserved for others. Others without ambition, others without experience, and others without support.

But the brutal reality is that I had all those things, and I still failed. So in times like these, when I'm most confused, I start to get all analytical. I've gotta take a step back from the situation and try to figure out what's really going on here. What am I missing?

Other people have lost weight. Lots of it. I've seen it happen. People close to me. People I never would have suspected. People who had way more to lose than me - way more reason to give up before they even started. What did they have that I don't? What is wrong with me? What is it that makes me inadequate to do something as mathematically simple as burning more calories than I consume?

After some soul-searching, it seems to me that I've forgotten how to win. A winner requires self-confidence. Something bolder than bravado and more down-to-earth than humility. I haven't won much of anything in a while. But maybe I haven't won because I haven't wanted to win.

To recap: In the beginning of October, I had a vision. I would be turning 30 years old, and I didn't want to leave the 20s on a bad note. Something particularly disturbing me lately was weight gain. I was slightly obese for the first time in my adult life. So I set out to lose 30 pounds by my 30th birthday.

Lots of enthusiasm went into the first few weeks. I counted calories, I rated my workouts, and I constantly imagined ways to motivate myself. Starting with writing this blog.

I sustained a shoulder injury early on, but I plugged right along. One thing I really struggled with was sickness. Ever since the Preschooler started preschool in the fall, I feel like we've subscribed to the Virus-of-the-Month Club. I mean, it's literally something new every month. That helped me limit my calories at first, because I just didn't feel like eating much of anything. But it also gave me a convenient excuse to stay home much of the time instead of going to the gym.

Then, there were the holidays. Thanksgiving Day was a bummer, but from Black Friday until Christmas, I limped back into form and at least maintained an equilibrium. Then, the sedentary traditions of Christmastime caught up to me, and ruined me for a few more weeks.

Despite a deafening silence on the blog, I will say that a week or two of good progress has been made, but it hasn't been nearly enough to counteract the inconsistency and downright indifference that have marked the second six weeks of 30 by 30 so far. End of recap.

"Commit to the work, not the goal."

This is an idea that worked its way through my mind the past couple of weeks, and ultimately found its best expression in two brief entries by a blogger I occasionally follow named Donald Miller. A complement to this idea, and one that answered the question, "What am I missing?" can be found in Don's blog entry for today: "Love the actual work, not the finished product."

And how suitable that this second blog entry by someone I've never met, on a topic I've been ruminating over all month long, I should encounter on the day I turn 30 years old. The day I set forth 17 weeks ago as the ultimate deadline - the culmination of four months of striving and anxiety and disappointment.

By the way - speaking of the deadline - I guess it'd be anticlimactic not to reveal the results of the 30 by 30 weight loss. So here goes...

Four pounds. I lost four pounds. That's one pound per month, if you're following along at home.

Things are still looking up, even if the results to date aren't. I'm actually doing pretty good with the process lately. Now that school's back in session, there's more of a sense of commitment and routine that I was missing over the holidays. I've got this nifty Google Calendar to keep all of my commitments in perspective, and that helps with organization and the wise use of time. And The Wife is going to be participating with me in the area of eating healthier. That's why I am still committed to continuing the blog - and why I insisted on writing today.

So contrary to popular belief, 30 by 30 hasn't gone away. It lives on. And while the process may be more important than the goal, the name of the blog has to continue to mean something.

Maybe the 30-year mark has passed me by, but I've still got my waist. And my inseam. And those both need to be 30 inches. OK, I can't really do anything about my inseam. I'm 5'8", for cryin' out loud. But the new 30 by 30 will be about loving the work, not the finished product. Just don't ask me to put on a pair of jeans any time soon.

The Final Countdown

2010-12-31T12:20:00.003-05:00

I've got a bone to pick.

Not a ham bone or a turkey bone, thank goodness. Not a funny bone, either. And not a Thugs-N-Harmony Bone, for what it's worth.

I already picked this bone with someone on Facebook this morning, but apparently I wasn't satisfied. So I'll pick it again here on the blog...

After working at the restaurant last night, I got home just in time to watch the fourth quarter of the Franklin American Mortgage Company Music City Bowl last night, between the North Carolina Tarheels and my beloved Tennessee Volunteers.

My Vols were winning the game by three points when time expired on the game clock. They won the game. Then, all of a sudden, they didn't.

Apparently, the Christmas Spirit was still hard at work in Nashville last night, because one of the officiating crew was feeling mighty charitable. In an astounding show of goodwill, North Carolina received a free try at a field goal, which they kicked successfully. The tied game went into overtime.

I'll spare you the rest of the details of the game, but the end result was most unfortunate, from where I was sitting.

Through the television set, I was fed the following rationale for the bizarre, unlikely turn of events that took place at the end of the fourth quarter: On the last play before time expired, the officials said after reviewing a video replay, the clock should have been stopped with one second remaining in the game.

When I officiated HS football three or four years ago, one of the jobs in the officiating crew, in addition to the striped guys you see out on the field, was clock operator. Starting and stopping the clock were that person's only functions. And both were done using the same button. Easy enough.

I was told in my very first game as clock operator that the cardinal rule of being clock operator, no matter what happened on the field, was that you never, ever, ever stop the clock leaving only one second at the end of a half. Just let it run out. This is justified in the high school football rule book because it says the clock operator must be given a "reasonable amount of time" to react to the other officials' signals at the end of a play. So the span of one second is generally considered within the margin of human error - a margin too insignificant to expect the person operating the clock to account for every single time the clock is started or stopped.

As it was explained to me, the main reason for this rule is avoiding the type of hysterical ending that played out last night - people leaving and/or rushing onto the field, and then having to be ushered off or called back on before resuming the last play of the game. The crew simply wouldn't insist on holding itself responsible for a game that was complete. Zero on the clock meant the game result was final.

A side effect of this rule was that it allowed the crew to initiate their "escape plan" the moment the game became finalized. They actually had a mapped-out scheme, kinda like a fire escape plan, where the officials were able to be in the same vehicle heading off-campus within seconds of the last tick, and they went over the plan together before each game. So they kinda knew two seconds before everyone else that the game was over, and could maybe get a head start on the unruly mob coming after them for all the other bad calls.

All that said, I'm a little miffed because in sports, "final" is supposed to be "final". Not, "let's go back after it's final and look at the tape to make sure it was really final." If the game isn't finalized after time expires, then when do you draw the line? Seven minutes later? 25 minutes? Could the officials have waited until this morning to call the teams back to the stadium and replay the last second of regulation time? Maybe next week they could make the trip back to Nashville?

2010 is just about final. If the year were 60 minutes long, I imagine we'd be in the last second or two as I write this. I'm gonna

go ahead and consider it 2011 at this point, because unlike the Franklin American Mortgage Company Music City Bowl officials, I can't go back and fix the mistakes I made in 2010. You can only leave them behind you.

People make New Year's resolutions with a mind to change something about themselves in the future. Thinking about the future is good. Studies in sport psychology have shown that constantly visualizing yourself performing something well can lead to better actual performance when it counts.

But what if the word "resolution" took on a slightly different meaning? Let's look at the word "resolve". To resolve to do something (like lose weight) is to make up your mind - to leave no doubt. But to resolve a problem or situation is also to bring about a suitable ending. The first definition - the one folks use most often around this time of year - looks optimistically toward the future, but the second one focuses more realistically on the past and the present.

In past blog entries I've played down the use of strict principles and bold proclamations as motivation. So, I'm gonna go with the second type of resolution this year. I've decided I can make up my mind as many times as I want - I can make myself a new promise after every weekend, or at the beginning of every month. It may be the surest thing I've ever felt. But chances are, I'm gonna feel zero confidence at some point in the future. Will that promise alone be enough?

I picked up alot of bad habits in 2009 and 2010. General laziness, for one. And procrastination. And lack of organization. Knowing and staying aware of your weaknesses is a great first step in resolving them.

So instead of reaching for something in the future, I'm gonna try to leave some things in the past. When 2010 goes final, I'll have lived and learned quite a good deal for one year. What more suitable ending to 2010 than to completely leave it behind, and to use those lessons learned to my advantage in 2011?

And maybe next year, at the 2011 Franklin American Mortgage Company Music City Bowl, they can bring the teams back and finally finish the game that never should have ended last night.

Handing Out Grades

2010-12-21T12:48:00.004-05:00

Yesterday being the last day of school here in Knox County, time to do some evaluation and give out grades to some deserving recipients!

Grad School: B+

Nobody likes homework, but fortunately the one course I took this semester was light on assignments, and I got an 'A'. Good thing too, 'cause in the process I think I came down with senioritis all over again. Eh, it's almost over anyway. Working with the athletic department's been a blast, too.

Fine dining in Knoxville: D

It doesn't really exist. Oh sure, there's plenty of dining. I think, at one point, we even held the national title for most restaurants per capita - maybe we still have it. But there's nothing fine about dining out when the next table over is chasing a three-year-old around the table or complaining about how "them dang ole dawgs is back agin".

Campus Rec Center: C

It's got all the basics. Nothin' fancy. Parking's sometimes a problem, and the hours are a little inconvenient sometimes. They tend to cut back the open hours every time there's a break in classes, which is generally when I have the most time to spend. Tons of equipment and resources though. I only wish they provided towel service and soap/shampoo dispensers in the showers like some of the commercial rec centers I've used.

CrossFit K-Town: A+

Haven't been back since my first trip a couple months ago. But I sure need to go again. Their free Saturday morning workout is the best thing going in town, as far as fitness.

Thanksgiving: F

Spent the whole day, around 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., working at the restaurant. Not voluntarily, either. I told one of the customers that, too.

Black Friday: D

Overrated. I don't care if they're selling TV's at 60% off. I can't believe there are that many folks out there who prefer electronics and hours of waiting in line to sleep. And I didn't even get to pound anyone.

The Internet: C+

Not sure what it's good for, besides playing games and funny videos. It's amusing sometimes, but it seems to take up way too much of my time. Gave it a plus because of the blog, Wikipedia, and IMDB.com.

Snow: B+

Two wintry storms last week. One left an inch of snow, the other dumped ice. Neither stuck around for more then 24 hours, but I'm grading easy this time, since it technically wasn't winter until yesterday. Got outside and spent a solid 30-45 minutes pulling the Preschooler around the yard in a saucer sled. She wanted to go fast downhill... and uphill too. Got in my workout for the day.

My Fantasy Football teams, "The Ron Mexico Show" and "Legend of Ron Mexico": A

It's taken the better part of my restraint not to bring up fantasy football until this far into the blog. I've only referenced football in general briefly once or twice. That's the kind of willpower 30 by 30 is all about. But I'm only human. My two teams went a combined 20-6 during the season, and two or three of those losses came at the end, with nothing left to play for. My better team plays for the championship this week, and the other is still alive for 5th place after giving up a huge lead in a last-second playoff loss.

And last, but practically least... Me: C+

This grade is composed of three categories.

Exercise: C

My exercise routine started with a bang, but hasn't been the best part of my 30 by 30 campaign lately. Last week was a better one, but I went about three weeks there without doing much of anything, in terms of exercise.

Diet: B+

At one point, I stopped keeping exact count of calories, and maybe that was a mistake. Despite not logging them on the blog, I started counting again. Just haven't been able to write enough to justify typing it all out. So far, diet has been my strong point in this amateur weight loss project. I've got a real weakness for fried stuff, pizza, and fatty meats, but fortunately I don't have much of a sweet tooth and I've been able to mostly refrain from overeating.

Hydration: D

This is a problem, I'm sure. I was completely neglecting water for the first few weeks. When I got sick last month, I re-acquainted myself with sports drinks, and although I'm probably more hydrated now, they've also got alot of sugar. I'm in the process of weaning myself by going to diet sport drinks, and hopefully that'll make it easier to remember to drink water instead.

I've kinda put myself in a corner. I'm down to the final six weeks here, and I've got 16 pounds left to lose. It's gonna take an 'A' or 'B+' effort from here on.

