Today I woke up early and went out to lunch with my mom at Mongolian BBQ. I don't like that place, but it's one of the few places that's somewhat healthy. SOMEHOW they removed the discount on vegetarian dishes. Is TOFU going up in price now or something? I don't think so. $12.06 for one bowl of grilled veggies and tofu along with a Diet Pepsi is a rip-off. Sure, I don't need to go there and I shouldn't. The service was slow today and that was a first. It was packed though, so it's not a big deal. I only gave a $1 tip. Is that mean of me? I don't think so. You should reward people for good service. If it's ever truly terrible service, why do some people even leave tips? I do know they get paid based on tips, but still. Then again, sometimes the poor service isn't always their fault but the owner or managers fault. They sometimes don't hire enough people.
I told my mom she needed to get a blu-ray player and that they're now cheap. I kind of told her i'd buy her one, but maybe she can donate a few dollars towards it. I ended up having her pitch in $20. I ended up getting her a Magnavox $98 Blu-ray player they had at Wal-Mart on sale. Took it home and hooked it up to her TV. Of course, 1080i over DVI was not possible due to stupid HDCP. What a joke.
Her TV was on it's way out pretty much and was about 5 years old. I convinced her to get a new TV. They were on sale at Sam's for $550 or so. 37" 1080p for $550. It's a Vizio, but i've had a lot of luck with Vizio. Very few problems. I have a 42" Sony Wega downstairs, a 32" Vizio LCD in the bedroom (720p) and just this december I bought a Vizio 37". Due to this, I told my mom she should get one too since i've had a lot of luck with it. No complaints at all with the 37" Vizion picture quality. It's great and almost as good as my Sony maybe. I still think Sony makes the most reliable televisions, but sometimes they're not always worth it especially as a secondary TV etc.
So we hooked up our $98 Blu-Ray player and it really failed to impress me at all. With Blu-ray you immediately noticed the improved picture quality. I put in a Japanese blu-ray title (i've seen before and known how the quality is) and it was all grainy and looked just plain terrible. About as good as DVD quality. Seriously. I ended up running to Best Buy real quick and getting her a Sony instead. I don't understand how Sony Blu-Ray players have not gone down in price. They're still $249 like they were during Christmas! You'd think they'd drop down $50 by now. Even as a backup player, I do not suggest the Magnavox $98 blu-Ray players at Wal-Mart. What did I expect for $98? Decent picture quality and we didn't really get it.
I went back and forth between two different Blu-Ray players at Best Buy forever. The Sony or a Samsung with Netflix capability. My mom would really like that, but I skipped it because I knew for sure the sony would be good.
Hooked it up and the difference in picture quality between the Sony and Magnavox was HUGE. I also calibrated the TV and matched it up with the settings from my Vizio at home. I also managed to pick up "Slumdog Millionaire" on Blu-Ray at Best Buy for $14. Last one in stock too.
To be honest, one small reason I wanted to get my mom a Blu-Ray player was so that I could loan her the Japanese film "Nabbie's Love". I love that so much and even want to see it a second time, just a day later. I hope they release it in the USA, but it'll probably never happen.
Came home and did a workout again. Zero missed days (1 due to injury though, but I ran on my treadmill instead) so far. I did this first thing when I got home so I didn't delay it and possibly skip it. For the past 2 hours though i've had a bad headache and I don't have any tylenol around. Luckily it's going away. I think what did it is either too much Tea today or too much nutra-sweet. I must have drank like 4 440z plain Teas today.
After my workout I got my living room ready for tomorrow. I'm having a new chair delivered. I wish I could take a picture of it. It looks really nice. Of course, I dislike the idea of leather, but oh well.
Yesterday I made the stupid mistake of going to the mall in Grand Rapids for "fun". It's about 1 hour away but ended up taking me 1 and a half to get there due to the main exit being closed. I had to backtrack and get off at 54th street. I ended up going to only about 4 different stores and stayed only about 1 1/2 hours. What a waste of time! I should have taken a break and gotten lunch somewhere in there or saw a movie. I did end up buying two shirts at Macy's though. They cost me only $88 each. Ok, i'm kidding! $30 each on sale and Macy's somehow carries my size and they fit well somehow. Macy's isn't as expensive as I thought it'd be. They carry the best pillows money can buy and they're cheap! Would you believe that Calvin Klein makes some of the best pillows? Yes, really! They only cost like $15 on Sale. Or they have some $200 Down Pillows, but i'll pass. I'm not crazy enough to buy a $200 pillow. I'm told down isn't painful for the birds to be removed, but I don't know if I believe that or not. I just don't like down pillows.
Right now I think my favorite stores are Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Macy's. Wal-Mart has some bad business practices, but I still can't resist shopping there. Sometimes when I need an item that's of a higher quality i'll go elsewhere. Some things I refuse to buy at Wal-mart. Like Furniture or say a new lamp. Sadly Wal-Mart doesn't sell as many american made items as they did back in the 90's. I'm not sure why this is. It seemed that back then everything they had was available in an American made version. Not so today. Perhaps certain people don't want to pay more if an item is american made and more expensive. I don't mind, but to a point. Unfortunately I don't check labels as much as I should. Some items just can't be found that are made in America.
This eating healthy and working out all the time thing is going well. I have a ton more energy and I get a lot more work done on the days I work. I think yesterday I was a little tired at one point, but it was due to not eating enough. Weight Lifting also seems to make me twice as hungry sometimes. I always make sure to eat enough food without overdoing it.
I was going to give myself a reward day today, but I'll probably skip it this week. Eating junk food again just doesn't interest me. It's hard to give up pizza, but i'll live without it. No sense in buying myself a whole pizza for $15-$20 just to eat two whole pieces.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Movie Night
I started watching my DVDs and Blu-Ray movies I got in from Amazon.co.jp. I first put in "The Mourning Forest" and found it quite slow and not very interesting throughout the entire movie. This is coming from someone who rarely gets bored in ANY movie. During some scenes I felt the acting wasn't as good as it could have been and actually laughed at some of them where the main actress completely overacted. Pretty much during the first part of the movie it just seemed like the two actresses in the main acted a bit awkward. Sadly, I didn't feel much for the characters and in this type of movie it's kind of required.
By the end I was just kind of mad at having spent $45 on the DVD. It's the Region 2 Japanese import.
The next day I woke up and ate breakfast and watched "A Long Walk" starring Ken Ogata. The movie got me hooked right from the start and let's just say some of the scenes are painful to watch and even a bit disturbing. Half way through the movie I now knew it could be hard to come out with a happy ending, but expected more of a disaster. I was hoping so much that at the end they didn't take the easy way out and have someone die (like in so many Hong Kong dramas). Luckily the ending turned out ok but I had wished a little more had been told, but sometimes leaving something out can make an ending better in some ways. I haven't had a movie affect me so much in several years. Maybe not since Zhang Yimou's "To Live" or "The Human Condition".
After I had watched it I just could not get this movie out of my head. I don't know what I was thinking. It's one where I can think about scenes in my head and even that alone makes me sad. What's even worse is that things that occured in the movie happen every single day around the world and nothing is done about it or nobody even knows.
After being really impressed with this film I went online to check reviews and I later found out the actor, Ken Ogata died last year. He was pretty amazing in this movie to say the least. I think i'm going to try and check out all of his older movies such as "Ballad of Narayama".
I give "A Long Walk" 3.5/4 STARS (note: The Japanese R2 DVD has english subtitles!)
Can I possibly have my next movie be any better? I doubt it.
The next day I put in the newly released Blu-Ray movie "Nabbie's Love". Back several years I saw the director Yuji Nakae's "Hotel Hibiscus" and loved it. I liked it so much that i've seen it several times since. When it came out on Blu-Ray I even bought it again!
Since I really liked the director, I've alwayed wanted to check out his previous film "Nabbie's Love". The only problem is that until the 27th of this month, no version with english subtitles was available. I picked up the Japanese Blu-Ray version from amazon.
Let's just say I loved this movie. Pretty much every single thing about the movie was perfect. Ever see a movie that just seems to make you happy and put you in a good mood? Well this was definitely one of them. It makes absolutely no sense to me and it's a bit different to me, but I even liked the music in it.
Yuji Nakae's films deserve a US release! Along with Pan Nalin, he's one of the director who seems to be unheard of in the west. Their movies need a US DVD release.
Yuji Nakae has a new film coming out in Japan this month. It's called "A Midsummer Night's Dream". It's by far one of the most bizarre looking movies i've seen, but I want to see it really bad. Might be good.
