So Joe…

Not a heck of a lot to talk about today. I bowled OK last night, first game wasn’t so hot, then I changed my hand position and did a bit better on the other two. We ended up winning everything, so that should help us move up from fifth place. Got to bed at 11:30, woke up around 4, then again around 5:30, and then dozed in and out until I crawled out around 7, which was a little later than I intended. Rowed, breakfast and out the door. I’m not as sore as I thought I would be from that Sunday workout, the muscles are a little more tight than usual, but not sore like the first time. Guess I need to step it up!

Here’s some cool web-based resources that I use (all free of course), let me know if you might find some of them useful as well:

SparkPeople (http://sparkpeople.com) is a site for helping meet your nutrition/fitness goals. It helps track calories in and out, has tons of info on health/fitness topics including forums, and even offers a point system to help encourage you to keep going.

Remember the Milk (http://rememberthemilk.com) is a site for creating ‘To-Do’ lists. It makes it easy to create reoccuring lists, allows you to create multiple lists (one for work, one for home, etc), share your lists publicly, and even have notifications sent you to via e-mail or even IM! I have my reminders IM’d to my Yahoo account every morning (GoogleTalk isn’t working right for some reason).

30 Boxes (http://30boxes.com) is an elegant calendar. I have a calendar through work that I use daily, but if I didn’t have that, I’d be using this one (and I may still use it for some things). Planzo.com and hipcal.com are two other interesting options in this area.

MeeVee (http://meevee.com) is a television listings site. It allows you to select the shows you want to watch (either just one, an entire series, or even just the new episodes) and creates a ‘planner’ for you to layout your television schedule. Much nicer than the one I used to use, TitanTV.

Flickr (http://flickr.com) is a picture storage service. It allows you to upload pictures, and then allows people to view them as slide shows, or you can even link to them from a blog or another website. I haven’t been using it yet, but I may.

PXN8 (http://pxn8.com) allows you to manipulate photos through a webpage. It can do some of the basic things Photoshop can do, like resize, crop, rotate, zoom, even remove redeye and whiten teeth!

Writely (http://writely.com) is an online word processor that can create and store text files with formatting, and can even import Microsoft Word files. You then store them online and can continue working on them from anywhere you can get a web browser. Zohowriter.com is another site that does the same thing.

Wisconsin Circuit Court (http://wcca.wicourts.gov/simpleCaseSearch.xsl) allows you to check if anyone you know has done anything bad! Shows pretty much any court related activity if you type in someones name. Keep in mind that their are many people with the same name, so be sure you have the right person! Don’t bother looking me up, I’m clean, clean I tell you!

Calculator City (http://www.1728.com) contains online calculators and converters of all kinds.

WXNation (http://www.wxnation.com/milwaukee/) has links to every weather related thing you can think of around Milwaukee, including live webcam feeds from buidings and freeways.

Gmail (http://gmail.com) is Googles free e-mail system. It’s very nice, offers 2GB of storage (more than you can use) and now even allows instant messaging through the e-mail page, no client install required. Their are tons of other features, and a calendar should be coming along shortly as well. I think it still requires an invitation, but otherwise is completely free, so if you want one, just ask and I can e-mail one to you.

Well, I’ve been plugging away for two full weeks, getting up early every weekday, counting calories, rowing and eating breakfast 14 days straight! I’m well on my way to making this a routine. In just those two weeks I’ve lost 1″ on my waist. At this rate I should be able to loose another 7″ and get down to my high-school waist size by June 1st. KIDDING!

I did that killer workout again yesterday, and I can tell I’m going to be sore soon. For dinner, I decided to try and make my own ‘natural’ spaghetti sauce. I used two large tomatoes (had them frozen from my garden), a medium yellow onion, 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, 6oz of tomato paste, and oregano. Threw it all in the Cuisinart and then warmed it up. Not to bad, maybe a little much garlic, but I like garlic, so no big deal. Made enough for two big servings, so I’m having the leftovers tonight before bowling.

I’ve been averaging about 96oz of water a day now. Got some ground Flax for use at home since I have the grinder at work so I can have it on weekends. The Green Tea Extract showed up, I got the 100mg pills. I’m taking three a day with meals. Wicked taste, so you have to get it down quick. If you recall, it’s supposed to help speed up your metabolism, along with numerous other benefits. I haven’t noticed a difference, but I’m already reved up pretty good from the exercise and food, so it may not be enough to be noticable.