WEDNESDAY 12/22/10 DIET LOG:

9:00 a.m. one "everything" bagel from Panera Bread, with about two tablespoons Smart Balance Light 400 calories

Christmas is All Around Me

2010-12-11T11:03:00.005-05:00

That's not a photo of me blogging this morning on a typewriter. It's a screenshot I ripped from the Christmas classic, Love Actually. The Wife and I, like many others, made this flick our holiday couples' tradition a few years ago.

If you haven't seen the movie, you probably avoided it intentionally, because of the "chick flick" stigma that comes with romantic comedies. Someone's probably recommended it, and you've just smiled and nodded graciously. Seeing Hugh Grant and/or Colin Firth on the cover of any movie seems to cause me to do the same.

But it's an all-star cast with an amazing patchwork-style script (think Crash, Pulp Fiction, Magnolia, minus the violence) and a brilliantly navigated soundtrack. It's rated R, for nudity, sexuality, and language, and it deserves the rating. But this is one of the rarer-than-rare times that my disdain for romantic British hunks and The Wife's sensitivity to R-rated material are both easily pushed aside, and we can agree perfectly on a movie.

Just go rent it. Or steal it. Or come borrow my copy, if you like. After Wednesday, that is. That's the night we plan to watch it.

Not trying to write a movie review here... I leave that to the good folks over at Knoxfilmjunkie.com. Only wanted to throw up that timely reminder of the looming holiday deadline, so that I could awkwardly segue into what I wanted to talk about today.

The mail usually runs slow around this time of year, and perhaps my slacker brain cell has gotten the best of me and caused me to wait too long. But it's time, if not past time, to send out Christmas cards. And what better Christmas cards to send out than free ones?!

My friends the MCB's turned me on to this promotion at Shutterfly.com. Since I have a blog (sometimes), I was able to sign up to get some free stuff by writing about their products.

Typically, when we send out cards, The Wife chooses two or three and I make the final decision. But this year, it's the other way around. In the spirit of the promotion, I've selected three possible themes for this year's cards, and they're all inspired by 30 by 30. And we're putting photos of the girls on the cards, so wanted a design to reflect that, and have room for at least 2 pics.

The finalists (in no particular order, and each pic links back to product details on Shutterfly):

I found this one and immediately thought... Lists!

The banner in the middle of this card caught my eye. It looked delicious. Reminded me of chocolate. Then I saw the title of the design: "Sweet Chocolate". Duh. How appropriate for a blog about diet and weight loss. Speaking of chocolate, The Wife made Kahlua fudge yesterday. There just might be a connection here.

I looked, but couldn't find an Asian-themed card, so I reached a little bit.

The "Back"ground of this card is Black. Get it? Back... in... Black?

Now that I've fulfilled my obligations to my sponsor, feel free to click over to Shutterfly and buy stuff. And The Wife will probably read the comments below, so if you want to, you can try and influence the final decision.

I went to the mall yesterday. Not on my own behalf, but running some errands for others (I'm the charitable sort). Made some observations, though, while I was there:

Some people at the mall seem perfectly willing to just walk right into you, if you don't alter your path first, before the collision occurs. This happens way too often for comfort.
Must be awesome to be one of those old folks, just sittin' away the hours in those comfy chairs at the entrances to the mall. I'm not being sarcastic this time. That really looks awesome. What I don't like is when the chairs are coin-operated massage chairs and they're not on. What if I want a mall-chair massage? "Excuse me, sir? If you're not gonna turn that chair on, would you mind sitting over there?"
Those folks standing at the kiosks in the medians must be seasonally out-of-work carnival workers. They're gonna get your attention one way or another. The only way to escape being pitched their miracle cosmetics or made-in-Afghanistan trinkets is to look straight ahead, don't make eye contact, just keep on walking...
How cleverly inconvenient of them to put the registers all the way in the back of the store.
Now, the mall cops are on wheels. Not golf carts, or bikes, or even rollerblades. I'm talking about some kind of Jetsons-lookin' two-wheel hovercraft thing straight from the movie Total Recall - or maybe one of those Stallone sci-fi's.
There's a space in a food court in every mall in America claiming it sells "Cajun" food. Except every single one is run by people of Asian heritage, and every one sells food suspiciously identical to your local Chinese buffet. Bourbon Chicken? Or Honey Chicken? I guess they figured out you can sell twice as much Asian food if you sell it from opposite sides of the food court and call one side something else. "Cajun" just happened to rhyme with "Asian".
My favorite store in the mall, by far, is Williams-Sonoma. I could easily spend a million dollars in there, and after that bought me a coffeemaker, I could probably spend a million more.

I'm gonna be late for work.

9:00 a.m. 2 eggs, scrambled, one bacon strip, 1 small bran muffin with butter 350 calories

1:30 p.m. ate about 4 oz of a 6 oz portion of homemade chicken lasagna, small salad with Honey Bacon French dressing 500 calories

NO WORKOUT SATURDAY 12/11/10

Brain Cells

2010-12-10T23:37:00.000-05:00

There's a three-year-old person living in our house. Just down the hall from the dining room. Last right before the bathroom. She eats here, sleeps here, does just about any other function here that a normal person would do. They call her The Preschooler, AKA The Tiny Dictator, AKA Thing One.

This three-year-old person has exactly three brain cells. She's grown one brain cell for every year of her life. I've figured this out, because I have seen them develop over time, and I know exactly what each one of them does.

The first brain cell that The Preschooler developed, in year one, was the control brain cell. This is used to establish supremacy in the household. Need something to eat? Make the parents feed you. Have a dirty diaper? Make them change you. Need a nap? Not really in the "relax-and-fall-asleep" mood? Just have the parents rock you to sleep. It's really simple. You can scream until their ears peel, act like you have no mastery of your bodily functions, keep them awake all night... basically, just do whatever is required to maintain control in every situation.

The next brain cell that developed was the vocabulary brain cell. This is the one that picks up on any and every word that is spoken. It gave her all the weapons necessary to creatively subvert authority, even after her infantile rage and distress were played out. This took control to a whole new level.

The vocabulary brain cell made it possible for the child to learn - and retain - new words and phrases, such as "Pygmy Marmoset", and "Coati", which the parents' combined 60 years of experience had never before encountered. Not only were there new terms, but with the aid of the control brain cell, the child learned to marshal her newfound vocabulary to demand, coerce, beg, reason, manipulate, argue, and sweet-talk her way into pretty much anything she wanted.

In the third year of life, the Preschooler has developed the brain cell known as the opposite brain cell. This brain cell is potentially the most daunting yet. It has the power, at any given moment - sometimes completely at random - to turn any conversation or situation completely on its head.

At first, we thought we had this one figured out. It's called "reverse psychology". I know a little about this. More than a three-year-old knows, at least. In order to get her to eat her eggs, you tell her she can't eat all of the eggs. You want the child to come to you? Act like you don't know where she is, or pretend like she's invisible. She'll come.

It worked like a charm... for a while. Then she learned how to "double back". Soon, she figured out what was going on, and learned to perceive what agenda you were trying to accomplish, rather than simply taking your words at face value and turning them around to set her objective. So we were back to opposite again.

The other day I was having a late breakfast of tuna salad and crackers.

Did he just say tuna salad? For breakfast? I don't think that's even human.

Yes, I said tuna salad. Or at least my dumbed-down, quick-and-easy version of it. No mustard, no eggs, no relish. None of that fancy stuff. Just canned tuna with a touch of mayo to bind it together.

Well, anyway, I was having tuna salad, and the Preschooler took notice. When lunchtime rolled around, I was sure she'd ask for one of her staples - ham and cheese, frozen corn dog, or whatever leftovers in the fridge involved melted cheese and/or ketchup. But of course she did the opposite of what I expected and asked for the tuna instead. The little ankle-biter ate all the tuna, minus the crackers I supplied, and loved it.

I really ought to stop writing about the Preschooler in my blog, because someday she'll learn to read. And then she'll start using the internet. And then she'll probably get on Facebook and trash me to all of her friends. Hey, future Preschooler? If you're reading this... what say we call a truce?

You'll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump.

And the chances are, then, that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump, you're not in for much fun.

Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

-from Oh! The Places You'll Go!

by the immortal Dr. Seuss

The Preschooler's daddy has a few brain cells too - 29 of them, to be exact. The latest one to emerge is called the "slacker" brain cell. Rather than aiding in the accomplishment of simple tasks, this one is self-defeating. It's infectious. It goes around convincing all the other brain cells to take the day off.

Maybe it's a result of going back to school, or getting old and fat, or just having more important things to worry about in general, but it's getting harder and harder to function as a normal, real-life human being. Procrastinating until the absolute last minute to do stuff, always running late, sometimes missing important dates and meetings completely.

So when I say, "I fell off the wagon," what I really mean is, "I'm still a slacker and nothing has ever really changed about that."

I blogged a couple weeks ago, and I've only worked out a couple times since then. First I was sick, then there was Thanksgiving, and then there was family visiting, and the end of the semester, and waaay too much work, and up all night with kids crying and no sleep, and... sick again the last couple of days.

There's always something. Right?

I've got seven weeks left, as of this coming Monday. The scale says I gained about three and a half pounds back in two sedentary weeks with turkey and dressing and cheesy baked casseroles and the occasional run for the border and splurging on holiday goodness. So it's gonna take everything I've got to finish strong. There's gonna be between 15-20 pounds to lose before January 31. Here's what I'm thinking:

1) Workouts may be toned down in intensity, to avoid burnout, but I may need to extend the duration sometimes. I want to burn calories at a constant pace rather than try to set a new heart rate max every day.

2) Going back to calorie-counting. A couple of friends suggested this calorie counter which I haven't really used on a daily basis, but it's at least an interesting toy to play with. I don't know if it'll solve my problems with time-consuming lists of ingredients and figuring out every meal from scratch (we don't buy a whole lot of packaged food), but it'll be a good place to start.

3) In addition to calorie counting, I'm also going to measure water intake. That's probably pretty important to keeping motivated.

3) It helps that school is out, and I'm easing off on some other voluntary commitments until it resumes.

4) My part-time gig at the restaurant is busy as ever for the next couple weeks, and working there is almost like an additional daily workout (on my feet constantly for five to six hour stretches), so there's a chance to burn extra calories.

If all else fails, me and the Preschooler are going to have a talk about this "opposite" thing and how to harness it for good, rather than evil. Both of us, that is.

Back in Black

2010-11-26T05:08:00.008-05:00

Black. The color of cast-iron skillets. The color of most pens. The color of these words.

Black is the new brown. Black is urban and hip. Black is the color of the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the color of the sky at the wee hour when millions of folks go out to worship at the shrine of the retail gods.

Who would engage in such a ghastly, primitive ritual? Surely not I. Surely.

Guess again.

Always one to "try anything once", I've never actually been out on a Black Friday shopping experience, and I wanted to see what all the fuss is about. This year was a perfect opportunity. The Fam is all out of town, so I'm pretty much free to come and go as I please. Maybe get up early, do a little poking around at a Wal-Mart or a Toys R Us, then crawl back in bed and snooze a while longer.

So I set about to do just that this morning - and I intended to document the experience in full.

We've all heard the Black Friday horror stories about people being trampled to death for a flatscreen TV, or being punched in the face for a Tickle-Me Elmo. I understand some tragedies have occurred as a result of an unruly mob's pursuit of an insane shopping deal. But surely nothing like that goes on in little ol' Knoxville, Tennessee, right?

I mean, out of 250,000 people in this town, only a fraction of those are crazy enough to go out at 4 a.m., right? And even then, that fraction would be spread out over 15-20 various mega-outlets... Wal-Marts, Targets, K-Marts, Sears's, Toys R Us's, and Best Buys, just to name a few. There wouldn't be any lives in danger, but I figured there'd still be large crowds, maybe even some unruly ones.

In fact, secretly, I was hoping to get in on some of the running, shoving, shouting, clamoring, wrestling action just for fun. Maybe find my way to a super-deal by following the herd, and then get in a good workout as I took advantage of the opportunity to commit socially acceptable and harmless violence on my fellow man. Maybe sell whatever I bought on E-Bay for some extra Christmas cash. Maybe just participate in the frenzy and leave empty-handed, but no poorer than I came and with some hilarious anecdotes to blog about. I'll just go ahead and tell you... I was really let down by my Black Friday experience.

