Daily News Archives

July 2009

07/31/2009 - What a week.
07/30/2009 - Changes are coming; Feeling good!
07/29/2009 - Thoughts on what's next for me.
07/28/2009 - Bad news; My training plans.
07/27/2009 - The big meeting is today.
07/26/2009 - Taking the day off.
07/25/2009 - So much for relaxing; Went a little nuts last night.
07/24/2009 - Going to relax this weekend.
07/23/2009 - Stall; Indecision.
07/22/2009 - Ran out of propane in the middle of cooking meal #5.
07/21/2009 - Hip pain; So hot outside.
07/20/2009 - I overslept; Frank's hot sauce is awesome!
07/19/2009 - Sunday progress report; Frank's hot sauce.
07/18/2009 - Difficult times.
07/17/2009 - No time to write.
07/16/2009 - Fought off some bad cravings last night; Long day ahead.
07/15/2009 - HIIT cardio gets tougher today; August "100 Challenge" open for entry.
07/14/2009 - Great night of sleep; Getting older.
07/13/2009 - Fun weekend; Today's training and work schedule.
07/12/2009 - Sunday stats - a bit of a backslide.
07/11/2009 - Saturday plans.
07/10/2009 - Muscle loss.
07/09/2009 - My HIIT workout; Windows 7 Pre-order reminder.
07/08/2009 - Horrible headache yesterday, but good workout; HIIT today.
07/07/2009 - Back to work; Great leg workout; TSM nominations.
07/06/2009 - Back from vacation.
07/05/2009 - No update - on vacation.
07/04/2009 - No update - on vacation.
07/03/2009 - No update - on vacation.
07/02/2009 - No update - on vacation.
07/01/2009 - No update - on vacation.

July 31, 2009

To say this has been a long, difficult week would be a colossal an understatement. The combined effects of stress and lack of sleep had me in a zombie-like state for a couple of days earlier in the week, but over the past few days I've made a strong recovery. This morning I'm feeling confident that no matter what happens with my current job I'm going to be just fine. As I mentioned yesterday, the health and fitness foundation I've worked so hard to build over the past six years has definitely been a key component in my ability to deal with this situation. Also, the support of my family, friends and the JSF community gave me an incredible boost of confidence when I needed it most.

Family, friends and health. I've always maintained that these are the most important things in my life, and the events of this week reinforced that belief ten-fold. I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but I'm having trouble putting into words just how much you all helped me deal with this situation. Thank you.

My diet has remained perfectly clean all week long and I've avoided the strong temptation to numb myself with alcohol. Unless you have an alcohol problem, I really don't think there's anything wrong with having a drink here and there; however, using alcohol to deal with stress can be a very dangerous path. That's why I'm choosing to completely abstain right now. I prefer to have a couple drinks to celebrate and have fun, and to not use it as a crutch when times are tough.

As for "cheat" meals, now that I'm maintaining I suppose I could have one if I wanted, but the desire has not been strong. Right now I'm really enjoying eating clean. With everything that's been going on, the structure and strictness of my diet and exercise routine feel like an old, comfortable pair of shoes.

This is your last chance to get in on the August "100 Challenge"! Details are immediately below...

Have a wonderful Friday!

July 30, 2009

Some very interesting, and potentially promising, events happened at work yesterday. I'm not at liberty to discuss the details at this time--and I'm definitely not getting my hopes up just yet--but what I can say is there is still a chance things may work out. I may not know anything concrete for a week or so, but for now there's at least some hope.

No matter what happens, this situation at work has altered my perspective on several levels. I realize now that I've allowed myself become complacent, even lazy, about certain things in my life. That's going to change. Perhaps this stressful and very scary ordeal will turn out to be a blessing in disguise after all.

I've got some exciting ideas for this web site and the forums, and many of you wrote in/posted yesterday with some awesome ideas of your own. I love the JSF community, but I know can make it better. In the coming months I'm going to work hard to make JSF and the JSF Forums more useful, more interactive and more fun. Stay tuned!

Despite everything that's happened this week, I feel pretty darn good this morning. First and foremost, the support of my family, friends and the entire JSF community has been overwhelming. You all have inspired me and given me hope when I felt like there was none. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

I also strongly believe that my training, clean diet and refusal to hide from my problems behind alcohol have all combined to form a strong, positive foundation.