Now all I have left to watch is my new blu-ray of "Hotel Hibiscus". Luckily I ordered some more expensive Japanese import DVDs. Picked up "One Million Yen Girl" and "Still Walking". Both look ok. I need to find more good Japanese movies made in the last 5 years.
By the end I was just kind of mad at having spent $45 on the DVD. It's the Region 2 Japanese import.
The next day I woke up and ate breakfast and watched "A Long Walk" starring Ken Ogata. The movie got me hooked right from the start and let's just say some of the scenes are painful to watch and even a bit disturbing. Half way through the movie I now knew it could be hard to come out with a happy ending, but expected more of a disaster. I was hoping so much that at the end they didn't take the easy way out and have someone die (like in so many Hong Kong dramas). Luckily the ending turned out ok but I had wished a little more had been told, but sometimes leaving something out can make an ending better in some ways. I haven't had a movie affect me so much in several years. Maybe not since Zhang Yimou's "To Live" or "The Human Condition".
After I had watched it I just could not get this movie out of my head. I don't know what I was thinking. It's one where I can think about scenes in my head and even that alone makes me sad. What's even worse is that things that occured in the movie happen every single day around the world and nothing is done about it or nobody even knows.
After being really impressed with this film I went online to check reviews and I later found out the actor, Ken Ogata died last year. He was pretty amazing in this movie to say the least. I think i'm going to try and check out all of his older movies such as "Ballad of Narayama".
I give "A Long Walk" 3.5/4 STARS (note: The Japanese R2 DVD has english subtitles!)
Can I possibly have my next movie be any better? I doubt it.
The next day I put in the newly released Blu-Ray movie "Nabbie's Love". Back several years I saw the director Yuji Nakae's "Hotel Hibiscus" and loved it. I liked it so much that i've seen it several times since. When it came out on Blu-Ray I even bought it again!
Since I really liked the director, I've alwayed wanted to check out his previous film "Nabbie's Love". The only problem is that until the 27th of this month, no version with english subtitles was available. I picked up the Japanese Blu-Ray version from amazon.
Let's just say I loved this movie. Pretty much every single thing about the movie was perfect. Ever see a movie that just seems to make you happy and put you in a good mood? Well this was definitely one of them. It makes absolutely no sense to me and it's a bit different to me, but I even liked the music in it.
Yuji Nakae's films deserve a US release! Along with Pan Nalin, he's one of the director who seems to be unheard of in the west. Their movies need a US DVD release.
Yuji Nakae has a new film coming out in Japan this month. It's called "A Midsummer Night's Dream". It's by far one of the most bizarre looking movies i've seen, but I want to see it really bad. Might be good.
Now all I have left to watch is my new blu-ray of "Hotel Hibiscus". Luckily I ordered some more expensive Japanese import DVDs. Picked up "One Million Yen Girl" and "Still Walking". Both look ok. I need to find more good Japanese movies made in the last 5 years.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Last night I ended up finally playing "Killzone 2" on my Playstation 3. I moved my PS3 to my upstairs TV instead of the one downstairs. Maybe that's why I haven't played a game on my PS3 in years. Started the game up and it needed a 2gb partition?! That's funny, the box said it only required 50mb or so. I don't care, but I found that strange. Started playing at midnight and stopped at about 1:30am. I think it's safe to say I don't really like it at all..yet. The controls to me are just plain awful and slow. The graphics during regular levels are not all that impressive. There's jagged edges on pretty much everything. This even makes Fallout 3 look so much better. Of course i'm not that far into it.
So far i've hated this game as much as Call of Duty: World at War. I played that game for about 5 hours and haven't played it since. I really hate games that are very linear and everything is so scripted. I'd prefer being able to go off on my own and figure things out. I think my favorite FPS games are Half Life 2 and maybe BioShock. BioShock was alright, but when it was over, I was so glad. I played Half Life 2 immediately after that and was impressed more by that game despite how old it now is.
Right now though my favorite games in the last 5 years have been Fable 2 and Fallout 3. Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games of all time. You can easily spend 100 hours in that game. Not bad for just a $60 game!
Somehow I ended up going to bed at 4am and couldn't sleep. Probably ended up actually falling asleep at 5am. I set my alarm clock at 9am and actually woke up at that time somehow. My annoying cat kept meowing non-stop at my door while I was sleeping. I HATE that. I need to find a way to get him to stop waking me up everyone morning. Someone suggested a water bottle. That doesn't seem cruel or mean to do since it's only a spray of water and he hates water. Someone I know did this when the cats tried to get on their dinner table. It seemed to work.
So at 9am I waited around for a Fedex package. I ordered a bunch of movies from Amazon.co.jp. Two DVDs and Two Blu-rays for $180. Can you believe that? what a rip off! I'm sure they may be worth it though. I took a nap at 10:30 and ended up sleeping until 3pm. Doesn't make sense......
Woke up and couldn't decide if I could eat a meal before working out or not. I figured i'd eat and then workout since I could then put in a good effort. Ended up working out and it was the hardest workout i've had yet. I didn't skip any exercises but found that I needed low weight on some of them. I felt like such a weakling! I'll get better. It's too bad that barbell I had is not very good. It's one of those that are not straight and it's just more annoying then a regular barbell. I might return it. When I got done my body hurt. I don't want to know what tomorrow is going to feel like.
Later that night I went to the Olive Garden with my mom. I rewarded myself after having skipped my reward on Sunday. I ordered a pizza with the plan of only eating two pieces. I asked for light cheese and it was the regular amount. Oh well. No meat on this pizza, so it should be a bit lower in fat and calories. I skipped the breadsticks and the salad and ate two pieces of the pizza. About half, but it's not very large. I looked it up later and it's about 550 calories and I think 20g of fat. That seems kind of low. I ended up throwing the rest away.
Going to now work as long as I can tonight without overdoing it.
So far i've hated this game as much as Call of Duty: World at War. I played that game for about 5 hours and haven't played it since. I really hate games that are very linear and everything is so scripted. I'd prefer being able to go off on my own and figure things out. I think my favorite FPS games are Half Life 2 and maybe BioShock. BioShock was alright, but when it was over, I was so glad. I played Half Life 2 immediately after that and was impressed more by that game despite how old it now is.
Right now though my favorite games in the last 5 years have been Fable 2 and Fallout 3. Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games of all time. You can easily spend 100 hours in that game. Not bad for just a $60 game!
Somehow I ended up going to bed at 4am and couldn't sleep. Probably ended up actually falling asleep at 5am. I set my alarm clock at 9am and actually woke up at that time somehow. My annoying cat kept meowing non-stop at my door while I was sleeping. I HATE that. I need to find a way to get him to stop waking me up everyone morning. Someone suggested a water bottle. That doesn't seem cruel or mean to do since it's only a spray of water and he hates water. Someone I know did this when the cats tried to get on their dinner table. It seemed to work.
So at 9am I waited around for a Fedex package. I ordered a bunch of movies from Amazon.co.jp. Two DVDs and Two Blu-rays for $180. Can you believe that? what a rip off! I'm sure they may be worth it though. I took a nap at 10:30 and ended up sleeping until 3pm. Doesn't make sense......
Woke up and couldn't decide if I could eat a meal before working out or not. I figured i'd eat and then workout since I could then put in a good effort. Ended up working out and it was the hardest workout i've had yet. I didn't skip any exercises but found that I needed low weight on some of them. I felt like such a weakling! I'll get better. It's too bad that barbell I had is not very good. It's one of those that are not straight and it's just more annoying then a regular barbell. I might return it. When I got done my body hurt. I don't want to know what tomorrow is going to feel like.
Later that night I went to the Olive Garden with my mom. I rewarded myself after having skipped my reward on Sunday. I ordered a pizza with the plan of only eating two pieces. I asked for light cheese and it was the regular amount. Oh well. No meat on this pizza, so it should be a bit lower in fat and calories. I skipped the breadsticks and the salad and ate two pieces of the pizza. About half, but it's not very large. I looked it up later and it's about 550 calories and I think 20g of fat. That seems kind of low. I ended up throwing the rest away.
Going to now work as long as I can tonight without overdoing it.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
ok day
Today did not go that well and could have been better. I went to bed last night and woke up at about 11am. I was so tired from not enough sleep and had to pull myself out of bed. This usually doesn't happen. It was a rare day where I was not looking forward to my workout. I delayed it by several hours and wish I didn't.
After going shopping with my mom and coming home I was really sleepy. I think it may be what I had for lunch. I skipped getting a regular pizza and only eating two slices for my "reward" and instead ate half a subway pizza.
Came home and slept from about 6 or 7 until 9pm! I got up and did my workout. I tried about 75% of this new routine I found online. I will do 100% of it when I get a new barbell. I must saw that Military Presses are hard!