Here's how it got started:

3:00 a.m. Woken up by alarm clock. Giving serious thought to going back to sleep, given that I was lying in bed awake until around 1 a.m. and didn't get more than two hours' sleep, max. Remembered the coffee that I'd programmed to brew at 2:45 a.m... well, I at least had to get up and shut the pot off.

3:05 a.m. Research time. I wanted to find out if I was going through with this, where my point of attack would be. Got online and went through the options. Wal-Mart was the type of place I'd had in mind - the kind of store that attracts the plaid-and-camo-wearing, diesel-driving, singing-fish-buying crowd. Problem with Wal-Mart was, it's open 24 hours/day so there wouldn't be a big grand opening. Same with Toys R Us... they opened at 10 p.m. Sears wasn't a big enough toy destination, and there was a pretty good chance I could find myself making a beeline for the latest collectors' fad - Squinkies. I heard they were selling out fast. K-Mart is a little too unattractive to ever go in there. Best Buy - I might accidentally break and/or buy something I can't afford. So I settled on Target. They open at 4 a.m. today. Perfect.

3:15 a.m. Pouring my coffee into a mug. Gonna take a shower (why? because I'm quirky like that. See this earlier post for more info), and I want that cup of coffee down to a perfect sipping temp by the time I'm done. Don't wanna boin my widdow mouffie...

3:20 a.m. Hot, hot shower wakes me up a little bit too.

3:30 a.m. Decked out in sweats, for comfort and full range of motion. Don't know what I'm up against out there, but athletic gear seems most appropriate for the kind of action I'm looking for. Got my nice Adidas Sequence sneakers on, which the good folks at the Tennessee athletics department were gracious enough to give me at the start of the year. Seriously, this is the best pair of sneakers I've ever owned. Got my backpack - I kept the textbooks in there, just to add some weight to my load. Shoved a quart of Gatorade, my video camera, and an umbrella in there, too. Oh yeah, and many of you may have also gone out early on Black Friday, but none of you looked this fierce:

3:40 a.m. With backpack in tow, I head out to Target. It's only a five minute drive.

3:45. a.m. Arriving at the shopping center anchored by Target, I learn I wasn't the only one who had the idea to get up early and shop. Not only is the Target parking lot completely full, but the adjacent parking lot abandoned by Circuit City a couple years ago is pretty packed as well. At this point we go to the live broadcast...

The following are a couple of voice recordings from my cell phone. I decided to leave the video camera in the car to avoid stressing out security. The pic is a view of the entrance to Target at about 4:19 a.m. Notice the use of overturned shopping carts to create a corridor which funnels customers to the front doors and keeps folks from cutting in line. Also, notice Santa Hat Guy a couple of spots ahead in line.

This was the checkout line. Even if I'd wanted to buy something, it wasn't worth this.

That guy in green tights was the same one who got shut down for the commemorative photo with his girlfriend. Apparently, that put him over the edge.

So I didn't get the workout I was hoping for. Not even a footrace with a 55-year-old new grandma. That's too bad.

However I did finally get back in action, on Tuesday. Did another jog down to the high school stadium, hopped the bleachers, jogged around some more, then jogged home. It. Felt. Good. By the way, I wore all black on my jog.

I'm like some kind of slightly overweight, working man's Ninja.

That jog seemed to jog my appetite a little bit (you see the pun there?), and being degenerately fixated on Asian food, I celebrated my newfound will to eat with a trip to the new Japanese place on my block.

Other than that, though, I still haven't felt much compulsion to eat. I guess maybe I should just accept it as a good thing and move on. Maybe my stomach's "shrunk" or it's just not expecting as much as it was before.

OH, and then there was Thanksgiving. That wonderful holiday came and went without much to celebrate, because I worked from about noon until around 10 p.m.. It was pretty miserable.

However, for all intents and purposes, I had my Thanksgiving today. Had the night off, ate some turkey and stuff. Alot, but not too much. But who's counting anyway? Watched alot of football. And blogged.

I'm still coughing pretty hard, off and on, so I think I'm going to see the student health clinic on Monday if this persists. I think the workout on Tuesday made it worse, too. I'm still going to try to ease back into the groove, but with the gym being closed and all the other Thanksgiving stuff, my workout schedule has been pretty much kicked in the groin. I promise I'll get back to it by Monday. I'm ahead of schedule anyway so I'm not too worried.

And... fade to black.

TUESDAY 11/23/10 DIET LOG:

9:00 a.m. Fiber One bar

1:30 p.m. 6 oz serving homemade lasagna cresent roll

5:00 p.m. leftover meal at work - 2 chicken wings, plain, one chocolate chip cookie

WORKOUT TUESDAY 11/23/10:

Equipment: football stadium, track, sneakers

Length: 35 minutes, including cool-down walk

Intensity (1 to 7): 6

Exercise: jogged 1/2 mile from my house to football stadium, 1/2 mile on track, hopped bleachers to top of stadium (24 bleachers), another 1/2 mile on track, 1/2 mile home. Walked about 1/3 mile, off and on.

WEDNESDAY 11/24/10 DIET LOG:

10:00 a.m. Fiber One bar

3:00 p.m. lunch portion Hibachi grilled scallops with grilled carrots, zucchini, onions, and such (about 2 cups), about 2 cups fried rice

7:00 p.m. one Sushi roll with tuna/salmon, as if lunch wasn't enough Asian food for the day

NO WORKOUT WEDNESDAY 11/24/10

THURSDAY 11/25/10 DIET LOG:

12:00 p.m. two breakfast sausage links

1:30 p.m. 4 oz slice of turkey

4:00 p.m. about 2 oz each turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, and cranberry sauce

NO WORKOUT THURSDAY 11/25/10

FRIDAY 11/26/10 DIET LOG:

10:00 a.m. one small steak biscuit, leftover from parents' Cracker Barrel supper the night before

1:30 p.m. one whole turkey leg, 1 cup turnip greens, 2 oz each dressing and mixed vegetable casserole, two deviled (half) eggs

3:00 p.m. 1/2 slice chocolate pie

7:00 p.m. one turkey wing

NO WORKOUT FRIDAY 11/26/10

Livin' on a Prayer

2010-11-22T22:48:00.003-05:00

Wow... this being sick sure has its benefits. I've lost a total of 15 pounds in seven weeks. Ohhh, we're halfway there, 'cause I've been livin' on a prayer for the past week.

I still haven't done any type of aerobic exercise. It's been over a week now. Not that I've been avoiding it. I just couldn't shake the cold on Friday enough to get out of the house. On Saturday, I was pretty much over the aches and fatigue, but a really bad cough set in.

My plan was to go back to Crossfit K-Town for another killer Saturday morning workout. That went by the wayside, though, because the last time I went, I came back wheezing and coughing so much, I thought I might have asthma. When I hacked up my second lung on Saturday morning, I called it off.

I'm pretty much back to health as of today, but my still-stagnant appetite is really the strange thing. Not that I'm complaining. Weighed in this morning, expecting a pound or two to return after the sedentary week. Not so. Apparently the lack of eating three meals a day resulted in a four-pound loss. I'll take it.

Not gonna put this one on water loss, 'cause I've been chugging more Gatorade than ever before, (more than I could remember to keep track of) just to keep hydrated and a few calories coming in. 'Bout one or two quarts a day, best I can remember. Not something I want to continue doing, but it sure didn't hurt in this case, anyway.

I ate alot of brussels sprouts on Friday, by the way. I bought them on my renegade, workout-escaping, health food shopping spree a couple weeks ago, and they needed to be cooked. So I borrowed a concept from the restaurant where I work, and made them with a honey butter glaze. These sprouts are no joke.

I was the only one I knew who ever considered eating brussels sprouts... until they added them to the menu at work. Now I'm finding out there are lots of folks there who think they're excellent, and way more customers than I'd have ever imagined as well. I wonder if maybe it's the way they fix them.

Recipe (for anyone who's interested in brussels sprouts):

At the restaurant, they roast the sprouts with salt/pepper, then sautee them in honey butter with canola oil and bacon crumbles. Well, I improvised. I was in possession of a leftover pan of bacon grease from breakfast, which looked like about three slices' worth of drippings. So after trimming off the stems of the sprouts and slicing them in half, I did the roasting part - about 20-25 minutes on 400 degrees. Then I added about two tablespoons butter, maybe three tablespoons honey, to the grease. Made a glaze that tasted pretty much identical to what they're sauteed in at work, and coated the sprouts with it. I didn't have the bacon crumbles, but so what?

FRIDAY 11/19/10 DIET LOG:

throughout day - two 32 oz bottles Powerade

1 slice toast

2 cups hash browns

1 pound brussels sprouts - That's right, I said one pound. And I meant it. That's alot of sprouts.

meal at work - 3 chicken wings, 1 tablespoon ranch

NO WORKOUT FRIDAY 11/19/10

SATURDAY 11/20/10 DIET LOG:

1 slice toast

1 Fiber One bar

1 large bean burrito - 3/4 cup mashed pinto beans, some lettuce/tomato/diced jalapeno, 1 tablespoon sour cream

meal at work - 5 cold, congealed tater tots, a spot of ketchup (that's British for about a teaspoon), 1/2 chicken patty, a spot of Heinz 57 sauce, 1 roll

NO WORKOUT SATURDAY 11/20/10

SUNDAY 11/21/10 DIET LOG:

1 Fiber One Bar

About 4 oz roast beef, one roll at basketball game

two slices pizza at halftime of basketball game

NO WORKOUT SUNDAY 11/21/10

MONDAY 11/22/10 DIET LOG:

24 oz mixed berry smoothie with about 1/2 cup milk, one cup yogurt, lots of blackberries/raspberries/blueberries/strawberries, and two scoops soy/whey protein powder

one bowl of homemade mushroom soup

NO WORKOUT MONDAY 11/22/10

Give Me A Makeover

2010-11-19T00:09:00.004-05:00

30 by 30 needs a personality. A look. A feel.

I've procrastinated long enough on giving this blog a design. Not even sure what parts I can configure on blogger.com, but I'm looking for ideas.

Assuming you've been reading - now that you have a taste of 30 by 30, what are some ideas that come to mind? Some words that personify the blog? Some themes that flow through it?

I'll get into it this weekend and put something together, but I'm pretty sure I got nothin' to start with. I need visual cues. Imagery, maybe? Or maybe just the name of a font. I'm gonna go ahead and veto Comic Sans, so don't even go there.

Give me some ideas for this blog's look, and I promise I'll get back in the gym tomorrow. I'm putting this on you. All 20 of you. Feel that conscience burn.

WEDNESDAY 11/17/10 DIET LOG:

still no appetite

10:00 a.m. about 2 eggs, scrambled, cold, left over from breakfast which I slept through

12:00 p.m. 1/2 of a homemade pastrami wrap with about 2 tablespoons cream cheese, some red onion and black olive, and fresh spinach leaves

7:00 p.m. 1 1/2 cups of a homemade rice/cheese casserole-type dish with about a 4 oz portion of pork chop, about 8 roasted asparagus spears

NO WORKOUT WEDNESDAY 11/17/10

THURSDAY 11/18/10 DIET LOG:

appetite... slowly... returning...

throughout the day: one 32 oz bottle Gatorade and one 32 oz bottle low-calorie G2 Gatorade

10:15 a.m. 2 slices buttered toast, 1 cup OreIda hash browns/onions

5:30 p.m. meal at basketball game - one 6 oz portion chicken cordon bleu, one cup steamed green beans/carrots/mushrooms, one chocolate cookie with M&Ms (oops)

NO WORKOUT THURSDAY 11/18/10

I Just Like To Look At The Pictures

2010-11-15T23:31:00.000-05:00

Still feeling kinda under the weather... not much working out going on. And by "not much", I mean "none". Being sick sure does help control the appetite, though.

Don't really feel like talking about the pound I gained on my weigh-in yesterday. Don't really feel like talking much at all, really, since I'm so hoarse. So I'll let some pictures speak for me.

Yes, pictures. Something I've been lacking so far on the blog. Now, 30 by 30 goes illustrated.

Took The Fam on a trip to Cades Cove Saturday morning. There was a hayride and a cookout involved. Good times. Took me a couple days to get them developed, but here's what it looked like:

Daddy and the girls

The Fam

The girls

The Preschooler, clownin' around

The Crawler... crawlin', what else?