Went to bed at 11:30, woke up once around 4, then again around 5:30, and finally about 6:45. The first two times would be right on my sleep cycles, the last was a little early, perhaps one of the cats woke me. Did an interval row, breakfast and out the door.

Well, the measurements are in. Visually I’ve felt that I looked slimmer, the ‘love handles’ look like they are almost gone, and the beer gut seems diminished. The scale says I’m down 1/2lb from last week to 161. The scale and caliper both agree that I’m still at 20% body fat. Finally, the tape says my belly is down 1/2″ since last week to 36.25″. Considering I was a bit high on my calories three days this week, I guess that’s not to bad. Would have liked to have seen the body fat measurement move down though. I’m gonna have to step things up a bit, mostly focusing in more on keeping those calories in range, and I’ll try to throw in some more walks. My lats are finally recovered from that last workout, so I’m ready to do some more weights today as well.

Way to many calories yesterday. I went out to my favorite local haunt, Beer Belly’s. I got a boomba (32oz) of Beamish (Irish stout beer, kinda like Guinness), which it turns out has around 400 calories. I wanted to eat something relatively healthy with low fat, so I got the Tuscan Shrimp with Pasta. Basically it is a red sauce with green olives spread over linguini with jumbo shrimp mixed in. Pretty healthy, except that it was a huge plate, and it tasted so good, I ate the whole thing. I’ll need to start watching my portions when I eat out. More doggy-bags I guess. More importantly is that over the evening, I consumed over 1000 calories of alchohol. Must try to trim that down!

Watched ‘Bad Santa’, which was actually pretty funny. Got to bed around 1:30am, and was pretty groggy when I woke up, just laid in bed until almost 11am. When I finally did get up, I’m happy to say that I did row and have breakfast (OK, I guess it could be called lunch at that time). At 2pm I decided to take a walk to try and burn a few more calories. I planned a path that I thought would take about 30 minutes, but mid-way through the walk, it was so nice out, I decided to extend that, and the total walk (at a quick pace) was 45 minutes.

Look at the ingredients on anything that is even remotely clost to sweet in taste and it undoubtedly contains high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). “The body processes the fructose in high fructose corn syrup differently than it does old-fashioned cane or beet sugar, which in turn alters the way metabolic-regulating hormones function. It also forces the liver to kick more fat out into the bloodstream. The end result is that our bodies are essentially tricked into wanting to eat more and at the same time, we are storing more fat.” This would help explain the severe increase in obesity since HFCS began use in the early ’80’s. More disturbing is that no group “has yet refuted the growing scientific concern that, when all is said and done, fructose … is about the furthest thing from natural that one can imagine, let alone eat.”

Here’s an article that explains what it is, how it came to be, and why you should probably avoid it:

http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html

Here’s another that discusses many issues surrounding it:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL

Here’s a site that is ‘pro’ HFCS:

http://www.hfcsfacts.com/

Mike came over to watch Survivor and CSI last night. I ended up having 5 dark beers (Gray’s Oatmeal Stout, yum yum). That held me back from my desired water consumption (think I got 96oz down), and destroyed my calorie count for the day (5 x ~157calories = 785 calories). Guess I should do some extra cardio this weekend!

With ER not being on, we ended up watching figure skating believe it or not. Not for the enjoyment of the sport mind you, but for the entertainment value of mocking them and hoping to see some diggers. We also formulated a couple ways to make figure skating more interesting. My favorite idea is to combine figure skating with speed skating. The figure skaters would all compete on the speed skating oval, racing to the finish as fast as they can, but they have to work some of their triple sow cows and lutzes in as well or they are docked for time. Imagine all these girls twirling and stretching side by side as they try to beat each other to the finish. It would be even more entertaining than Mikes idea of adding hurdles for the speed skaters. The only way to improve it even more would be to give them guns like in the biathlon. It would be awesome!