At one point I overdid the weight on my bench press and could not even do a second rep on set 4. Oops!
I ended up getting an Olympic barbell and set of dumbbell handles for $37. I should have just gotten the regular Olympic 7' barbell they had for $55. I felt this smaller version will be better for starting out. The $55 barbell weighed a ton. Probably like 50lbs at least.
I could have eaten a bit better today. Too much bread! Two meals had white flour in it and i'm trying to avoid that.
After my workout I had so much energy and completely changed my day around. I ended up going shopping after that (at Wal-Mart i mentioned early). I ended up spending $140!! I bought 2 10lb plates for $8.50 each and 2 25lb plates. I think they were $24 which is about the cheapest price I've found unfortunately.
Came home took a shower and some tylenol PM. I'm now out for the night!
After going shopping with my mom and coming home I was really sleepy. I think it may be what I had for lunch. I skipped getting a regular pizza and only eating two slices for my "reward" and instead ate half a subway pizza.
Came home and slept from about 6 or 7 until 9pm! I got up and did my workout. I tried about 75% of this new routine I found online. I will do 100% of it when I get a new barbell. I must saw that Military Presses are hard!
At one point I overdid the weight on my bench press and could not even do a second rep on set 4. Oops!
I ended up getting an Olympic barbell and set of dumbbell handles for $37. I should have just gotten the regular Olympic 7' barbell they had for $55. I felt this smaller version will be better for starting out. The $55 barbell weighed a ton. Probably like 50lbs at least.
I could have eaten a bit better today. Too much bread! Two meals had white flour in it and i'm trying to avoid that.
After my workout I had so much energy and completely changed my day around. I ended up going shopping after that (at Wal-Mart i mentioned early). I ended up spending $140!! I bought 2 10lb plates for $8.50 each and 2 25lb plates. I think they were $24 which is about the cheapest price I've found unfortunately.
Came home took a shower and some tylenol PM. I'm now out for the night!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Most productive day in months
Last night I tried to go to bed early. For me, early is like 1am. I ended up not being able to sleep well and ended up falling asleep around 3 or 4am. My alarm clock went off at 10am and I practically jumped out of bed. I don't know how that happened. Yet strangely I laid back down and feel asleep until 11am, yet I wasn't that tired.
I started my work and took a break about 3 hours later. Usually to finish a set of orders it takes me about 2-3 days. Today I got everything done in ONE day. Today I worked from 11am until 6:30pm. Took a half hour break in between that though. I came home at about 8 and worked until about 11pm. I got every single thing done I wanted to get done.
I ate really well the entire day. I should have eaten dinner much earlier then I did. I had a veggie sandwich at Panera bread. It's pretty nasty, but it's healthy and it's food. I guess i'm not a fan of hummus.
I think I might not completely give up pizza. I may give myself one Saturday to eat TWO pieces and two pizza only. The problem with that it that I want it to be GOOD pizza. Another problem is that delivery or pickup usually costs like $15 on average. I think my only option is to go with Papa Johns since I think they still offer wheat crust. I probably will skip the white flour crust if I can. Most places don't put enough veggies on their pizzas. The company that skimps on the toppings (just veggies) the most is Dominos. Little Caesars has a veggie pizza and they put a ton of vegetables on it. Jet's Pizza does too, but maybe overdoes it a little. I've also been a fan of Cottage Inn pizza lately. I had a slightly cold pizza once on a day they were EXTREMELY busy and they offered me a full refund.
Maybe I need to shop around for a really healthy pizza that tastes good. The worst pizza I ever had in my life was a veggie pizza without any cheese on it. I didn't realize it had no cheese until I bought it!
One very good pizza is the Frontera Foods roasted vegetable pizza. It's very expensive though at like $7.50 for such a tiny pizza. I may get one of those tomorrow. Somehow only D&W carries them and probably mark it up like $2-$3! I bet Wal-Mart will carry it eventually.
I started my work and took a break about 3 hours later. Usually to finish a set of orders it takes me about 2-3 days. Today I got everything done in ONE day. Today I worked from 11am until 6:30pm. Took a half hour break in between that though. I came home at about 8 and worked until about 11pm. I got every single thing done I wanted to get done.
I ate really well the entire day. I should have eaten dinner much earlier then I did. I had a veggie sandwich at Panera bread. It's pretty nasty, but it's healthy and it's food. I guess i'm not a fan of hummus.
I think I might not completely give up pizza. I may give myself one Saturday to eat TWO pieces and two pizza only. The problem with that it that I want it to be GOOD pizza. Another problem is that delivery or pickup usually costs like $15 on average. I think my only option is to go with Papa Johns since I think they still offer wheat crust. I probably will skip the white flour crust if I can. Most places don't put enough veggies on their pizzas. The company that skimps on the toppings (just veggies) the most is Dominos. Little Caesars has a veggie pizza and they put a ton of vegetables on it. Jet's Pizza does too, but maybe overdoes it a little. I've also been a fan of Cottage Inn pizza lately. I had a slightly cold pizza once on a day they were EXTREMELY busy and they offered me a full refund.
Maybe I need to shop around for a really healthy pizza that tastes good. The worst pizza I ever had in my life was a veggie pizza without any cheese on it. I didn't realize it had no cheese until I bought it!
One very good pizza is the Frontera Foods roasted vegetable pizza. It's very expensive though at like $7.50 for such a tiny pizza. I may get one of those tomorrow. Somehow only D&W carries them and probably mark it up like $2-$3! I bet Wal-Mart will carry it eventually.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
another good day
I slept some VERY long hours last night I must have needed it. Immediately after I woke up I ate breakfast and then did a workout. I should have eaten something small and THEN got in a workout, but I don't care.
The workout went ok. I'm not really happy with it. I need to learn some new exercises and get some more weight plates and dumbbells. I was really limited today with what I could do. Not good. It doesn't help that my equipment didn't really come with any good manual. I basically just use a smith machine, dumbbells and free weights.
I took a quick break after that and felt extremely hungry. I had lunch with my mom and then went shopping. I looked at a sporting goods store and their dumbbell prices are much better then last year. I saw a kettleball for sale there for $69.99. $70, are you kidding me? What person would pay $70 for a stupid ball of metal. It wasn't even over 30lbs! The idea of it sounds fun, but i'll wait until they're cheaper.
I've priced them online, but shipping was $250. Ok, i'm kidding. People actually do buy weight plates online. I don't even want to know the shipping prices!
My muscles are sore today already a bit. I bet tomorrow they will be worse, but that's ok. As long as it's not as painful as the day after my first workout.
Well, it's 12:30am now. I need to try to get to bed EARLY today. I need to try and get up tomorrow morning as early as I can and work all day. I got in some large orders and I want to get them done before Saturday.
The workout went ok. I'm not really happy with it. I need to learn some new exercises and get some more weight plates and dumbbells. I was really limited today with what I could do. Not good. It doesn't help that my equipment didn't really come with any good manual. I basically just use a smith machine, dumbbells and free weights.
I took a quick break after that and felt extremely hungry. I had lunch with my mom and then went shopping. I looked at a sporting goods store and their dumbbell prices are much better then last year. I saw a kettleball for sale there for $69.99. $70, are you kidding me? What person would pay $70 for a stupid ball of metal. It wasn't even over 30lbs! The idea of it sounds fun, but i'll wait until they're cheaper.
I've priced them online, but shipping was $250. Ok, i'm kidding. People actually do buy weight plates online. I don't even want to know the shipping prices!
My muscles are sore today already a bit. I bet tomorrow they will be worse, but that's ok. As long as it's not as painful as the day after my first workout.
Well, it's 12:30am now. I need to try to get to bed EARLY today. I need to try and get up tomorrow morning as early as I can and work all day. I got in some large orders and I want to get them done before Saturday.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
I'm kind of tired today for some reason. I could have used another 3 hours of sleep. The air conditioner people came over at 2pm today and fixed my air conditioner. I had a bad capacitor and blown fuse. He said it was probably caused by a surge. The bill to repair it came up to about $266. Yesterday at 1:40pm my Computer Battery Backup software reported a blackout for a duration of 5 seconds. Strangely none of my lights went out, but flickered I think. I barely noticed them doing this, so it might have been my imagination.
My battery backup on my PC has been totally worth it. I'll definitely keep one connected from every computer I own from now on. The software even tells me how many watts i'm using. Right now it's only at 194watts. Without my ATI 4870 video card and just using an older one I can get it down to 110 watts. My old EEEPC could get down to 10 watts when on. That's like a light bulb!! CFL that is.