The Wife and The Preschooler,

playing in the creek

Critters we seen

Old stuff

The scenery

I like signs.

Some poor schmuck made it necessary to draw this one.

I wouldn't mess with that horse. Seriously.

An oldie, but a goodie.

You can't see the horse 'cause it's camouflaged.

Hello? Smoky Mountains?

Perfectly grilled, all-beef, bun-length franks

Hey! Thats not diet food!

FRIDAY 11/12/10 DIET LOG:

Three 32 oz bottles of Gatorade throughout the day

9:00 a.m. 1 slice toast, 1/2 slice bacon, that the Preschooler didn't finish

2:00 p.m. 1 cup angel hair pasta, about 2 oz chicken

5:00 p.m. meal at work - 7 chicken wings, about 2 tablespoons ranch dressing

NO WORKOUT FRIDAY 11/12/10

SATURDAY 11/13/10 DIET LOG:

not much appetite...

1:00 p.m. 2 beef hot dogs, 2 buns, about 1/2 serving potato chips, one 32 oz bottle of low-calorie G2 Gatorade

4:30 p.m. meal at work - one quesadilla thingy with a half of some kind of beef/black bean hybrid meat patty, one tablespoon sour cream

NO WORKOUT SATURDAY 11/13/10

SUNDAY 11/14/10 DIET LOG:

still no appetite...

1:45 p.m. cheeseburger at volleyball match, 1/2 teaspoon mayo, 1/2 teaspoon ketchup

6:30 p.m. two slices Papa John's pizza with sausage/banana peppers

NO WORKOUT SUNDAY 11/14/10

MONDAY 11/15/10 DIET LOG:

10:00 a.m. one bowl of oatmeal, cold, plain

5:30 p.m. meal at basketball game - one cup pasta with steamed vegetables, 1/2 cup green beans, 1/4 cup lasagna, one roll

NO WORKOUT MONDAY 11/15/10

TUESDAY 11/16/10 DIET LOG:

8:30 a.m. two servings Cracklin' Oat Bran cereal, 3/4 cup milk

12:30 p.m. bowl of homemade mushroom soup

5:45 p.m. one cup chicken stir-fry, one cup fried rice <- Asian

NO WORKOUT TUESDAY 11/16/10

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2010-11-12T10:05:00.002-05:00

Finally starting to see the rewards of all this effort.

There's this pair of black pants that I wear at work. This is the largest-sized pair of pants I've ever worn in my life. I got them a few months ago after the crotch split out of my last pair and I went around the restaurant one night with only an apron hiding my underwear. Pathetic, but true story.

I don't want to buy another pair of pants, even if it means wearing these five nights a week. Mainly 'cause I'm just cheap like that. But it looks like I'm gonna have to pretty soon, because when I took off my belt last night on the walk to my car, they were sagging.

There wasn't much celebration though, 'cause I think I've come down with a bad cold. Not really feeling like doing much of anything. So I think I'll go back to bed now. Sorry, Star-Trac Elliptical Machine #1. Maybe another time.

WEDNESDAY 11/10/10 DIET LOG:

9:00 a.m. about 2 1/2 cups of smoothie, with mango and peaches, about 1 1/2 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt, and two scoops soy/whey protein

12:00 p.m. about a cup of some Kung Pao Chicken meal from the frozen foods section that we fixed the other night, and about a cup of sauteed spinach

4:30 p.m. meal at work - three chicken strips, about 15-20 tater tots

NO WORKOUT WEDNESDAY 11/10/10

THURSDAY 11/10/10 DIET LOG:

9:00 a.m. two servings Cracklin' Oat Bran cereal (my fave), about 3/4 cup milk

12:00 p.m. large salad with about two cups fresh spinach, 1/2 cup dried cranberries, 1/4 cup crushed pralines, 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, and one tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette dressing. One avocado, sliced... I think it was going bad, so I didn't finish it.

5:30 p.m. Baked Potato "Au Broc" at Jason's Deli. Huuuge potato, ate about half of it with broccoli, cheese, and bacon.

NO WORKOUT THURSDAY 11/11/10

Highs and Lows

2010-11-08T22:14:00.007-05:00

I have a great suggestion for the campus rec center, also formally known as "TRECS"... ready for this?

They need to have their staff erupt in a roaring round of applause whenever someone finishes a super-duper workout.

It couldn't cost them anything. I mean, there are always three or four folks just wandering around, wiping off equipment, changing trash bags, etc. What else do they have to do but stop once in a while and cheer for the Workout Warrior of the hour? (That's what they would call the person they're applauding)

The director of campus rec is a mild-mannered character. He's kind of like your 9th grade math teacher. Pretty straight-laced guy. Seems like he keeps in shape. Very businesslike. I think there's a personality there - in fact, I'm sure he's a great guy if you get to know him, but that would be a really interesting conversation. Here's how I imagine it:

Me: Rex! Hey, man. Glad I finally caught up with you!

Rex: How did you get in my off...

Me: Dude! I got this great idea for creating some energy in the gym!

Rex: I think you need to submit a...

Me: Workout Warriors, man! Every hour, the staff picks a Workout Warrior and celebrates to show their support.

Rex: This is ridiculous, why do we...

Me: Think of the energy, the motivational value, the ATMOSPHERE!

Rex: We have personal trainers for...

Me: I'll just go round up the staff to present it to them...

Rex: I'm going to have to call...

Me (from down the hall): Can't wait to get started!

I'm not making any more excuses for the most recent hiatus. I'll just sum up what's been going on since I last checked in. No more excuses. Not gonna talk about how "life got in the way" or "more important things came up". 'Cause that's just not true.

The last couple of weeks have seen their share of "highs" and "lows". Mainly, though, there were alot of "lows". I couldn't write. I didn't want to write.

Two weeks ago Monday, I had a chip on my shoulder. A score to settle. I'd put myself through a pretty good workout regimen, and that darned scale had the nerve to tell me I'd only taken off a half-pound. Seriously? I'd taken off a half-pound before I ever got in the shower that morning, even before I sweated for 30 minutes in the gym. That half-pound was somewhere in the city sewer system by now. That was just crap.

So I got mad. I proceeded to abuse that poor elliptical machine as if it were an object. And then I had the nerve to taunt it publicly.

I think the extreme aggression motivating me led to severe burnout. Good description here of exactly what that looks like. There was one day - just prior to Halloween - when I mounted the God-Forsaken Exercise Bike and experienced (appropriately enough) a strange feeling of dread and desperation. After five minutes, I just got up and walked away, disgusted and dismayed.

In the midst of the despair, there was a bright spot. The day after the epic fail with the exercise bike, I participated in my first Level 7 intensity workout so far. It was truly Murderiffic. Let me pause and tell you about a fantastic resource for anyone in the Knoxville area.

I was invited to a free, no-strings-attached, group workout at a local gym called CrossFit Ktown by the same buddy who first prompted me to coin the word, "Murderiffic". The philosophy behind CrossFit is very individual-centered, very holistic, and time-efficient. You're trying to get the most all-around fitness for your time, in other words.

There was a diverse group of around 15-20 in attendance, about equally male/female, from teenage through gray hair. I could tell I was easily in the bottom three, as far as aerobic conditioning goes. The workout seemed generalized enough, and customizable enough, that anyone could benefit. The pre-workout warm-up was hard enough, and by the time the actual workout started, I felt like I probably could have quit and called it a legitimate Level 4 workout. But the actual workout couldn't have lasted much more than 10-15 minutes. In the long run, it probably didn't do a whole lot for my overall fitness as much as it boosted my confidence and motivation. But it was a free sample, after all.

The Sunday morning workout with Personal Trainer Buddy a few weeks ago was really hard. Let's be clear. It was a strong Level 6. But that was mostly him pushing me to do my best. I think what pushed this to a Level 7 intensity was the presence of - and competition with - others who were clearly in better shape than me, and who I had no business competing with in the first place.

So that workout had me pretty much on Cloud Nine. That was Saturday. Sunday was Halloween. There's where things went awry. First there was the spontaneous decision to join friends at the Chinese Buffet. If you're following along, this was both completely devastating and completely predictable. A grave weakness of mine. Then, there was pizza on Halloween night. Not just pizza, but cheesesticks too. Not just pizza and cheesesticks, but garlic-butter sauce. Oh - and tortilla chips with cheese dip. More food than I could accurately remember to record in my diet log. Really, all of my memories of Halloween night seem to dissolve into a haze of cheesy goodness.

Remember Monday? The part where I weigh in? That part comes next.

The verse tabbed Galatians 6:7 in the King James Version of the Holy Bible includes the commonly referenced passage, "...whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." What I reaped on that day, after practically 24 hours of straight-up sin, was a three-and-a-half pound gain on the scale.

I'm flat-out bummed at this point. What am I doing? Did I just erase my last two weeks of effort? Why am I even trying? What is the point? Am I already too old for a serious attempt at weight loss? Who's gonna notice if I just stop doing this? Why am I thinking in italics?

Needless to say, it was a trying couple of weeks. I continued working out - even had some really good, Level 6 workouts. It wasn't like before. I had to endure two or three days of malaise before I could build up enough anger at myself to go do it again. It was a love-hate relationship with exercise. It was classic burnout.

One day last week, I got up, did my usual routine, and left for the gym. Only, I didn't make it to the gym. I stopped about a half-mile from my house, detoured, and went to the grocery store instead.

I like the grocery store. Some folks look at grocery shopping like I look at mowing the lawn. I view grocery shopping as not only an educational activity, but a form of entertainment. I get a kick out of comparing coffee brands by price per ounce. There's a special thrill involved in finding a close-out on that brand of deodorant I've been eyeing. I like daydreaming about what I could possibly do with the weekly meat specials, discovering yet-unknown values in the obscure corners of the organic foods section. Yes, if you didn't already know... I have a few quirks.

Some readers have stressed to me the importance of protein recently, and another comment I received questioned the wisdom of the four-bacon-strip breakfast. So my diversion... err, mission quickly became a quest for more breakfast variety. Something outside the usual fatty bacon/sausage, cholesterol-laden eggs, or bland oatmeal. I found a couple of things.

One breakthrough discovery I made was Turkey Spam. You're thinking, "Spam = fake meat. That can't be good." I'm telling you it's perfect. Alot of folks eat turkey bacon as an alternative to pork bacon, but the two bacons are deceptively similar. If you examine the packaging carefully and compare apples-to-apples, the nutritional difference is minimal. Turkey bacon may take out some fat, but it also takes out a comparable amount of protein. So you have to eat twice as much turkey bacon to get the same protein as pork bacon. Turkey Spam has nearly three times the protein per fat gram as turkey bacon and nearly four times that of pork bacon or breakfast sausage. So just call me Sir Spam-a-lot.

And Egg Beaters. Call me crazy, I had a misconception that this stuff was "fake egg". But looking at the package - it's really just egg whites with some food coloring and some natural flavorings to compensate for the extraction of yolk. You get most of the protein, none of the fat, and none of the cholesterol.

The other great breakfast idea I got was smoothies. I bought a ton of fruit from the frozen food section. Pineapple and coconut with a dash of lime juice for a pina colada smoothie. Mango and peaches for a tropical fruit smoothie. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries for a mixed berry smoothie. Banana to blend with any of the above. And low-fat vanilla yogurt to provide the "smooth". To top it all off, I got some soy/whey protein powder, which thickens the drink and adds 25 grams of protein per serving - or the amount in about three servings of Turkey Spam. Now if only I can find a way to work coffee into my smoothies somehow.

With another weigh-in approaching on Monday, I got up the resolve to get back in the gym on Saturday. A three-and-a-half pound gain was bad enough. Another gain would just put me back where I started five weeks ago, and realistically, it would probably just end this thing altogether. The blog would perish. I'd lose out on all those AdSense bucks and most important I'd be publicly humiliated. How's that for motivation? I worked out pretty hard three days in a row.

Got back on the scale Monday. Hoping to break even. What happened next? Just an eight-and-a-half pound loss last week, is all.