Even though things are up in the air right now, I still have lots of work to do. In fact, today is going to be quite busy so I'd better get moving. See you tomorrow!

July 29, 2009

Apparently not much was accomplished at yesterday's meeting between the owner of my company and the owner of the company trying to buy out our contracts (if you missed yesterday's update, give it a read). This is disapointing news because it will only prolong the suspense and my level of stress.

I've been putting a lot of thought into what it is I want to do. There is a small chance that my company--armed with the few contracts that will not be sold--will have the resources to remain alive for a few months. This may give us enough time to harness our few remaining assets and then capitalize on what I believe is a fair amount of untapped potentional. This senerio is a longshot, however. If we pulled it off, though, it would be pretty awesome. We're going to be running the numbers over the next couple of days to see if it's even possible on paper.

Because the odds of our company pulling out of this are extremly poor (as a poker player I'd definitely lay this hand down), I am forced to continue to persue outside employment opportunities. Over the past few days I've been putting a lot of thought into what I really want to do. Obviously IT is my main marketable strength, and that has been my carrer for the past 20 years. My other passions include fitness and animals, so they need to be on the list, too.

JSF and the JSF forums have turned a small profit for the past couple of years, but they don't generate nearly enough income to cover my financial obligations. Running JSF and the JSF forums full-time would be very fufilling, but I need to put some thought into how I could do that without compromising my principles. I gave my word that I'd never run pop-up ads, "cover the content" flash ads and other intrusive forums of advertising; despite the significant amount of increased income those kinds of ads would bring, they are simply not an option. I've got to get creative and think outside the box. I'm open to suggestions!

My diet and training have been very good this week! Even though the high levels of stress I'm experiencing have brought about the desire to have a drink or three and eat poorly ("comfort" foods, I suppose), I've stuck to my guns and have been eating clean, training hard and have not consumed any alcohol this week. I'm confident that these choices are the right ones, and I will continue to make my health and fitness top priorities as I work through these difficult times.

July 28, 2009

The news at yesterday's meeting was not good news. The situation is very complicated, but the essence of what's happening is this: my company is involved in a business relationship with a larger company that is under new ownership. The new owner of this company is very aggressive, and wants to buy us out of the vast majority of our existing contracts (what we do, primarily, is provide broadband Internet services to student housing). As I said, the dynamics of the situation are very complicated, but the bottom line is that my company is not in a position to fight this. We offered to buy out the other company's stake in the contracts (basically they own the on-site wiring and provide the transport for the circuits), but this offer was rejected in no uncertain terms. Without those contracts, the company I work for is finished. To make matters worse, the "hostile" company is only interested in the contracts, and has zero interest in acquiring my company as a whole. This leaves employees like me dangling in the wind.

So, the owner of my company is meeting with the owner of the other company this afternoon at 4:00 PM. At this point there's basically no chance that the situation will change, so the meeting today is mostly going to solidify what we already know, and (hopefully) establish a time line. I suspect that I'm looking at a month, two at best. I'll know more this evening.

I want to thank you all for your incredibly supportive posts, PMs and emails. This is not a good time to be out of work, and my situation is further complicated because Turtle's experimental cancer treatments ate up all of my liquid assets (which, by the way, is something I will NEVER regret doing). In other words, I simply can not be out of work for long. After this evening's meeting I will likely have no choice but seek new employment.

As for my diet and training, I have come to a decision: I've decided to maintain for awhile. When I considered all the facts, maintaining made the most sense. Bulking is out simply because all that food is an expense I can't take on right now! Continuing my cut and dealing with cravings, getting weaker, constant hunger and so on seems like a really bad idea combined with all the other stresses in my life right now. As I said yesterday, I think that right now the best thing I can do make sure I'm in peak mental and physical condition. I'm going to eat healthy and lift hard!

As for JSF and Forums, don't worry--they are not going anywhere.

July 27, 2009

For the most part I managed to shove the knowledge of today's ominously titled "critical meeting" to the back of my mind and enjoyed my weekend. I didn't sleep very well last night, however, and I'm feeling pretty tired and stressed this morning. I don't know what's going to happen at the meeting, but I'm prepared for the worst.