Since I was paid back on some money I loaned out I went back to Art-Van to check on some recliners. The one I liked the most was still there and I wanted it so bad. It was a gliding, swivel recliner made by Lay-Z-Boy. Unfortunately it's in leather, but i'll live. I went to the art van store and the stationary one alone was $300 more! Luckily I got them to price match and I got the gliding swivel recliner. I ended up returning my undelievered recliner from them I purchased a week ago for this one. It's very expensive but it will be worth it. I said to myself that I must be crazy paying this much for a chair. I won't regret it much when I sit in it I think. Actually I don't regret it at all as it is now. I deserve a nice chair to sit in on my days off! I can't wait until they deliver it!
I ate well again today. Considering I didn't eat a ton of food I should be more hungry then I am.
For late breakfast I had a salad with lots of protein (again) and some fruit. For lunch it was plain whole wheat noodles and a cucumber tomato salad. My mistake here is no protein really. Oops.
Since that didn't help me any I ate a Subway sandwich a few hours later. As always, a Veggie patty on wheat with no mayo, oil or cheese. My guess is that they're around 300-350 calories total. I need maybe 30 grams of protein still today and my day should be complete. Sadly i'm out of my favorite healthy food..low fat cottage cheese (Michigan Brand).
My battery backup on my PC has been totally worth it. I'll definitely keep one connected from every computer I own from now on. The software even tells me how many watts i'm using. Right now it's only at 194watts. Without my ATI 4870 video card and just using an older one I can get it down to 110 watts. My old EEEPC could get down to 10 watts when on. That's like a light bulb!! CFL that is.
Since I was paid back on some money I loaned out I went back to Art-Van to check on some recliners. The one I liked the most was still there and I wanted it so bad. It was a gliding, swivel recliner made by Lay-Z-Boy. Unfortunately it's in leather, but i'll live. I went to the art van store and the stationary one alone was $300 more! Luckily I got them to price match and I got the gliding swivel recliner. I ended up returning my undelievered recliner from them I purchased a week ago for this one. It's very expensive but it will be worth it. I said to myself that I must be crazy paying this much for a chair. I won't regret it much when I sit in it I think. Actually I don't regret it at all as it is now. I deserve a nice chair to sit in on my days off! I can't wait until they deliver it!
I ate well again today. Considering I didn't eat a ton of food I should be more hungry then I am.
For late breakfast I had a salad with lots of protein (again) and some fruit. For lunch it was plain whole wheat noodles and a cucumber tomato salad. My mistake here is no protein really. Oops.
Since that didn't help me any I ate a Subway sandwich a few hours later. As always, a Veggie patty on wheat with no mayo, oil or cheese. My guess is that they're around 300-350 calories total. I need maybe 30 grams of protein still today and my day should be complete. Sadly i'm out of my favorite healthy food..low fat cottage cheese (Michigan Brand).
Up at 9am today
Went to bed last night at 3am and set my alarm for 11:30am. I wanted to go to bed much earlier, but it didn't work out as planned. Unfortunately my annoying cat woke me up at 8:40am. He kept meowing non-stop. I said "NO!" from my bedroom and usually that stops it. He kept doing it over and over. So annoying. It was definitely no emergency. He had water, a clean litter box and food, so what's the problem. I think he was just bored and needed attention.
One problem last night is that my Air conditioner died. It kept running forever and would not cool down the house. I tried everything to get it working without any luck. The unit outside doesn't turn on, but it sounds like it's on inside. I have them coming out to check into it. Hopefully it's not expensive.
This morning my whole body ached, but no major damage done luckily. I was so extremely thirsty though. Can't remember when I was ever this thirsty. I really need to get a new water purifier cartridge instead of just drinking bottled water.
For breakfast I had Cheerios and 1% milk. cheerios out of all the breakfast cereals seems to give me the most energy. It lasts for a long time. On Cheerios i'm usually not hungry for 3-4 hours.
At 10am I went to D&W and got a salad and some water. That place is in an expensive neighborhood and the prices are robbery. They wanted $5 for a single container of fruit when it's $3.19 elsewhere (not Wal-Mart, very few can compete with Wal-Mart I imagine). A bottle of smart water is $1.79 and $1 elsewhere. These tortilla chips I like are selling there for $5.79 and only $3.69 at World Market. On Amy's frozen dinners they're $3.99 elsewhere, but here the same thing is like $5.79. I refuse to pay that high of a mark-up.
Now that it's 10:23 i'm going to start work. Luckily my office area in my basement is fairly cool during the summer. I can stay down there without the air conditioner on. It's not that hot out today anyway.
So far things are going ok, but I could have used an extra 2 hours of sleep. I'm going to get my orders out today no matter what.
One problem last night is that my Air conditioner died. It kept running forever and would not cool down the house. I tried everything to get it working without any luck. The unit outside doesn't turn on, but it sounds like it's on inside. I have them coming out to check into it. Hopefully it's not expensive.
This morning my whole body ached, but no major damage done luckily. I was so extremely thirsty though. Can't remember when I was ever this thirsty. I really need to get a new water purifier cartridge instead of just drinking bottled water.
For breakfast I had Cheerios and 1% milk. cheerios out of all the breakfast cereals seems to give me the most energy. It lasts for a long time. On Cheerios i'm usually not hungry for 3-4 hours.
At 10am I went to D&W and got a salad and some water. That place is in an expensive neighborhood and the prices are robbery. They wanted $5 for a single container of fruit when it's $3.19 elsewhere (not Wal-Mart, very few can compete with Wal-Mart I imagine). A bottle of smart water is $1.79 and $1 elsewhere. These tortilla chips I like are selling there for $5.79 and only $3.69 at World Market. On Amy's frozen dinners they're $3.99 elsewhere, but here the same thing is like $5.79. I refuse to pay that high of a mark-up.
Now that it's 10:23 i'm going to start work. Luckily my office area in my basement is fairly cool during the summer. I can stay down there without the air conditioner on. It's not that hot out today anyway.
So far things are going ok, but I could have used an extra 2 hours of sleep. I'm going to get my orders out today no matter what.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Wednesday July 22nd (what not to do)
Today I saw that I could have gone back to the old me if I wasn't careful. For a few seconds I had this picture of me not working out anymore and not losing any more weight. I didn't want that so I told myself I had to get a workout in no matter what. I need to be 100% sure to remember the mistakes of this day and learn from them.
On Monday night I stayed up way too late. This would have been ok, but the problem is is that I went to bed at 7am on Tuesday morning and I got up at 11:30am. That's not enough sleep for someone that's exercising a lot.
I pick my mom up from the dealership for her car repair. That's the whole reason I got up early. I ate Subway (veggie patty with no mayo, oil, cheese) for lunch and came home and got in a few hours of work. The HUGE mistake I made is that I sat on the computer for several hours. I don't know how on earth I got so sidetracked. I should have been working. When I got off the computer it was 6am and I was in a somewhat bad mood due to not eating enough.
I went and got a salad and ate a lot of protein with it and had fat free dressing with it. I'd say that along with the other items I ate with it, it was a perfect meal. At 8pm I took a nap and when I woke up it was 11:30pm! Oops!
Here is where I felt like the old me. I had to work really bad (I work at home) but I knew I had to get a workout in and it was going on midnight. I decided to get a workout in and it was tough to really get going for some reason. My leg still hurt and I didn't want to injure my arm again. I did about 15-20 minutes only. After that I got on my treadmill and ran as long as I possibly could. I'm not even going to mention the duration since it's embarrassing. I guess i've got to start somewhere. By the end my legs were burning. A bit later I had a protein shake and here I am now. What seemed to help me a lot in my workouts is listening to some music to get me going. I have a small Sansa Fuze and some really nice Ultimate Ear Triple Fi 10's. Strangely, after my super short workout I felt really good and that's when I decided to get on the treadmill.
It's now 1am. I should work just a little, but I think it may be best to get a good night's sleep to get back on track. Too bad I had that 3 hour nap.
On Monday night I stayed up way too late. This would have been ok, but the problem is is that I went to bed at 7am on Tuesday morning and I got up at 11:30am. That's not enough sleep for someone that's exercising a lot.
I pick my mom up from the dealership for her car repair. That's the whole reason I got up early. I ate Subway (veggie patty with no mayo, oil, cheese) for lunch and came home and got in a few hours of work. The HUGE mistake I made is that I sat on the computer for several hours. I don't know how on earth I got so sidetracked. I should have been working. When I got off the computer it was 6am and I was in a somewhat bad mood due to not eating enough.
I went and got a salad and ate a lot of protein with it and had fat free dressing with it. I'd say that along with the other items I ate with it, it was a perfect meal. At 8pm I took a nap and when I woke up it was 11:30pm! Oops!