Turns out, the three-and-a-half pound gain was probably a fluke. My theory is water retention - most likely due to all the sodium in the Chinese, pizza, and cheese dip from Halloween. That should have tempered my dismal outlook from the start, but I was only looking for immediate gratification.

For two weeks, I only saw the numbers -0.5 and +3.5, but the last weigh-in tells the rest of the story - it puts me at over five pounds in the last three weeks. Net weight loss to date: 12 pounds in 5 weeks.

Lesson here: weight loss is a long-term commitment - a lifestyle change, not a video game. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Maybe I really ought to weigh in monthly - rather than weekly - for the most accurate results. But then what kind of drama would I blog about?

From here on, there's no looking back. No excuses. If I fall behind on blogging, I'm not gonna stress over keeping all my logs up to date, or thinking of what to write next. This is supposed to be fun, or it won't have legs.

And no more threats, grudges, or vendettas. Let's keep our cool. 30 by 30 doesn't do angry rants at itself anymore. No more "hulking out". Let's just keep a steady pace and push through any setbacks, starting right back where we left off. No need to make up for lost time. No more empty promises at all.

I guarantee.

TUESDAY 11/9/10 DIET LOG:

9:00 a.m. huge, under-400 calorie omelet... three servings Egg Beaters, 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella, one serving Turkey Spam, cubed, 1/4 of a medium onion, and about two cups fresh, shredded leaf spinach (it cooks down)

12:00 p.m. large salad with about two cups fresh spinach, 1/2 cup dried cranberries, 1/4 cup crushed pralines, 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, and one tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette dressing

4:30 p.m. meal at work - "chicken 'n waffles" - three chicken strips, one mini-waffle (2-3 oz), one tablespoon maple syrup

TUESDAY 11/9/10 WORKOUT:

Equipment: sneakers, football stadium

Length: about 20 minutes

Intensity (1 to 7): 5

Exercise: jogged 1/2 mile from my house to high school football stadium, did 15 flat-footed hops up the bleachers, jogged once around the bleachers, jogged once around the 1/4 mile track, did 15 more hops, jogged once more around the bleachers, jogged 1/2 mile home. No rest. Total jogging about 1 1/2 miles.

Asian for any Occasion

2010-10-27T21:42:00.005-04:00

Give me your fried, sweet and sour,

Sauce-puddled masses dripping MSG,

The blessed trans-fats of your gleaming pork.

Send these, the boneless, teriyaki-tossed, to me,

I rest my plate beside the golden tempura!

In writing this brief, five-line soliloquy, I've managed to both defile the Statue of Liberty and illustrate how I feel about Asian food at the same time.

The Wife (<-- not degenerately obsessed with Asian food) and I have taken a fancy to a particular meal featuring Japanese-style Hibachi Chicken that I developed at home, and when it was learned that The Brother-In-Law, Jr. would be spending a day with us on his way driving from Norfolk, VA to Lincoln, NE, there was little hesitation in deciding what to cook for a meal.

So I'd like to share this little gem, along with another, much simpler, Asian-inspired way to prepare tuna that I downloaded from work, rebooted, and reformatted for my own personal use.

HIBACHI-STYLE CHICKEN W/ZUCCHINI & ONIONS

Spread 1 tablespoon sesame oil in a large frying pan over medium high. Spread another tablespoon sesame oil in another pan over medium high heat. Begin by sauteing chicken (2 pounds, 1/2 inch cubes) into one of the pans. Add 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon butter and salt and pepper the chicken to taste. Add 1 medium onion, chopped and 2 medium zucchini, chopped to the other pan. Add 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon butter and salt and pepper to taste. Saute the vegetables as long as the chicken is cooking, being sure to stir both pans often. Chicken should cook 6 to 8 minutes. At this point, vegetables may be removed from pan and served. Sprinkle sesame seeds over chicken and stir once more. For a Japanese grill effect, drain juices at bottom of pan, or transfer chicken to a dry pan, brown chicken lightly, and serve. Other vegetables may be added to zucchini and onions, such as cabbage, mushrooms, and bean sprouts.

FRIED RICE
3 cups rice, cooked should be made in advance, and chilled after cooking, to avoid stickiness. Add 2 tablespoons sesame oil to wok or large pan, heat to medium high. Add rice next and stir to coat with oil. Then add 1 tablespoon soy sauce and 2 tablespoons sesame seeds and stir until color of rice is the same throughout. Add salt and pepper to taste. I use soy sauce liberally, so I don’t add additional salt, but I do like the pepper, especially when freshly ground. Clear an empty spot in the center of your rice and add 2 scrambled eggs. Cook the egg and mix it into the rice. Keep everything moving so the rice doesn’t brown or scorch. If you want to impress guests with Japanese steakhouse-style service, serve rice first.

HIBACHI SAUCE - Optional (adds calories) but highly recommended

Ideally, sauce should be made a day in advance and allowed to refrigerate overnight. However, 2 hours or so should be sufficient. Whisk together 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 heaping teaspoon tomato paste, 1 tablespoon melted butter, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon paprika in a small bowl. After refrigeration, water should be used to bring the sauce to a desired consistency. I like the consistency of a salad dressing, possibly just a bit thinner. Set table with individual portions of sauce, or simply pass around one bowl of sauce at table.

SEARED TUNA SLICES W/MUSTARD SAUCE

Simply take a 4 ounce tuna filet, rub all sides with light soy sauce, and sprinkle with black pepper. Sear in cooking oil (Last Thursday I used leftover bacon grease 'cause I'm a slob and didn't want to wash out the pan from breakfast), about 5-10 seconds per side, leaving middle cold. For mustard sauce, mix about 1/2 teaspoon chinese-style mustard with 1-2 teaspoons light soy sauce, per filet, and drizzle over filet. Slice into 1/4 inch thick slices and serve alone or over a salad.

WEDNESDAY 10/27/10 DIET LOG

1 slice homemade sourdough bread, buttered <-- not Asian

2 eggs, scrambled <-- not Asian

2 strips bacon <-- not Asian

9 oz. teriyaki beef jerky <-- Asian

1 cup Hibachi-style chicken <--Asian

1 cup zucchini & onions <--Asian

1.5 cups fried rice <-- Asian

2 tablespoons Mayo-based Hibachi sauce <-- Asian

1/2 cup orange glazed carrots <-- Asian

1 sandwich with 2 slices whole wheat bread, 4 oz ham, 2 oz cheddar cheese, lettuce leaves, pickle slices, and 1 tablespoon honey mustard <-- not Asian

NO WORKOUT WEDNESDAY 10/27/10 <-- not Asian

An Open Letter to My #1

2010-10-26T10:09:00.011-04:00

Today, a personal note to Star-Trac Elliptical Machine #1:

Hey, Star-Trac Elliptical Machine #1. Yeah, you. The first Star-Trac Elliptical Machine from the left side, in the second row of the cardio area in the campus rec center, cowering behind the God-Forsaken Exercise Bikes. Lookin' all fancy with your bright red LED display and your twin handlebar heart rate monitors. You know who you are.

You won't hear any apologies from me. Sure, what I did this morning might be considered cruel, but you had it coming. In fact, you wanted it that way. You just haven't admitted it to yourself yet.

It was wrong of me to treat you so badly, Star-Trac Elliptical Machine #1 - taking what I wanted, burning 600 calories in about 40 minutes, and then just getting up and walking out the door. But it was so, so right.

'Cause I own you, Star-Trac Elliptical Machine #1. Yeah, you thought you belonged to the campus rec center, with all their "serial numbers" and "purchasing records" and "receipts". But deep down you know - you're mine. And I'll keep using you as long as it suits me. And it suits me just fine right now.

This ain't my first time at the rodeo. I know you'll be out there, mixing it up while I'm gone. You'll see a few other guys, but mostly you like the girls. No matter what you end up trying, you'll never be able to quit me.

So hang in there, Star-Trac Elliptical Machine #1. I'll be back sometime. I have to, 'cause no other Star-Trac Elliptical Machine gives me the same great view of ESPN SportsCenter. Oh, I'll be back - trust me. Not that you have much choice. Ha! Haha!

TUESDAY 10/25/10 DIET LOG

6:30 a.m. 1 cup orange juice, 1 Fiber Plus Bar

9:30 a.m. 2 boiled eggs, 4 strips bacon, 1 slice homemade sourdough bread w/one tablespoon Smart Balance Light

12:30 p.m. 4 oz. grilled chicken, 1 cup stuffing

6:00 p.m. small salad with 1 tablespoon light raspberry vinaigrette, some kind of homemade pizza crescent roll (3 slices - probably around 10 oz. total)

TUESDAY 10/25/10 WORKOUT

Equipment: Star-Trac Elliptical Machine... #1 in case you forgot

Intensity (1 to 7): 6

Length: 42 minutes

Calories Burned: 600

V for Vendetta

2010-10-25T21:06:00.003-04:00

"Of course, you know, this means war."

-Bugs Bunny (via Groucho Marx)

Overheard at the K-Love household this morning:

A HALF-POUND?! A HALF FREAKIN' POUND?! YOU KIDDIN' ME, WII? OUCH!!! Sob, sob, sob... Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Yes - even Antoine Dodson thinks that was dramatic. However, fear not. The Wii is expected to make a full recovery.

Weighed in today at a half-pound less than last Monday. So, it's on like Donkey Kong. The beast has been unleashed. That's about all I have to say today. In fact, words are pretty meaningless at this point. I'm gonna try some shorter blog entries from now on. See how that works. This is gonna hurt me more than... well, it's really just gonna hurt me.

MONDAY 10/24/10 DIET LOG

7:00 a.m. Fiber One dark chocolate and almond bar

10:00 a.m. 2/3 of a Burger King Breakfast Bowl and 1/2 of a large order of hash browns (shared with The Wife), one 20 oz. Vitamin Water

2:00 p.m. One 20 oz. Vitamin Water, Penn Station Philadelphia cheesesteak sub (6"), small order fries.

8:30 p.m. popped two 100-calorie bags of Orville Redenbacher kettle corn, added 2 tablespoons butter, shared with The Wife

MONDAY 10/24/10 WORKOUT

Equipment: Rowing machine

Length: 50 mins (31.5 mins cardio)

Intensity: 5

Calories burned (cardio): 330

Additional exercises: 12 various weight resistance machines, 2 sets x 15 reps each, no rest

Lists

2010-10-23T11:52:00.007-04:00

The Wife and I both like lists, but for different reasons. I like lists that explain, describe, or categorize things. The Wife's lists usually include me doing something I don't want to do, like taking out the garbage or cleaning the gutters. Or mowing the lawn.

So yesterday, for the first time since August, I mowed the lawn. Don't laugh - I just wanted it to quit growing before I got the best of it for once and for all. Because my record with lawn equipment is abysmal. I mean it - everything I touch, breaks. So the less I mow, trim, landscape, etc, the better off my ego, my temper, and my mental health.

Also, for the first time in I-don't-know-how-many months, I went for a run - at Ijams Nature Center. Thanks to my buddy Wes from Huntsville for being in town and willing to pretend to jog while I panted behind.

I was an average high school cross-country runner when I decided to take it up my senior year. Not a good runner, not a bad one - just average. Never won a race - never even made the varsity lineup - but, to my credit, it was a really good team. Ran about a six-minute mile. Seems like eons ago. A little under 100 pounds ago. Ancient history...

Well, it's been months - maybe over a year - since I did any running on a consistent basis. I'm really sort of afraid to take it back up at my current weight, because of concerns about the impact to my knees, shins, and ankles. I've tried running recently and had some strange pains, so I'm just not sure if that's appropriate right now.

Maybe that's just a lame excuse. I dunno. My plan is to eventually take up running again - maybe even competitively - but that's probably the next chapter to 30 by 30... a chapter I haven't started writing yet.

Anyway, I'm really out of shape, and I continue to judge myself against "high school me" and it's pretty awful. But thankfully, I think there's enough fitness left in me to do just about anything for 15 minutes. And that's how long it took to jog about 1.2 miles yesterday. About a 12.5 minute mile. Ouch.

But I digress. Oh, right. I was talking about lists. I have a couple of those I wanted to work into the blog entry today.