I'm going to wait until after today's meeting to decide if I'm going to continue this cut, start a bulk or just maintain. Regardless of what happens today, the one absolute certainty is that my diet and training will take on increased importance. I think the best thing I can do for myself right now is to make sure I'm in peak mental and physical condition. Even if I lose my job today, when I get home from the meeting I'm going to train!

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

July 26, 2009

Lisa's back from her trip, and I'm taking the day off to spend it with her. Have a great Sunday!

July 25, 2009

I'll be receiving some potentially life-altering news on Monday at a hastily called "critical" work meeting. I don't know if I'll be job hunting on Tuesday or what, so I think I'm going to delay my cut/bulk/maintain decision until after the meeting. Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty stressed right now. I sort of fell apart last night and got exceptionally drunk. Apparently I ordered a pizza, too. I hope it was good.

Lisa is returning from her trip early this evening, and it will be great to have her back home. Loki and I sure missed her! Today I'm going to get the house cleaned up and do some laundry.

I know things have been a bit strange around here lately. The job situation is only one of many not-so-swell things going on in my personal life right now, and I've not been myself. I want sincerely to thank everyone for all their supportive emails, PMs and posts. No matter what happens, I'm going to get through these things and come out stronger for it.

July 24, 2009

I have not felt this indecisive in a long, long time (re: yesterday's update). Feeling wishy-washy is pretty strange experience for me because normally when faced with a choice I am able to examine the data, make a decision and then move forward with no second-guessing and no regrets. I've always seen indecision as a weakness, so right now I'm not feeling real good about the way I've been behaving lately. I'm annoyed with myself, and this is only adding to my stress.

So, I have been putting a lot of thought into my current situation and I am still trying to figure out what it is that I really want. I can't say I'm any closer to a decision (well, maybe a little closer), but I did come to the conclusion that one way or another I need to decide something by the end of the weekend. Further, I made a promise to myself that regardless of what I choose to do, I will carry out my choice without second-guessing it.

I'm going to attempt to make this weekend as stress-free as possible. I'm also going to relax my diet a bit. I really need a cheat meal; the cravings are distracting me to the point where I can't even think straight.

Happy Friday!

July 23, 2009

My fat loss has been stalled for a few days now. This stall is pretty frustrating because my cravings have been absolutely off the charts insane. There's nothing worse than resisting bad cravings and not being "rewarded" for it. Further--and maybe this is just my mind playing tricks on me (but I don't think it is)--every time I look in the mirror I'm discouraged by how much muscle I lost when I stopped training after Turtle died. Part of me doesn't even want to be shredded right now because I'm afraid I'm just going to look skinny (compared to how I looked 6 months ago).

What I'm getting at is that I've still not decided what I really want to do right now (I've mentioned this a couple times in recent updates). I have to be honest, I'm still strongly considering abandoning this cut and starting a bulk in a few weeks. I know I've been going back and forth on this for awhile, but the correct answer is not yet clear to me. I'm going to be giving this choice some long, hard thought over the next few days.

July 22, 2009

Yesterday I started preparing meal #5 by putting the red potatoes in the toaster oven and firing up the grill. After about 8 minutes I went out back to put the frozen burger on the flame (I preform my burger patties and then freeze them), but the grill was off. Turns out the propane level indicator, which works based on the weight of the propane tank, had become stuck. I was totally out of propane. The really irritating part is I have three propane tanks, and I try to always fill the two empty tanks as soon as I put the third one in place. The last time I was at the hardware store I forgot the empty tanks, and I ~~haven't had the time~~ have been too lazy to make a return trip.

Anyway, with the potatoes already in the oven I had to cook the frozen burger in a frying pan. I was cracking up because I quite literally have never cooked a burger anywhere but on the grill, and was unsure of the proper pan-fry technique for a very lean, frozen hamburger patty. I was concerned that because the burger was very lean that there would not be enough fat to keep it from sticking and burning, so I sprayed the pan with Pam cooking spray. That was dumb: the Pam just turned brown and started to smoke. Because the burger was frozen, I decided to cover the pan to help keep the heat in. That seemed to work OK, but I initially set the heat too high and the outside of the burger began to burn while the inside was still partially frozen. Grrrrrr. I eventually managed to get the internal temperature up to a safe 160 degrees, but the burger came out looking like a hockey puck, and probably tasted even worse.