Here is where I felt like the old me. I had to work really bad (I work at home) but I knew I had to get a workout in and it was going on midnight. I decided to get a workout in and it was tough to really get going for some reason. My leg still hurt and I didn't want to injure my arm again. I did about 15-20 minutes only. After that I got on my treadmill and ran as long as I possibly could. I'm not even going to mention the duration since it's embarrassing. I guess i've got to start somewhere. By the end my legs were burning. A bit later I had a protein shake and here I am now. What seemed to help me a lot in my workouts is listening to some music to get me going. I have a small Sansa Fuze and some really nice Ultimate Ear Triple Fi 10's. Strangely, after my super short workout I felt really good and that's when I decided to get on the treadmill.
It's now 1am. I should work just a little, but I think it may be best to get a good night's sleep to get back on track. Too bad I had that 3 hour nap.
long hours of work
Yesterday I had a late start. I ended up working from 6pm until 3am. At 3am I took a break and went to Wal-Mart. I guess I needed some fresh air, so I came hope and worked another 1 1/2 hours! At Wal-Mart I ended up getting 2 sets of dumbbells. I almost went with 3, but I decided to go with 15 and 25lb ones to start. I wanted to get some lighter ones for certain exercises like lateral raises and tricep extensions etc.
I ate well that day, but I found that due to exercise I was much hungrier then I normally was. I ate a frozen Amy's dinner for lunch with something on the side and was hungry just an hour later. I finally tried some veggie lunch meant. It's not horrible, but not great. A bit dry, but that's ok.
The worst thing I had in the day was a veggie sub with light oil and mayo. I should have skipped those, but the sub (at Lenny's) would have been terrible. I'm going to skip this place from now on because I felt sleepy a half hour later. I think their wheat bread is just white in disguise.
Woke up today at 11am after having gone to sleep at 7am. My mom needed a ride from the car dealership. I got up to fast and pulled a leg muscle. It was my thigh all the way down to my knee. I haven't did that in over 2 years somehow and I felt it coming on, so I didn't get the full effects of it. I stood up and I felt dizzy and my ears started ringing really bad. I was a bit scared for a few seconds, but after about a minute I was ok. I think I pushed myself too hard yesterday and didn't get enough sleep.
Started working today after lunch and hope to get a lot done today. I'm going to get a workout in and go to bed early once work is done. I'm about 95% recovered now. I don't know what I did to hurt my arms so bad.
I ate well that day, but I found that due to exercise I was much hungrier then I normally was. I ate a frozen Amy's dinner for lunch with something on the side and was hungry just an hour later. I finally tried some veggie lunch meant. It's not horrible, but not great. A bit dry, but that's ok.
The worst thing I had in the day was a veggie sub with light oil and mayo. I should have skipped those, but the sub (at Lenny's) would have been terrible. I'm going to skip this place from now on because I felt sleepy a half hour later. I think their wheat bread is just white in disguise.
Woke up today at 11am after having gone to sleep at 7am. My mom needed a ride from the car dealership. I got up to fast and pulled a leg muscle. It was my thigh all the way down to my knee. I haven't did that in over 2 years somehow and I felt it coming on, so I didn't get the full effects of it. I stood up and I felt dizzy and my ears started ringing really bad. I was a bit scared for a few seconds, but after about a minute I was ok. I think I pushed myself too hard yesterday and didn't get enough sleep.
Started working today after lunch and hope to get a lot done today. I'm going to get a workout in and go to bed early once work is done. I'm about 95% recovered now. I don't know what I did to hurt my arms so bad.
Monday, July 20, 2009
feeling better
Today I work up and I was feeling a lot better. My arm hurt a little, but it's about 75% cleared up now. Last night I did eat something bad, but not really horrible.
I went to the store and purchased some milk, cottage cheese and other healthy items. One item I got that someone I thought was healthy was some chips. Duh..they're still potato chips! They were different chips made out of different vegetables. Carrots, Blue Potatoes and something else. Well, I ate way too many of them and they were too oily and salty. Not good. I ate so many that I felt sleepy. A little later I ate a small amount of protein and drank a lot of water.
When I woke up my body ached due to all the exercise. I got up for a few minutes and then laid back down for about another half an hour. I'm up now and ready to do some work.
For breakfast I had a small bowl of Kashi cereal with 1% milk and some fruit. I think from now on i'm going to switch to plain old Cherrios. No sugar dumped on it like last time! I'll also skip the fruit since I think it added too much sugar to my first meal along with the Kashi cereal. With the Kashi, milk and fruit I probably had an overdose of sugar. Oops.
I went to the store and purchased some milk, cottage cheese and other healthy items. One item I got that someone I thought was healthy was some chips. Duh..they're still potato chips! They were different chips made out of different vegetables. Carrots, Blue Potatoes and something else. Well, I ate way too many of them and they were too oily and salty. Not good. I ate so many that I felt sleepy. A little later I ate a small amount of protein and drank a lot of water.
When I woke up my body ached due to all the exercise. I got up for a few minutes and then laid back down for about another half an hour. I'm up now and ready to do some work.
For breakfast I had a small bowl of Kashi cereal with 1% milk and some fruit. I think from now on i'm going to switch to plain old Cherrios. No sugar dumped on it like last time! I'll also skip the fruit since I think it added too much sugar to my first meal along with the Kashi cereal. With the Kashi, milk and fruit I probably had an overdose of sugar. Oops.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Stil recovering
Since I was "injured" and couldn't lift weights I did something else instead and use my treadmill. I used the "Fat Loss 1" setting and after 10 minutes realized how out of shape I was. In the past, it'd take me half way to break a sweat, not so this time. I started feeling the burn in my legs within 10 minutes. This program keeps changing speeds on you and will constantly change the incline from 1 to 6. I think 6 means 6", but i'm not sure. I wasn't even running and it was a pretty good workout. I'll get better each day for sure. The arm pain is a big set-back.
I ate well today again. Had a few temptations. The worst thing I had was a Smoothie at Barnes and Nobles. It had 260 calories, 5g of fat and 30g of sugar. Zero High Fructose Corn Syrup though and 15g of protein. The only problem is that it had about 50g of carbs I believe.
Overall my mom and I thought they tasted bad, but are fairly healthy and much, much better then eating ice cream or potato chips!
For lunch I had stir-fry with Tofu in it. It was alright, but nothing special. It amazes me that some restaurants can charge you $9 for ONE bowl of vegetables and tofu. It was not even a lot of food. It's one place I think is way overpriced so I don't go there often.
For dinner I had one of those Veggie Patty subs at Subway on wheat bread and no mayo, cheese or oil. No cookies to go with it either! Not even any chips. I HATE those baked lays. Usually if I need a desert I will get the apples they sell there.
After lunch though I was walking around Wal-mart and was looking at dumbells. Right then and there for about 15 seconds I felt really hot and like I was going to throw up. It went away fast and was very, very strange. I think the tea at the restaurant did it. Very strong tea messes with my stomache.
My arms were in a lot of pain today. I had to walk around with my hands in my pockets a lot because I could not fully extend my arms without extreme pain. That's not good.
I had a ton of water today. Before 3pm alone I had about a half gallon of water down. Later on I went through a 44oz water and another 20oz before that. To say the least, i'm getting enough water! This should speed up recovery. I'm also getting enough protein also.
I'm really hoping i'll be fully recovered tomorrow. If not, I have a small problem and will find it hard to work. Something obviously went wrong and I don't know what it was. I guess my body is not used to very heavy free weights.
I ate well today again. Had a few temptations. The worst thing I had was a Smoothie at Barnes and Nobles. It had 260 calories, 5g of fat and 30g of sugar. Zero High Fructose Corn Syrup though and 15g of protein. The only problem is that it had about 50g of carbs I believe.
Overall my mom and I thought they tasted bad, but are fairly healthy and much, much better then eating ice cream or potato chips!
For lunch I had stir-fry with Tofu in it. It was alright, but nothing special. It amazes me that some restaurants can charge you $9 for ONE bowl of vegetables and tofu. It was not even a lot of food. It's one place I think is way overpriced so I don't go there often.
For dinner I had one of those Veggie Patty subs at Subway on wheat bread and no mayo, cheese or oil. No cookies to go with it either! Not even any chips. I HATE those baked lays. Usually if I need a desert I will get the apples they sell there.
After lunch though I was walking around Wal-mart and was looking at dumbells. Right then and there for about 15 seconds I felt really hot and like I was going to throw up. It went away fast and was very, very strange. I think the tea at the restaurant did it. Very strong tea messes with my stomache.