Three weeks into this, it seems more and more natural to work out four, five times a week or more now. They say (whoever they are) to exercise three times a week, and I completely agree that should be a primary goal for anyone. But in several previous attempts I've observed this simple guideline and met with failure. So this is me being aggressive. Getting mean. Taking the bull by the horns and wrestling it to the ground. The three-times-a-week plan has the basic benefits you need: burning calories, gaining metabolism, increased energy, etc. So without further ado, let's make a list of the additional benefits I've observed from working out five times or more per week:

Lifestyle change - The mental transition from being an inactive person who works out in his spare time, when he can fit it in, to being an active seeker of physical challenges.
Mental toughness - The ability to see past the emotional appeal of the pillow's relaxing comfort every morning to the way the rest of the day will "flow" after working out.
Feeling of "athleticism" - Not necessarily being athletic, physically speaking. But that 30-60 minute workout every day brings out the inner high schooler in me.
Freedom to skip - Let's say my schedule only permits working out on Mon, Wed, and Fri. If something comes up on Fri, I'm going five days without doing anything. That's hazardous to any exercise regimen. If I'm expecting five workouts, and I actually have four, that's still a great week.
5>3 - Clearly, if all else is equal, you burn more calories in five workouts than you do in three.

What about that rating system you've been talking about? You said you were gonna explain that. Why do you do that intensity rating on your workouts? Who do you think you are with all your numbers and stuff?!

I mentioned my intensity rating a few days ago, and I wanted to explain that. Basically, I won't remember tomorrow how hard I worked out on Friday, so I want to try and remind myself. That way, if I'm not feeling so hot on a Tuesday, and I know I worked my butt off on Monday, I can feel confident that Tuesday isn't a loss if I just do the minimum effort and get back home. The rating is a combination of factors, based on how I feel during the workout, including sweat, heart rate, breathing, and post-workout fatigue. Here's how it works (TIME FOR ANOTHER LIST!):

complete relaxation; possibly a meditation or yoga session
no heart rate or breathing elevation, but more calories burned than when at rest; slow walking, for example
heart rate slightly above normal; maybe a trace of sweat, but not necessarily; no labored breathing; pedaling easily on a bike or walking purposefully on level surface; good for occasionally burning a few calories without feeling tired or dirty afterward
elevated heart rate, 50-65 percent of max; sweating visibly if sustained long enough; breathing is somewhat labored, but still able to talk conversationally; a typical once/week "light day"; a very fast walk, or a casual but not effortless bike ride
heart rate is 65-80 percent of max - good for cardio building if sustained; beading sweat; breathing uncomfortably, but still able to talk between breaths; pretty much the starting point for all my workouts
heart rate sustained at 80+ percent; dripping sweat; constant, strenuous breathing; slight burn in muscles; feeling of significant exhaustion afterwards; ideally, about half of my workouts are this intense
heart rate at max; drenching sweat; breathing is extremely uncomfortable, bordering on painful; deep muscle burn, possibly even muscle failure; feeling of absolute depletion afterwards; haven't had one of these workouts yet - need someone to make me reach this level

Time for bed. Tomorrow's a big day.

THURSDAY 10/21/10 DIET LOG

7:00 a.m. 1 Fiber Plus Bar

9:00 a.m. 7 mini-quiches, 4 strips bacon

1:00 p.m. 4 oz. seared tuna, salmon sushi roll (8 pieces)

6:00 p.m. 4 oz. baked chicken, 1/2 cup gravy (based on cream of chicken soup), 1 cup white rice

THURSDAY 10/21/10 WORKOUT

Equipment: dumbbells, free weights

Exercises: Bench press, standing shoulder press, curls, 2 sets of 15 each

FRIDAY 10/22/10 DIET LOG

7:00 a.m. 1 Fiber Plus Bar

9:00 a.m. 7 mini-quiches, 2 boiled eggs

12:00 p.m. 1 beef empanada, 1 tablespoon sour cream, about 1/2 cup extra empanada filling, 1 avocado, sliced

5:30 p.m. work meal - 8 chicken wings, plain, 1 cup Kraft Mac 'N Cheese Dinner

FRIDAY 10/22/10 WORKOUT

Equipment: Star-Trac Elliptical Machine

Length: 32 minutes (including cool-down)

Intensity (1 to 7): 6

Calories Burned: 410

SATURDAY 10/23/10 DIET LOG

9:00 a.m. 1 Fiber Plus Bar

11:30 a.m. large handful (1.5 servings) tortilla chips, 2/3 cup shredded cheese,melted, 1 tablespoon sour cream

4:00 p.m. 4 grilled pork ribs

SATURDAY 10/23/10 WORKOUT

Equipment: Sneakers

Exercise: Running, 1.2 miles

Length: 15.5 minutes

Intensity (1 to 7): 5

SUNDAY 10/24/10 DIET LOG

11:00 a.m. 12 oz. baked chicken, 1 cup white rice, 1 cup gravy

6:30 p.m. 2 slices pizza, Little Caesar's

NO WORKOUT 10/24/10

Catching Up

2010-10-17T02:10:00.007-04:00

Everyone needs a break now and then. So, I gave the blog a few days off, just to recuperate. Regain its strength. I've learned some things in the past week:

It appears some things are more important than blogging. See: The Wife's birthday, passing graduate school, three-year-olds with ear infections, working out, sleeping a minimum 6 hours, football, and work. In no particular order.
If the shower curtain needs washed after you've changed the baby's diaper, you're probably doing something wrong. Even Tom Selleck, Steve Gutenberg, and Ted Danson think I need some practice.
I'm done calorie-counting. For the time being, anyway. I don't need a nutrition info chart to tell me how much I'm eating. The scale doesn't lie. Except when I don't like what it says - then I like to laugh and call it names (like Pinocchio). Besides, figuring out the exact total every day - or every few days - is starting to get tedious and is responsible for half of the time I spend writing.
Rugby is a pretty hardcore sport. This comes after watching the movie 'Invictus'. I want to try it for myself, some day when I get in shape. Also on the list of activities to try: Capoeira.
Muscles like to be fed. I get back home from pushing some weights around, and I'm downright ravenous. Note to self... before working out, eat something. Even if it's just a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pop-Tart.
In case you ever find yourself locked out of the house... a three-year-old will fit nicely through an unlocked kitchen window. Just be sure the mission is clear.
It's hard to get up at 6:00 a.m. and work out. Even harder: not working out and dragging through the day with no energy.

This part of my life is called, "Hitting a Wall". 30 by 30, like all of my big, new ideas, started out with a bang. Enthusiasm, energy, and eagerness got me through the first two weeks pretty easily. But the thrill is gone. The honeymoon is over. The lipstick's been rubbed off the pig, and I've lost that lovin' feelin'. I gotta be honest - like all of those other big, new ideas, this one's coming back down to earth, as far as emotional highs go.

On the plus side - or the minus side if you prefer - I'm down another pound as of Monday. Six pounds down, 24 to go. 15 weeks left on the countdown. And I've established a pretty good routine, plus a good idea of how much I can eat and still lose weight. So the left brain has its orders. The trick now is getting the right brain to loosen its grip on that pillow...

Saved my logs for the past week. Posting them below. I already did some calorie calculations last weekend.

WEDNESDAY 10/13/10 DIET LOG

9:00 a.m. homemade breakfast burrito, small, estimated 350 cals
1 leftover serving homefries, estimated 100 cals
1 cup orange juice, 120 cals

12:30 p.m. 6 oz. lasagna, estimated 350 cals

Small salad - 2 cups greens, croutons, bacon bits, and honey french dressing, 150 cals

10:30 p.m. missed meal at work, on the way home picked up 10-piece nuggets at McDonald's w/ 2 packs Sweet and Sour Sauce, 560 cals

Total: 1630 calories

NO WORKOUT WEDNESDAY 10/13/10

THURSDAY 10/14/10 DIET LOG
9:00 a.m. homemade breakfast burrito, small, estimated 350 cals
one orange 100 cals
12:30 p.m. 6 oz. lasagna, 350 cals
1 cup sauteed spinach, 70 cals
5:30 p.m. meal at work - 1 corn dog, 250 cals
small salad with 2 tbsp ranch dressing, 165 cals
Total: 1285 calories

WORKOUT THURSDAY 10/14/10
Equipment: Rowing machine
Intensity (1 to 7): 6
Length: 20 mins
Calories burned: 275

FRIDAY 10/15/10 DIET LOG
9:00 a.m. bowl of oatmeal, 350 cals
1 cup orange juice, 120 cals
10:15 Starbucks Toffee Mocha, 270 cals
12:30 p.m. 6 oz. lasagna, 350 cals
1 cup steamed broccoli, with 1/2 tablespoon Smart Balance Light margarine 100 cals
5:30 p.m. meal at work - 2 hot dogs, 2 tablespoons ketchup, 1/2 hot dog bun, 385 cals
1/2 cup mashed potatoes, 150 cals
Total: 1725 calories

WORKOUT FRIDAY 10/15/10
Equipment: Star-Trac Elliptical Machine, several weight-resistance machines
Intensity (1 to 7): 6
Length: about an hour
Calories burned (cardio): 365
Additional exercises: 12 various weight-resistance machines, 2 sets each of 15 reps; 2 circuits, no rest

SATURDAY 10/16/10 DIET LOG
9:00 a.m. homemade breakfast burrito, small, estimated 350 cals
1 cup orange juice, 120 cals
11:00 a.m. 2 beef hot dogs (no buns), 1 tablespoon 100% natural ketchup, 320 cals
2 cups popcorn, 120 cals
4:30 p.m. meal at work - breaded chicken patty, 180 cals
1/2 cup mashed potatoes, 3 tablespoons brown gravy, 210 cals
Total: 1300 calories

NO WORKOUT SATURDAY 10/16/10

SUNDAY 10/17/10 DIET LOG
9:00 a.m. homemade breakfast burrito, small, estimated 350 cals
1 cup orange juice, 120 cals
1:00 p.m. 8 oz. lasagna, estimated 480 cals
1 cup steamed broccoli w/ 1/2 tbsp Smart Balance Light, 100 cals
4:30 p.m. Single serving bag popcorn with one tablespoon Smart Balance Light added (shared with three-year-old), 150 cals
7:30 p.m. two slices pizza (Papa John's), one tablespoon garlic sauce, one tablespoon parmesan cheese, 820 cals
Total: 2020 cals

NO WORKOUT SUNDAY 10/17/10

MONDAY 10/18/10 DIET LOG
10:00 a.m. 3 boiled eggs, 1/3 baking potato sliced, sauteed in 2 tablespoon Smart Balance Light, one orange
1:00 p.m. 2 slices pizza, garlic sauce, parmesan cheese
8:30 p.m. one beef empanada with one tablespoon sour cream, small serving of tortilla chips with melted cheese and 1/2 cup guacamole, about 1 cup of fried hash browns

WORKOUT MONDAY 10/18/10
Equipment: Rowing Machine, several weight-resistance machines
Intensity (1 to 7): 6
Length: 45 minutes total (22 minutes cardio, including cool-down)
Calories burned (cardio): 275
Additional exercises: 12 various weight-resistance machines, 2 sets each of 15 reps; 2 circuits, no rest

TUESDAY 10/19/10 DIET LOG
9:30 a.m. Six mini-quiches
12:30 p.m. one beef empanada, tablespoon sour cream
6:00 p.m. meal at work: large sloppy joe sandwich and about 12 tater tots

WORKOUT TUESDAY 10/19/10
Equipment: God-Forsaken exercise bike
Intensity (1 to 7): 5
Length: 23.5 minutes, including cool-down
Calories burned (cardio): 200
Imaginary miles pedaled: 8.5 - same imaginary distance as on 10/8, but 8.5 minutes less

WEDNESDAY 10/20/10 DIET LOG
9:00 a.m. Six mini-quiches (the three-year-old mooched one), 1 cup orange juice
1:00 p.m. one beef empanada
7:00 p.m. Tilapia w/ jumbo lump crabmeat, seasoned broccoli, carrots, squash, 12 ounces soda, at Outback for The Wife's birthday

NO WORKOUT WEDNESDAY 10/20/10

Body Guy and The Rambler

2010-10-12T23:29:00.001-04:00

None of us are one-dimensional people.