I figured I’d be a little groggy this morning due to the beer (I have cut way down on alcohol, so I’m quickly on my way to becoming a cheap date), but the glass of water before bed seems to have helped. I didn’t get to bed at 11:30 like I suggested I might yesterday, but I did at least crawl in by the usual midnight. I woke up at 6am, and finally crawled out of bed a little after 6:30. Did the interval row, breakfast, and out the door.

I spoke to soon about being sore from the Tuesday night workout. Yesterday afternoon my ‘ass muscles’ started letting me know they were there. Then last night, my lats (back muscles below the arm pit) and the back of my thighs started chiming in as well. No pain no gain! I’ll wait until they settle down so I can get the full benefit of the muscle recovery before I do another, I’d figure maybe Saturday.

Woke up at 6:30 again (must be the end of a sleep cycle), and did 30 minutes of regular rowing, followed by breakfast. The last two nights I’ve gotten really tired at 11:30pm. I think I’ll try going to sleep then and see if I still wake up at 6:30, or if it changes to 6:00. Generally in the daytime though, I’ve felt very energetic, almost hyper at times. I’m sure that’s the boosted metabolism due to the morning rowing and properly timed meals/snacks. I also have to say that it is REALLY nice to get home from work and not have to row, so that is an added benefit of getting it over with in the morning.

Second day on the yogurt and Flax seed snack. Forgot my afternoon snack yesterday, I guess like the water, I’ll need to work on it at first to get used to it (BTW, I had a full gallon again yesterday. It’s getting easier!).

I’m staying on pace, up at 6:30, interval row today, breakfast, and out the door. Drank a gallon again yesterday, it’s getting easier as I get used to it, and I still visit the bathroom frequently, but I think it’s getting a little less frequent than a week ago. I tried the yogurt with 1tbsp of Flax seed ground up into it yesterday. Was a raspberry yogurt, you couldn’t really taste the Flax, it was just the texture that was changed, as it made the yogurt a bit more ‘gritty’, but no reason not to keep on it. I was at Sendik’s yesterday using a gift certificate someone got me for Christmas, and I noticed they had Flax seed there, so I bought a pound and I’ll keep using it. I also got a bunch of whole-wheat pasta, which is supposed to be better than the ‘enriched bleached flour’ that is used in the normal pasta I’ve been using. Costs much more, but it’s kinda like free money, so I’ll give it a try and see if it’s worth it.

I had decided to do a weight routine last night when I got home, and I had recently ‘procured’ a DVD called ‘Tom Holland - Total Body Workout’, so I figured I’d give it a try. It’s about 40 minutes long, and basically combines aerobic, crunches, lunges, and work with dumbells. You don’t stop at all, it’s a solid push through, and man, was I exausted when I was done. I didn’t think I’d be able to move today, but I’m not bad, I guess all that stretching and winding down that is incorporated into the program really does help. I’ll probably try to work one of those in a couple/few times a week to get things started before I venture off into a more standard weight lifting routine.

Afterwards I had the salmon with some sauce on it (it’s a vegetable dip I bought with sour cream mixed with a spice, kinda like a taco dip almost). I baked it for 20 minutes, then broiled it for a couple to brown the top. Warmed up some broccoli with it, and buttered a piece of bread, damn that was a good meal. Costs a little more than most of the meals I eat at home, but nice to treat yourself now and then, and it was still low in calories and high in nutrients.

The sleep cycle thing hasn’t been happening for about a week now, very strange. Was it all ‘in my head’ so to speak? Made perfect sense, but anyway, I got up at 6:30 today and did a normal rowing session.

Yesterday, I drank a gallon of water, thanks in most part to my bringing 32oz with me to bowling, and then us not staying around for drinks afterward (we won two games and we’re in 3rd place so far this segment). I also went shopping yesterday, mostly with healthy snacks in mind. I suppose it’s predictable that I came home with mostly healthy snacks, and not much more. Among them, raisins, peanuts, pretzels, low-fat cheese and whole wheat crackers, yogurt, pudding, applesauce, and a wide variety of snack bars. I brought some of it to work, the yogurt will be my mid-morning snack, and in the afternoon I can choose between any of the others. Most all of the snacks are in the 100-150 calorie range with relatively good ingredients.

After work I’m going to do a little weight lifting, and then enjoy some salmon for dinner (probably broil it and put a little sauce of some sort on top with some brocolli on the side), yum yum.