My arms were in a lot of pain today. I had to walk around with my hands in my pockets a lot because I could not fully extend my arms without extreme pain. That's not good.
I had a ton of water today. Before 3pm alone I had about a half gallon of water down. Later on I went through a 44oz water and another 20oz before that. To say the least, i'm getting enough water! This should speed up recovery. I'm also getting enough protein also.
I'm really hoping i'll be fully recovered tomorrow. If not, I have a small problem and will find it hard to work. Something obviously went wrong and I don't know what it was. I guess my body is not used to very heavy free weights.
Slow recovery
Today is a bit frustrating for me, but i'm not going to let it get me down. I woke up and my arms were killing me. I felt like paralyzed or something and could not even fully extend them. I last did an arm workout on Friday so I should have recovered by now. Perhaps I need more water or protein.
Today is my day to workout next and this is disappointing. If I workout today on my arms, it's asking for major trouble and will only make things worse. My muscles are very sore but I also feel the pain in my joints. I was going to sweep my driveway today, but it hurts to even lift the broom. It's that bad. My mom says I overdid my arm workout, but I don't think so. I think it's just that I'm starting up weight training again and i'm just not used to it.
I'm going to get in some sort of workout in today. I will probably do the fat loss routine on my treadmill. It's only 20 minutes, but it changes the incline a lot and it's a very good workout for only 20 minutes.
I HATE to skip regular weight training workouts, but it'd just be crazy to do it today.
Right now I have some Ben-gay on my arm. So stupid that I actually need to do that. I picked up a gallon of water at wal-mart. One of those protein shaker bottles and some protein power. A 26 gram protein drink might help. It also has something else in it other then protein to aid in recovery. I'll try to drink as much water today as I possibly can.
Other then this, it's a good day so far. I'm staying positive and will now shut off my computer and get in that treadmill workout. It's better then not going any workout at all.
Today is my day to workout next and this is disappointing. If I workout today on my arms, it's asking for major trouble and will only make things worse. My muscles are very sore but I also feel the pain in my joints. I was going to sweep my driveway today, but it hurts to even lift the broom. It's that bad. My mom says I overdid my arm workout, but I don't think so. I think it's just that I'm starting up weight training again and i'm just not used to it.
I'm going to get in some sort of workout in today. I will probably do the fat loss routine on my treadmill. It's only 20 minutes, but it changes the incline a lot and it's a very good workout for only 20 minutes.
I HATE to skip regular weight training workouts, but it'd just be crazy to do it today.
Right now I have some Ben-gay on my arm. So stupid that I actually need to do that. I picked up a gallon of water at wal-mart. One of those protein shaker bottles and some protein power. A 26 gram protein drink might help. It also has something else in it other then protein to aid in recovery. I'll try to drink as much water today as I possibly can.
Other then this, it's a good day so far. I'm staying positive and will now shut off my computer and get in that treadmill workout. It's better then not going any workout at all.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Today was my day off, so no workout was required today. My mom woke me up to invite me to go out for breakfast at 9am. I would have, but I had went to sleep that morning at 6am! Somehow. I haven't had such deep sleep in over a month. I had this movie poster over my bed and when I woke up it was on the floor. It probably fell off the wall and hit me on the head and I didn't even realize it!
I ended up finally waking up after 8 hours of sleep and we went out for lunch. After this we went furniture shopping and I ended up buying a new recliner for my living room. I've always wanted one. I have a nice leather sofa (I won't buy leather now if I can avoid it!), but it's just not comfortable anymore to sit in for long periods of time. It was at first. I must have sat in every recliner they had and ended up going with one that was $429. The only reason I bought it was because someone today paid me back when they borrowed from me.
After shopping and picking out the one I wanted I also went to Art-van to see what they had. Their prices were better...as long as you went to the clearance section. Everything else was about the same as Lay-Z-Boy without the sale prices.
I sat down in perhaps the most comfortable chair out of every one I tried. It was a gliding rocker that rotated and reclined. The only problem is that it was leather and $999! I'll pass on the thousand dollar chairs. I'm going to use it for what...2 hours a day? I don't need to spend 1k on a chair. To begin with..I should be more active and sitting down less. I'm now convinced the one chair I purchased is the most comfortable for the price.
I think the best deals on a recliner is at Sam's Club. I don't know about the quality but I didn't have a truck to haul it to my house. The ones at Sam's were name brands. Same as what's sold at Art van. The recliner I saw at Sam's was $349. Not bad. I also don't know how they can sell a leather chair that's so huge for $399. I mean this thing was extra wide.
Today I again ate very healthy. Nothing too bad, but one small mistake during the day. For dinner I had a Salad with fat free dressing. I'm so stupid. No wonder I was starving 2 hours later. Thanks to that I went to Subway and got a veggie pizza. I figured that it was Subway Pizza and that it would be ok. I even asked for light cheese. Turns out this thing had 750 calories and 25 grams of fat. That's not terrible for a pizza really. I probably ate more of it then I should have! I ate the Pizza at 7pm and got hungry again at 1am. I went that long without eating and didn't even realize it. That pizza kept me going for awhile I guess.
My muscles don't really hurt today. I guess I need to work out harder on my next workout. What's stupid is that my dumbells broke. How do dumbbells even break? I have some of those overpriced Bowflex dumbbells where you rotate a dial to use them. I've had them for over 2 years and have now finally put a use to them. Well guess what? A plastic piece broken and I can't use them at the 10lb setting. I'll probably just get a bunch of super cheap ones at wal-mart. It's weight and they don't need to be anything fancy. I can probably pay like $6 for a 10lb dumbbell at wal-mart. I doubt any place else can beat that price. I bought all my Olympic plates from them and it was the best price out of anywhere in town. I think I paid like $13 for the 25lb plates, but I don't remember. I definitely need more plates so I don't need to swap them out.
I also need to pick up some protein powder. As a vegetarian it's going to help out a bit. I want to try to make sure to get some without sugar. The EAS brand has like 15g of sugar in it per scoop. Add that into milk and it's going to be like drinking Kool-aid. The way to do it is to mix the sugar free protein powder into water and then add a tablespoon of heavy cream. People do this to add in some type of fat (some fat is good) without adding in bad carbs (sugar). I don't need any of the overpriced Meal replacement stuff. I can get by fine with plain old food for now. EAS Myoplex was the best tasting brand, but I may need to go with the lite version. I'll probably aim for 2000 calories a day. I did 1500 in the past to lose 87lbs and that was crazy and maybe a bit dumb. Yet I felt fine all day...somehow. Back then I had no idea 1500 was waaaaay too low. Yet the bowflex manual suggested it for MEN! For women it was like 1200(!!).
Anyway, it's getting late. I did some work today, but this weekend will be mostly days off. Tomorrow afternoon I will do another workout. I mentioned my muscles are not sore, but my joints near my elbows are killing me! I can't fully extend my arms without pain.
Today was a very, very good day overall. No lack of energy at all today, other then for a few minutes about 2 hours after eating that salad. I felt like I was starving. I'm going to do my best to have a good day every single day no matter what. I'm not going to let bad things get to me. If things start going bad I think I can change that. I've found ways of turning a bad day around.
I ended up finally waking up after 8 hours of sleep and we went out for lunch. After this we went furniture shopping and I ended up buying a new recliner for my living room. I've always wanted one. I have a nice leather sofa (I won't buy leather now if I can avoid it!), but it's just not comfortable anymore to sit in for long periods of time. It was at first. I must have sat in every recliner they had and ended up going with one that was $429. The only reason I bought it was because someone today paid me back when they borrowed from me.
After shopping and picking out the one I wanted I also went to Art-van to see what they had. Their prices were better...as long as you went to the clearance section. Everything else was about the same as Lay-Z-Boy without the sale prices.
I sat down in perhaps the most comfortable chair out of every one I tried. It was a gliding rocker that rotated and reclined. The only problem is that it was leather and $999! I'll pass on the thousand dollar chairs. I'm going to use it for what...2 hours a day? I don't need to spend 1k on a chair. To begin with..I should be more active and sitting down less. I'm now convinced the one chair I purchased is the most comfortable for the price.
I think the best deals on a recliner is at Sam's Club. I don't know about the quality but I didn't have a truck to haul it to my house. The ones at Sam's were name brands. Same as what's sold at Art van. The recliner I saw at Sam's was $349. Not bad. I also don't know how they can sell a leather chair that's so huge for $399. I mean this thing was extra wide.