In a categorical sense, my main purpose for this blog may be weight loss, or health/fitness, but I consider myself - or at least, I strive to be - a well-rounded person. I want to get a little of everything out of life, so I hope to give this blog a little taste of everything I experience - a personal touch - and hopefully, along the way, something resonates. It's really about lifestyle, after all, and everything within your lifestyle is interrelated in some way.

When I'm writing this blog, I don't wanna be Body Guy. Everyone who's been in a fitness center, or has a coworker who spends hours a day in the gym, knows who I'm talking about. Body Guy is "that" guy who wants you to know exactly how much weight he can bicep curl or bench press in a single rep, and how many clients he personally trained this week. His daily conversations are peppered with references to his obliques - or abliques - or whatever muscle group is the feature of the month. Body Guy comes across as kind of one-dimensional, and that's not me.

Nor do I want to be The Rambler. I do like me some writing, OK?. I'll own that. But since I want people to hear what I have to say, I'll respect the fact that nobody wants to read about the shoddy customer service I received at the DMV, or what steps it took to re-tune my piece-of-crap lawnmower back into shape. The Rambler doesn't understand this, and never fails to thrill us with endless cat stories and tales of good times gone by ("This one time, at band camp..."). You know that Facebook friend whose status updates are dominated by phrases like, "Sooo tired today. Thinking about a nap..."? She just might be The Rambler.

Not that I'm any kind of expert, but if you're running a blog, or thinking about starting one, I think these are just a couple of examples of things to avoid. In my experience as a web user, if you want me to read what you write online, you have to be as entertaining as you are informative. Just my two cents. Take it for what it's worth.

After saying all this, I realize now that I've set myself up for failure. Now, I'm gonna have to walk on eggshells not to sound like Body Guy or The Rambler. Maybe now's a good time to cut to the chase...

TUESDAY 10/12/10 DIET LOG

9:00 a.m. homemade breakfast burrito, small, estimated 350 cals
homefries - made with 1/3 potato, 1/3 onion, and about a tablespoon each butter/olive oil, 100 calories - 1 of 3 servings, estimated 100 cals
1 cup orange juice, 120 cals

12:30 p.m. Same salad as yesterday's except added 1/4 cup cheese, 550 cals

4:30 p.m. meal at work - prosciutto, salami, 1 slice melted cheese and tomato on a jumbo toasted hamburger bun, estimated 470 cals

Total: 1590 calories

WORKOUT TUESDAY 10/12/10

Equipment: God-Forsaken Exercise Bike
Intensity (1 to 7): 3 - remind me to explain my rating system
Length: 30 mins
Calories burned: 200
Imaginary miles traveled: 5.0

By the way - thank you to all the folks who've expressed their encouragement, either in person or online. It means alot. I've been flattered to see who all is reading (and responding) outside of the people I normally come in contact with every day. If this keeps up, I should hit 300 pageviews today, Lord willing. That's not 300 readers, necessarily, but 300 times the blog's been clicked on, including readers clicking multiple times.

And keep the comments coming. I know the website wants you to sign up for an account, but I've set it so that you can comment anonymously. This doesn't mean you have to remain anonymous - you can still state your name in the comment. Just so ya know. Marie's anonymous comment yesterday prompted me to start thinking about the subject of temptation. So that's something I'm working on for the future.

Weigh Day

2010-10-11T21:42:00.000-04:00

"The first cut is the deepest."

-Cat Stevens

Point of fact: Contrary to popular belief, Cat Stevens - yes, enemy-of-the-state Cat Stevens - wrote this song, not Sheryl Crow.

I haven't the foggiest idea what this means. Does it mean that once someone cuts you, then it's harder for them to cut you deeper 'cause you're looking all around and moving real fast? Or does it mean it's hard to cut through all that scab and puss that accumulated from your first cut?

Maybe it's a metaphor for how sore I am today. Like, you know, the "first cut" is the first big, huge, groundbreaking workout, and you won't ever again be as sore as you are after that.

Or maaaybe, it's the FIVE POUNDS you cut at your first weigh-in on your way to your goal of 30 pounds by the age of 30?!?

Five pounds? Completely not what I was expecting. I'm curbing my enthusiasm.

For one, I've had intense workouts the last couple of days and some of that has to be water weight. Admittedly, I haven't been focusing on or keeping track of water intake. Also, if you've watched "The Biggest Loser" for several seasons like I have, you know it's always lots of weight lost up front, followed by a gradual return to an equilibrium.

Another concern I have, looking at my diet logs for the past few days, is that I may not be getting enough calories. I was shooting for under 2,000/day, and I'm averaging somewhere around 1,500. Maybe I should be averaging 2,000/day instead. At least for the time being.

But still... five pounds. That's a far cry from, "if the next couple of days are as good as the last, I think I'll break even for the week."

Back when I started this, I promised some recipes. I forgot to do that. Well, I came up with a simple way to add some grilled chicken to my salad at lunch today...

Starting with some canned chicken - the larger can, 9.75 oz I think - drain and press as much liquid out of the can as possible. Brown chicken in a pan on medium high heat. Takes less than five minutes. Before it starts browning, I add a touch of olive oil (a teaspoon at most) and sprinkle with Liquid Smoke (no cupboard is complete without it). Makes four, 60 calorie servings, but this is meat we're talking about. Make it a double.

This tastes like grilled chicken, but saves time thawing out frozen chicken, prepping the grill, and dicing it after it's cooked. I always have some sort of canned meat in the cabinet, because you never know when you're gonna need some quick protein. Probably would work with canned tuna or salmon as well.

MONDAY 10/11/10 DIET LOG

9:00 a.m. homemade breakfast burrito, smaller than yesterday's... only 1/2 a tortilla and slightly less filling, 1 cu orange juice, 1/2 of a toasted hot dog bun (plain), estimated 500 cals

12:00 p.m. Large salad, same as yesterday's except added some chicken, 420 cals

8:45 p.m. a 6 oz slice of lasagna, plus one slice of garlic toast from the supermarket freezer section, estimated 500 cals

Total: 1420 calories

WORKOUT MONDAY 10/11/10

Equipment: Rowing machine, Life Fitness weight assisted dip/chin machine
Intensity (1 to 7): 5
Length: 37 mins total (32 mins cardio)
Calories burned (cardio): 325
Additional: 3 sets each of 10 assisted dips & 10 assisted chin-ups, alternating, no rest

Principles

2010-10-10T13:59:00.000-04:00

It's Sunday. A good day for reflection. A good time to think deep. But not too deep, cause there's football on TV.

Have you ever had to compromise your principles, for a good reason? Should we be prepared to do so, in case the need arises?

Many folks think of principles along religious/moral lines - and those are important. But I think we use principles anywhere there's a consequence we want to avoid.

We learn to protect ourselves from ourselves starting at an early age. Growing up, our lack of understanding can get us into real trouble, so we're told, "don't talk to strangers," or "eat all your vegetables," or "stay away from the power lines." What? That was just me? Oh...

As we mature, so many things aren't so clear-cut. We've gotta decide on our own where to draw the line, and - to make matters worse - sometimes that line moves depending on the situation. We can start talking to a few strangers. We can avoid some vegetables. We can occasionally play near the power lines. As we become accustomed to certain situations, we can use moderation, rather than principle, as our guide.

So, let's say I'm invited to your house for dinner, and unbeknownst to me, you just happen to be a breaditarian. You only eat junk, plain and simple. Stuff that I'm clearly trying to avoid on my diet. So you serve up a menu worthy of a booth at the Texas State Fair: cheese fries, hushpuppies, and deep-fried butter.

Now, if I'm sticking to principle and not eating any of this stuff, then A) I'm depriving myself of calories that I need to continue burning fat (I haven't eaten anything since noon and I won't be leaving your house until 10 p.m.), B) I may be doing a disrespectful thing by coming into your home and refusing your hospitality, and C) Those cheese fries do look pretty good, and I might just build them up in my mind to something greater than they actually are, if I keep them entirely off-limits.

But with moderation as my rule of thumb, I already know what a sensible portion size is, because I've faced this challenge before and I can get only the calories I need for maintaining metabolism. I can pretty well figure out when enough is enough (the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility says I wouldn't have really enjoyed eating much more, anyway).

Now, for another example of sacrificing principles in favor of moderation. Let's say you started a fitness blog. In this blog you vowed brashly, "There will be nothing professional at all about this weight loss plan." Just for argument's sake, let's say a week later, your friend, who's got some professional experience on his resume as a personal trainer, invites you over to work out with him, and is very helpful and encouraging, in addition to providing additional accountability toward meeting your goals.

So you have to ask yourself - is it really worth it to throw away this huge advantage, simply to hold onto a sense of prideful independence and avoid having to rewrite your blog's ill-advised mission statement? I'll give you a hint - the answer is no.

All that to say this: I got my butt kicked this morning. In fact, that workout was so wonderfully painful, I can only make up new words to describe it... Destructionary. Revolutionative. Brutalicious. Murderiffic. The kind of workout that makes you glad you didn't waste time eating breakfast, because you probably would have lost it.

I don't know if this guy has a personal website (He does have a name - I'm just withholding it to protect the innocent), but I'm reserving a space to link to that website, should he decide to start it. Good times were had by all. I won't bore you with excruciating detail about the exercise science involved. I'll just sum it all up in my own words below.

WORKOUT SUNDAY 10/10/10

Equipment: Kettle Bell, Sneakers, Muscles

Intensity (1 to 7): 6

Length: Just under 30 minutes total (15 mins & 45 secs, followed by 5 min rest, then another 14 mins)

Description: Basically a circuit (completed twice & timed) consisting of: snatching a 25-pound kettle bell from the ground (set of 15); squatting with no additional weight (set of 25); bear crawling about 30 feet; 10 push-ups; 15 sit-ups; 15 leg raises; & about a quarter-mile jog uphill and back down (using the term "jog" about as liberally as possible).

SUNDAY DIET LOG:

9:30 a.m. homemade breakfast burrito containing 1 egg, 1.5 slice bacon, 1/4 cup cheese, 1/2 cup hash browns, 1 oz green chile sauce with pork, 1 medium tortilla, estimated 500 cals

1:30 p.m. large salad containing 4 cups green salad mix, small handful croutons, 1 egg-boiled/sliced, 1/4 tomato, 1/6 cucumber, 1 tablespoon bacon bits, 1.5 tablespoon honey bacon & french salad dressing, estimated 300 cals

5:30 p.m. 3 oz. piece of hamburger steak, 2 KFC grilled chicken thighs, 1/4 cup green beans, 1/4 cup ramen noodle salad, 1 deviled egg (half-egg), at church picnic, estimated 650 cals

Total: 1450 cals

Saturday Night's Alright for Blogging

2010-10-10T01:08:00.000-04:00

Quick update before bed. No workout today. Spent all morning working a golf tournament, all afternoon trying desperately to stay focused on my school project while football was on (I'm really behind on this thing), and worked all evening.

That's ok, though. Thursday and Friday were good progress, and I have something really special planned for in the morning. For all you "Biggest Loser" fans, you might call it my "last chance" workout. Stay Tuned.

8:30 a.m. Two eggs (scrambled), two strips of bacon, coffee with 1 tablespoon creamer, and 1 cup orange juice, 415 cals

12:00 p.m. Got a regular Chick-Fil-A sandwich at the golf tourney, spread about 1 tablespoon cream cheese on it (who does that?), threw away the bun and ate the chicken. Asking questions really does nobody any good. 235 cals

2:00 p.m. 1 banana, 75 cals

3:00 p.m. 1 orange, 85 cals

5:30 p.m. 4 oz. filet, leftover from last night, and about 1 new potato, chopped and roasted in olive oil, 410 cals

8:00 p.m about 1/4 cup each ground beef and black beans, cold, leftover from meal at work, 210 cals

Total: 1330 calories

Back in the Saddle Again

2010-10-08T15:29:00.000-04:00

Bless me father, for I have sinned. It's been one week since my last blog post.

This blog should be updated at least every other day, if not daily. That's a serious undertaking when you're as long-winded as I write. It was intended to provide accountability, but it doesn't serve its purpose if I go a week without revealing what's going on.