Today I again ate very healthy. Nothing too bad, but one small mistake during the day. For dinner I had a Salad with fat free dressing. I'm so stupid. No wonder I was starving 2 hours later. Thanks to that I went to Subway and got a veggie pizza. I figured that it was Subway Pizza and that it would be ok. I even asked for light cheese. Turns out this thing had 750 calories and 25 grams of fat. That's not terrible for a pizza really. I probably ate more of it then I should have! I ate the Pizza at 7pm and got hungry again at 1am. I went that long without eating and didn't even realize it. That pizza kept me going for awhile I guess.
My muscles don't really hurt today. I guess I need to work out harder on my next workout. What's stupid is that my dumbells broke. How do dumbbells even break? I have some of those overpriced Bowflex dumbbells where you rotate a dial to use them. I've had them for over 2 years and have now finally put a use to them. Well guess what? A plastic piece broken and I can't use them at the 10lb setting. I'll probably just get a bunch of super cheap ones at wal-mart. It's weight and they don't need to be anything fancy. I can probably pay like $6 for a 10lb dumbbell at wal-mart. I doubt any place else can beat that price. I bought all my Olympic plates from them and it was the best price out of anywhere in town. I think I paid like $13 for the 25lb plates, but I don't remember. I definitely need more plates so I don't need to swap them out.
I also need to pick up some protein powder. As a vegetarian it's going to help out a bit. I want to try to make sure to get some without sugar. The EAS brand has like 15g of sugar in it per scoop. Add that into milk and it's going to be like drinking Kool-aid. The way to do it is to mix the sugar free protein powder into water and then add a tablespoon of heavy cream. People do this to add in some type of fat (some fat is good) without adding in bad carbs (sugar). I don't need any of the overpriced Meal replacement stuff. I can get by fine with plain old food for now. EAS Myoplex was the best tasting brand, but I may need to go with the lite version. I'll probably aim for 2000 calories a day. I did 1500 in the past to lose 87lbs and that was crazy and maybe a bit dumb. Yet I felt fine all day...somehow. Back then I had no idea 1500 was waaaaay too low. Yet the bowflex manual suggested it for MEN! For women it was like 1200(!!).
Anyway, it's getting late. I did some work today, but this weekend will be mostly days off. Tomorrow afternoon I will do another workout. I mentioned my muscles are not sore, but my joints near my elbows are killing me! I can't fully extend my arms without pain.
Today was a very, very good day overall. No lack of energy at all today, other then for a few minutes about 2 hours after eating that salad. I felt like I was starving. I'm going to do my best to have a good day every single day no matter what. I'm not going to let bad things get to me. If things start going bad I think I can change that. I've found ways of turning a bad day around.
Friday, July 17, 2009
A New Start
I've finally decided to start exercising and eating healthy again. For the last few years I kept saying to myself that I need to start working out. It'd be like this over and over again while I kept gaining weight. At times, you just do not realize you are actually gaining weight.
In the past I was really addicted to eating healthy and exercising. At one point in the past I was 287lbs and eventually got down to 196lbs!! From a size 46 pair of pants down to probably a 36 I think it was.
One reason I started working out back then is that I had just lost my job and needed something productive to do to keep me from being depressed. I had a Bowflex back then and had a goal of working out every other day for 30-40 minutes. Of course once I got into it I got up to an hour.
During this weight loss period, I got off course a bit and made a few small mistakes. I should have kept with what was working. One mistake I made was eating too few calories. It helped with fast loss, but I didn't gain as much muscle as I should have. The Bowflex is a good piece of equipment, but it's not the absolute best for muscle building I think. I don't ever regret using one and it made working out fun. These days I'd almost always suggest something getting a weight bench and some dumbells. Believe it or not, going for walks helps out a ton! Water is another thing that helped. I think I must have gone through a gallon of water a day.
Once my business took off I had very little free time. When I did have free time I made the mistake of getting into Final Fantasy XI/Online. Let me just tell you now that that game is like crack and once you play it and get into it, you will be hooked! Most people watch TV after work, but I would play FFXI. As you can imagine, sitting down all day at work and then playing video games is not a good combination. I probably could say that I was addicted to that game, but I never let it eat up the time working on my business. Maybe a few times.
The good thing about this is that I was saving up every penny I had. My goal was to buy a house. Something bad happened after the first year of saving and every single penny I had saved had to be spent. I kept at it and after 2 years I got enough saved to put a huge downpayment on a house.
So here I was with a new house and the same long hours of work. I never felt like I had a lack of energy, but I could have a lot more still. About a year and a half ago I gave up meat and became a vegetarian. I guess i'm not a true vegetarian, because I still eat eggs once in awhile and do eat cheese and drink milk. I guess the cheese and milk would be ok. Some things i'm not willing to go without. Haven't eaten a single meat product in a year and a half and don't really crave it. I was never a big meat eater anyway. Just maybe hamburgers and whenever I ate a Sandwich.
Sadly, I gained a lot of the weight I lost back. The reason for this is due to inactivity and having a job where I sit for 8-10 hours a day. That combined with not eating healthy is where it all started. I don't feel that I ever ate very poorly. My problem is that I would order Pizza too much and that i'd always have the habit of eating snacks. Whenever I went to Subway i'd always get a cookie to go with it. What's the point of eating at Subway if you're going to get cookies with it? I also had a bad habit of eating ice cream more than I should. Theres probably only 3 or 4 really bad foods that I ate. I think the problem is too much sugar and too much sitting on my butt all day.
On Wednesday I had the entire day off. I went to the bookstore and read for a bit and then came home. I ended up doing a lot of yard work and then even cleaned my house up a bit. After all that I took a rest on my bed for about 15 minutes and then guess what I did? Worked out for over a half hour! The first time in years.
I have no excuse really to not work out. Some people go to college AND work several jobs. I work a ton of hours, but I can easily give up several things to make time. There are 24 hours in a day and people can't come up with 30 minutes a day to exercise?! Not having time to work out is just an excuse. One i've used a lot! I don't know what else there was keeping me from working out again. Maybe I just liked how everything was so set and I didn't want anything to change. I also was a bit worried about weight training and being a vegetarian. It might get a little tricky for me.
There are several reasons I wanted to get back into shape. When I exercise I work really hard on my business and it creates more sales. I love the feeling of waking up in the morning after a hard workout and thinking about what I could accomplish. I rarely got that when I wasn't weight lifting.
I also miss having so much energy all day. I remember in the past waking up and having energy all day until night time. Sometimes I had so much energy that it was even hard to sleep. Of course this was after months and months of exercising.
I also miss being able to go into a clothing store and never ever having a problem with finding the right size. These days it's more difficult to find my size of clothing and theres not much variety.
I've been having problems sleeping lately and always blame it on my bed. Perhaps it's because I've gained so much weight? I don't know.
There's just a combination of small things that made me want to work out again I guess. After the first day of working out I got back all the memories i've had before of eating healthy and exercising. Once I start something I usually stick to it. I remember back when I was first exercising I only ate one "BAD" thing in that entire year. Want to know what it was? A Pop-Tart. No lie! I also did not treat myself to "rewards" such as junk food days etc.
At one point I gave myself a reward day to eat whatever I wanted at one sitting, without overdoing it of course. I myself do NOT like this and it did not work for me. I want to just forget what sugary food and other junk food tastes like. Once you've quit junk food for good, you often forget what it tastes like. One thing I might do is occasionally reward myself each Saturday with one or two slices of pizza, but that's it! I don't even want to know how much I could save by NOT eating pizza each year! Pizza is such a rip off. Pizza is not worth $26! Good pizza is worth paying for, but not for $26.
My first workout went ok. The main problem is that I had a hard time remembering all my exercises. I missed a lot of body parts the first time, but I will only get better. I skipped the abs and shoulders on the first day, but I worked out for about 45 minutes I think. I've got my very own exercise room so that's another reason I NEED to workout. Some people would love to have exercise equipment and can't afford it. There's some people out there that work out just using milk jugs filled with rocks! I've got a nice set of exercise equipment, so put it to use!
My goal now is to figure out an exercise plan. I don't want to overdo anything and want to make it easy to stick to my goals. I will only work out every other day for 45 minutes to an hour. I have not yet decided to do cardio on my off days. I may just ride a bike or take a walk instead. did you know what when I lost over 100lbs I did zero cardio for the first 6 months? Yes, it's true!
After my first day my muscles hurt, but nothing too bad since it was only a first day. Today I work up and ate a good breakfast. They say you shouldn't workout after a meal, but I did anyway.
For Breakfast I had:
Kashi Cereal with 1% Milk
1 Fiber One Yogurt (50 calories)
Water
I need more protein in there of course, but I think the cereal has protein in it. I think I had an overdose of Fiber though! Luckily this Kashi cereal doesn't taste like cardboard like the last kind I had. You know what cereal also gives me a lot of enery? Plain Cheerios! I think tomorrow I will eat some Steel cut Oatmeal I bought.
Yesterday I went grocery shopping and spent $97 on ALL healthy foods. The only "bad" food I bought was chips and salsa. The chips were salt free though and looked fairly healthy despite being fried. I'll only eat a handful for a snack.
I'm going to try to eat several small meals a day. That's the best way to do it. It's best for me to consider two of them just snacks I guess since eating 5-6 small meals a day makes it sound so much worse!
Here's my goal so far:
Workout every other day for 45m - 1hr
No fried foods
No Sugary foods
Limit foods with white-flour and no highly processed foods
Try to get more exercising in by walking etc on off days
Try to work regular hours and don't stay up until 3am! (this is hard)
Don't go without food (puts me into a bad mood very fast)
Take measurements of progress with fabric measuring tape weekly (this is extremely important!!)
Check scale each week and write it down
Lots of fiber and whole grains
Drink more water give up Diet Pepsi (this will be easy)
Write down what is eaten each day (this is going to be hard)
Limit fat, eat lots of protein
No Pizza! (maybe two slices once per week)
Eat out less or never (going to be the hardest thing for me)
Cook at home more. Actually learn how to cook better.
I'm going to update this blog as often as I can. I was going to get my own domain name and update that, but I want to save my money.
In the past I was really addicted to eating healthy and exercising. At one point in the past I was 287lbs and eventually got down to 196lbs!! From a size 46 pair of pants down to probably a 36 I think it was.
One reason I started working out back then is that I had just lost my job and needed something productive to do to keep me from being depressed. I had a Bowflex back then and had a goal of working out every other day for 30-40 minutes. Of course once I got into it I got up to an hour.
During this weight loss period, I got off course a bit and made a few small mistakes. I should have kept with what was working. One mistake I made was eating too few calories. It helped with fast loss, but I didn't gain as much muscle as I should have. The Bowflex is a good piece of equipment, but it's not the absolute best for muscle building I think. I don't ever regret using one and it made working out fun. These days I'd almost always suggest something getting a weight bench and some dumbells. Believe it or not, going for walks helps out a ton! Water is another thing that helped. I think I must have gone through a gallon of water a day.
Once my business took off I had very little free time. When I did have free time I made the mistake of getting into Final Fantasy XI/Online. Let me just tell you now that that game is like crack and once you play it and get into it, you will be hooked! Most people watch TV after work, but I would play FFXI. As you can imagine, sitting down all day at work and then playing video games is not a good combination. I probably could say that I was addicted to that game, but I never let it eat up the time working on my business. Maybe a few times.
The good thing about this is that I was saving up every penny I had. My goal was to buy a house. Something bad happened after the first year of saving and every single penny I had saved had to be spent. I kept at it and after 2 years I got enough saved to put a huge downpayment on a house.
So here I was with a new house and the same long hours of work. I never felt like I had a lack of energy, but I could have a lot more still. About a year and a half ago I gave up meat and became a vegetarian. I guess i'm not a true vegetarian, because I still eat eggs once in awhile and do eat cheese and drink milk. I guess the cheese and milk would be ok. Some things i'm not willing to go without. Haven't eaten a single meat product in a year and a half and don't really crave it. I was never a big meat eater anyway. Just maybe hamburgers and whenever I ate a Sandwich.
Sadly, I gained a lot of the weight I lost back. The reason for this is due to inactivity and having a job where I sit for 8-10 hours a day. That combined with not eating healthy is where it all started. I don't feel that I ever ate very poorly. My problem is that I would order Pizza too much and that i'd always have the habit of eating snacks. Whenever I went to Subway i'd always get a cookie to go with it. What's the point of eating at Subway if you're going to get cookies with it? I also had a bad habit of eating ice cream more than I should. Theres probably only 3 or 4 really bad foods that I ate. I think the problem is too much sugar and too much sitting on my butt all day.
On Wednesday I had the entire day off. I went to the bookstore and read for a bit and then came home. I ended up doing a lot of yard work and then even cleaned my house up a bit. After all that I took a rest on my bed for about 15 minutes and then guess what I did? Worked out for over a half hour! The first time in years.
I have no excuse really to not work out. Some people go to college AND work several jobs. I work a ton of hours, but I can easily give up several things to make time. There are 24 hours in a day and people can't come up with 30 minutes a day to exercise?! Not having time to work out is just an excuse. One i've used a lot! I don't know what else there was keeping me from working out again. Maybe I just liked how everything was so set and I didn't want anything to change. I also was a bit worried about weight training and being a vegetarian. It might get a little tricky for me.
There are several reasons I wanted to get back into shape. When I exercise I work really hard on my business and it creates more sales. I love the feeling of waking up in the morning after a hard workout and thinking about what I could accomplish. I rarely got that when I wasn't weight lifting.
I also miss having so much energy all day. I remember in the past waking up and having energy all day until night time. Sometimes I had so much energy that it was even hard to sleep. Of course this was after months and months of exercising.
I also miss being able to go into a clothing store and never ever having a problem with finding the right size. These days it's more difficult to find my size of clothing and theres not much variety.
I've been having problems sleeping lately and always blame it on my bed. Perhaps it's because I've gained so much weight? I don't know.
There's just a combination of small things that made me want to work out again I guess. After the first day of working out I got back all the memories i've had before of eating healthy and exercising. Once I start something I usually stick to it. I remember back when I was first exercising I only ate one "BAD" thing in that entire year. Want to know what it was? A Pop-Tart. No lie! I also did not treat myself to "rewards" such as junk food days etc.
At one point I gave myself a reward day to eat whatever I wanted at one sitting, without overdoing it of course. I myself do NOT like this and it did not work for me. I want to just forget what sugary food and other junk food tastes like. Once you've quit junk food for good, you often forget what it tastes like. One thing I might do is occasionally reward myself each Saturday with one or two slices of pizza, but that's it! I don't even want to know how much I could save by NOT eating pizza each year! Pizza is such a rip off. Pizza is not worth $26! Good pizza is worth paying for, but not for $26.
My first workout went ok. The main problem is that I had a hard time remembering all my exercises. I missed a lot of body parts the first time, but I will only get better. I skipped the abs and shoulders on the first day, but I worked out for about 45 minutes I think. I've got my very own exercise room so that's another reason I NEED to workout. Some people would love to have exercise equipment and can't afford it. There's some people out there that work out just using milk jugs filled with rocks! I've got a nice set of exercise equipment, so put it to use!
My goal now is to figure out an exercise plan. I don't want to overdo anything and want to make it easy to stick to my goals. I will only work out every other day for 45 minutes to an hour. I have not yet decided to do cardio on my off days. I may just ride a bike or take a walk instead. did you know what when I lost over 100lbs I did zero cardio for the first 6 months? Yes, it's true!
After my first day my muscles hurt, but nothing too bad since it was only a first day. Today I work up and ate a good breakfast. They say you shouldn't workout after a meal, but I did anyway.
For Breakfast I had:
Kashi Cereal with 1% Milk
1 Fiber One Yogurt (50 calories)
Water
I need more protein in there of course, but I think the cereal has protein in it. I think I had an overdose of Fiber though! Luckily this Kashi cereal doesn't taste like cardboard like the last kind I had. You know what cereal also gives me a lot of enery? Plain Cheerios! I think tomorrow I will eat some Steel cut Oatmeal I bought.
Yesterday I went grocery shopping and spent $97 on ALL healthy foods. The only "bad" food I bought was chips and salsa. The chips were salt free though and looked fairly healthy despite being fried. I'll only eat a handful for a snack.
I'm going to try to eat several small meals a day. That's the best way to do it. It's best for me to consider two of them just snacks I guess since eating 5-6 small meals a day makes it sound so much worse!
Here's my goal so far:
Workout every other day for 45m - 1hr
No fried foods
No Sugary foods
Limit foods with white-flour and no highly processed foods
Try to get more exercising in by walking etc on off days
Try to work regular hours and don't stay up until 3am! (this is hard)
Don't go without food (puts me into a bad mood very fast)
Take measurements of progress with fabric measuring tape weekly (this is extremely important!!)
Check scale each week and write it down
Lots of fiber and whole grains
Drink more water give up Diet Pepsi (this will be easy)
Write down what is eaten each day (this is going to be hard)
Limit fat, eat lots of protein
No Pizza! (maybe two slices once per week)
Eat out less or never (going to be the hardest thing for me)
Cook at home more. Actually learn how to cook better.
I'm going to update this blog as often as I can. I was going to get my own domain name and update that, but I want to save my money.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)