So let me update you. I'm foregoing work on a major class project and preparation for a Monday mid-term exam in order to do this. We all have to make sacrifices.

Last Saturday was the fateful encounter with the Great Wall of Chinese (see previous post). Then, the shoulder injury kept me out of the gym for several days. But, like they used to say back in my rodeo days: "You get bucked off, you get right back on."

P.S. - I was never in a rodeo. I've scarcely even sat on a horse. I'm not even sure that quote is accurate.

I only kept track of my eating for the last couple of days (see below for details). However, I managed to string together two serious workouts for the first time in months (also see below). Overall, if the next couple of days are as good as the last, I think I'll break even for the week. By the way, the week ends Sunday, so I'll try to give a weight gain/loss update on Monday. All this to say, my expectation at this point is no change, but that would be a win, given where I've been.

It's looking like my best chance to work out is gonna be first thing in the morning. For some people I know, 10am is first thing in the morning. But for real-life people like me, that means getting up at 6. I'm not expected to be anywhere until 9am. Hopefully, I was in bed by midnight the night before. And it's just gonna make for a better overall quality of life if I start my day like this. So... let's just go with what seems to be working. Here's my proposed routine:

The alarm clock is set for 6am. First thing's first - gotta have my coffee. So I stumble into the kitchen and get that going.

Now, this is gonna sound stupid, but I have to shower before I work out. No, not because I wanna look good for the ladies while I'm sweating it out, but because when I haven't showered, my face is greasy. And when my face is greasy, I can't wear my glasses, because they slip down my nose, and that's just gross. And if I can't wear my glasses, then I can't drive to go work out. So, a shower is necessary, even if it adds 15 minutes to my departure time.

Food is another necessity. Calories. I re-learned this on Thursday, trying to go on an empty stomach. I don't recommend it. Trying desperately not to wake anyone else up, carefully I slip through the house and do my preparations. Coffee, check. Shower, check. Calories, check. On with the sneakers, and off to the campus rec center. Workout starts approximately 7 a.m.

I hate exercise bikes. That seat's always just so darn uncomfortable. Especially when you're fat. They don't really go anywhere, like a real bike. Plus, they don't give me the same sense of "working out" that I get with the rowing machine, or the elliptical, or even the treadmill. Either I get on an easy setting and spin my feet without much effort, or I get on a harder setting and my thighs burn so much I can't go long enough to get a good cardio workout.

This is not just an out-of-shape thing. Even when I was in great shape, I hated the exercise bike. The only reasons I keep getting on those things are A) I don't have a real bike, and B) the irrational, recurring nightmare/fantasy of someday being chased by something or someone terrible, and I'm losing the chase, but suddenly out of nowhere appears a bicycle, and somehow through my years of imaginary bicycling, I've gained the ability to outrun my pursuer and flee to safety. That's really the only reason I use the exercise bike.

I'm starting out with a 20-30 minute cardio workout, and every other day I'm gonna do some strength-building stuff. Until I feel comfortable in the gym again, the strength-building is mostly gonna be upper-body... crunches, dips, chin-ups - maybe some neck, back, or bicep/tricep stuff, if I feel froggy.

The cardio is gonna vary with whatever I feel like doing at the time. Rowing seems to be the best bang for my buck. Although, with the elliptical machines, I get to watch ESPN, and that's not a bad deal. Also, there's the exercise bikes.

WORKOUT THURSDAY 10/7/10

Equipment: Star-Trac Elliptical Machine

Intensity (1 to 7): 4

Length: 25 minutes

Calories Burned: 230

WORKOUT FRIDAY 10/8/10

Equipment: God-Forsaken Exercise Bike

Intensity (1 to 7): 5

Length: 32 minutes (including cool-down)

Calories Burned: 225

Imaginary miles pedaled: 8.5 miles

Additional exercises: 3 sets each of 10 assisted dips, assisted chin-ups, and crunches

Here's what I've decided about diet. I've got to take more responsibility for planning for meals. If I'm positive I can eat at work, then I'll count on it, but when in doubt eat first.

I'm just focusing on cutting down to under 2,000 calories, for now. This might take the form of three, 500-700 calorie meals, or it might be four, 300-500 calorie meals, depending on what's available at home, work, school, etc. I'm not always in the same place when it's time to eat, so this is still sort of up in the air.

As discussed in the first post, I'm going for low-calorie, but high "satiety", or appetite satisfaction. Some examples can be found here. I'm also leaning toward non-processed foods, lean meats, and high-fiber. Keep in mind, I'm not making strict rules at this point, but in the future I reserve the right to start doing so. The main thing right now is, don't eat over 2,000 calories. Period.

Here's the eating journal for the past two days. Not an exact science, but I'm being pretty conservative, rounding up with the unknowns, and doing due diligence with the internets to be as accurate as possible:

THURSDAY

9:00 a.m. 6 "mini-quiches" from the freezer, 360 cals

1:00 p.m. 1/2 serving of Pork Lo Mein, leftovers from Wok Hay, 625 cals (tried emailing Wok Hay for nutritional info, but estimated based on limited info I could find online since no response)

5:00 p.m. 1/2 cup homemade chili, with 1/4 cup shredded cheese, 2 tablespoons sour cream, and small handful Frito chips, 450 cals

Total: 1435 calories

FRIDAY

8:00 a.m. 6 "mini-quiches" from the freezer, 360 cals

12:00 p.m. 2 tortilla roll-ups, one with chicken salad, one with hummus and bean sprouts, 1/4 cup mixed fruit, 1 cup pasta salad, estimated 500 cals

3:00 p.m. 3 tortilla roll-ups, two with chicken salad, one with hummus and bean sprouts, 1/2 cup pasta salad, estimated 370 cals

7:00 p.m. salad with 1 tablespoon honey bacon & french dressing, 4 oz filet, 1 new potato roasted in olive oil, estimated 450 cals

Total: 1680 calories

Harmony

2010-10-02T23:57:00.000-04:00

In the words of the great prophets, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony:

"Wake up, wake up, wake up it's the 1st of the month..."

I know... it's not the 1st of the month anymore, and this blog is getting off to a slower start than my emotional momentum should allow.

Let me just say, I'm glad I come from the generation that produced Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Seems like they might have been the first hip-hop/rap group that was socially acceptable for white folks to listen to. Maybe it was just their Cleveland roots. Yes, Cleveland. Not L.A. or NYC or Philly. Cleveland. The city that "rocks", not raps. By metropolitan standards, it's gotta be one of the whitest out there. I mean, we're talking about the home of Drew Carey and Dennis Kucinich... a town whose baseball team unabashedly sports a beaming minority for a mascot, as if said minority were privileged to serve as the caricature for his race.

"Bone" wasn't trying to sugarcoat anything... they were as "gangsta" as anyone else on the block. It wasn't like they were rapping about the PTA at the local elementary school or the minutes at the latest meeting of the homeowners' association. But there was something about their delivery... maybe their vocal harmonies were something folks were familiar with, even if they hadn't been exposed to much rap. Whatever the case, Bone was the first rap group I can remember some of my white friends embracing.

"Isn't this a blog about weight loss? Why is this guy writing about gangster rap? I don't know if this is even appropriate..."

Stay with me. This pays off, I promise.

Someone reading my blog has probably made a resolution concerning the recently departed "1st of the month", and chances are, by now they've already broken it. This self-same person may or may not have sat out two days of workouts and pretty much neglected to count calories, opting instead to go for Chinese at 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday night.

Are you smellin' what I'm dishin' up?

I mentioned in my last post a couple of days ago about an obstacle involving work and food. Please, allow me to explain.

In my evening hours, about four days out of the week, I'm working part-time at a fine-dining restaurant. Now, the constant barrage of culinary sights and smells assailing me in such an environment might seem like too much for someone with my intentions to withstand. And I'm not going to lie and say I haven't been led astray by the occasional untouched portion. But that's not the obstacle to which I was referring.

This particular restaurant serves a meal to its employees at the beginning of every shift. We're not eating from the menu - keep in mind - but it's usually adequate fare picked up at the local grocery store and prepared by a professional chef. Sometimes it's on the cheap side (frozen corn dogs, Kraft Mac-n-cheese, etc.), and sometimes we're really eating gourmet. Just depends on whatever they have the time and the budget to prepare. The food is served promptly at about 4:30 p.m. and lasts until it's gone.

Whatever the meal consists of, there's a huge decision to be made here - one that involves more than just an spontaneous choice of whether to eat or not to eat.

This meal has to be planned into my daily routine. If I try to exclude it, then I wind up eating a supper between 3-4 p.m., being on my feet for 6-7 hours, and coming home and going to bed on a really hungry stomach. In order to rely on the provisions as my supper, however, I have to strike a delicate balance with respect to the other meals in the day, making sure that I'm hungry by 4 o'clock, but not waiting too long in the morning to eat breakfast and throwing my metabolism out of whack.

Today, I had a muffin - a small one - around 9:30 a.m., along with two cups of coffee with creamer. That was what should very well be considered a late breakfast, albeit a small one. It held me off pretty well until lunch, when I went to Olive Garden.

Ordinarily, a trip to Olive Garden would spell doom for any mortal resolution. But I'm still pretty charged up about this transcendental mission I'm on, and I'm not backing down that easily. I ate my way through three or four bowls of the best salad known to humankind, and sufficiently stuffed with greens, I nibbled at a bowl of soup.

At 5:45 p.m., I arrived at work to find that 10 cold, congealed tater tots were all of what was left of the traditional employee meal. Apparently, it was burger night, and the early bird gets the worm, so they say. Not one to go to bed hungry, after work I found myself inevitably drawn toward my seductive archenemy: Chinese food.

I wanted to go back and recap Thursday, which was really supposed to be the start of this huge undertaking to lose 30 pounds in 17+ weeks. It actually turned out to be a great day. Three boiled eggs for breakfast, a 350-calorie microwave tamale for lunch (don't judge), and a sensible prosciutto, salami, and swiss sandwich with lettuce, tomato, mayo and dijon mustard, provided by the good folks at the restaurant for supper. Just before work, after leaving my internship for the day, I managed to slip over to the gym for an intense, 20-minute session on the rowing machine, burning over 200 calories.

It might have been something I did at work, but more likely it was the intensity of my workout, that tweaked the back of my shoulder on Thursday. Whatever it was, I felt horrible yesterday morning - and not too hot this morning, either.

The pain in my shoulder, together with looming deadlines at school, and other responsibilities, kept me out of the gym for the past couple of days.

Ok, stop laughing. No, seriously. Stop. Now. I know it sounds like I'm regressing back to my former, pre-blog self. Just one excuse after another. But I'm not. I've learned something here.

This is what I'm learning: Just like it was with "Bone" - it's all about harmony. We need harmony among every aspect of our lives. Not just eating and working. I'm talking about meeting our obligations, but pursuing our dreams at the same time. I'm talking about cleaning the house or finishing that homework, but still getting in that recreational activity, whether it's an intense workout or just a little downtime in front of the tube. I'm talking about finding time, making time. Being a little more intentional.

We all have responsibilities that keep us from doing what we'd rather be doing. But these things can be controlled, to some extent. These things don't have to be our excuses for not being a better, more balanced person. I can't control the things that life deals me, like throwing my shoulder out, for instance. But I can most certainly control one thing, and that's what happens next. How do I react? Do I make sure my calories for the next few days reflect the lack of physical activity? Do I take advantage of the downtime to get ahead on my studies?

A modern management theory by Jim Collins deals with the flywheel and the doom loop, and I think this theory extends from the corporate world to 90% of people who have tried to lose weight - or take on any large task, for that matter... from running a billion-dollar corporation to managing a family. Basically, what it says is that in order to change where you're headed, there's a huge amount of momentum that needs to be redirected, and the so-called "quick fix" is only a diversion from the real work in front of you. That is, there need to be tangible, intentional differences in how you do things, and these little changes need to work together toward the ultimate end of changing that momentum.

This blog is my first attempt at a tangible change. Next comes putting various activities into proper alignment - creating harmony. Tomorrow is Sunday. That means football... err, homework.

I have three days off before I work again. Should be enough time to 1) get that list of "most important" things out of the way, 2) recover from the shoulder problem, and 3) figure out the eating situation.