I've become so dependent on my grill that I felt like a deer in headlights while staring down at the cooking range last night. I will never allow myself to run out of propane again!

July 21, 2009

I had a good leg workout yesterday, but this morning I'm experiencing some discomfort in the area of my left hip. Actually, this hip pain is something I've felt a few times over the past few years. Heavy deads and squats seem to trigger it. I'm not sure what's going on there, but the pain is minor enough to work around. I am limping a bit this morning, however.

I am so ready for some cooler weather. I was really enjoying doing part of my workout outdoors for a while there, but lately I've been dreading it. It's been so hot and muggy that doing any sort of physical labor outside is just miserable. Don't even get me started complaining about the yard work, which takes about 4-5 hours every week. I still can't bring myself to pay someone to do the yard work for me, though. I've always said that if I posses both the skills and the physical ability to do a job, then I do it myself. I tend to question the logic behind that philosophy about this time every year, however. lol

After oversleeping an entire hour yesterday, I was wondering if my internal clock would fail me again this morning. As it turns out, I woke up more or less on time (ten minutes past six). Once again, my backup alarm clock, Loki, was snoring away in a deep sleep. Man, there was a time when Loki would start priming me to get up around 5:30 AM. Now he seems quite content to sleep in. We're both getting older. Sigh.

Alright, it's off to the salt mines. Train hard!

July 20, 2009

I overslept this morning by an entire hour! I almost never sleep so much as a minute past 6:00 AM, and Loki is an amazingly accurate backup alarm. I guess we were both tired, because when I woke up at 6:57 he was lying next to me just snoring away. It's amazing how quickly dogs can wake up and become alert. Even at Loki's advanced age of 13, he can snap out of a deep sleep in an instant. As soon as I got out of bed and started stumbling towards the bathroom, Loki bolted awake and ran straight after me wide-eyed and tail wagging at 100 miles per hour. Nothing excites Loki more than food, and he seemed to know his breakfast was an hour late.

Speaking of late breakfasts, it's 8:36 AM and I have not even started cooking mine yet. I was supposed to eat 30 minutes ago. I'm pretty excited about this morning's breakfast, too. Why?

Franks hot sauce

Yesterday morning I cracked open my very first bottle of Frank's hot sauce and put it all over my egg whites. Just like it says on the bottle, it adds just the right balance of heat and flavor. I am going to try some on my chicken breast this afternoon, too. If you're sensitive to heat you may find it too hot, but I love hot and spicy foods and thought it was actually pretty mild compared to some stuff I've had. There's a fair amount of sodium in there, so I didn't salt my egg whites and that worked out perfectly.

I'd better go get breakfast started. Have a great day!

July 19, 2009

It's Sunday, and time for my weekly tape measurements, 7-point body fat caliper reading, weigh-in and progress evaluation. Unfortunately I can't take my 7-point body fat reading this morning because Lisa is out of town all this week and I need her assistance for two of the measurements.

My scale weight this morning is 204.6 pounds, down from last Sunday's weight 205.6 pounds and my starting weight of 215.2 pounds. That's a 1 pound loss over the past week, and a grand total scale weight loss of 10.6 pounds since I started.

My tape measurements (as measured by the MyoTape) show a quarter inch drop each my waist and and quarter inch drop from my hips. All other measurements are the same.

I wish I could take a body fat reading this morning, because I suspect there has been a drop! Lisa will be back next Saturday, so I'll be able to take a reading next week.

My complete 2009 cutting diet is here, and my training program is here. If you are interested in obtaining a diet and training program customized just for you and your goals, please contact Mastover.

Somehow we keep forgetting to purchase a bottle Frank's hot sauce, which is a product I've heard great things about from everyone who's ever tried it. I've been craving something new with my eggs, and so yesterday I made a special trip to the store just to get some. This morning I'll be trying it for the first time with my egg whites and I can't wait! I'll let you all know what I think of it in tomorrow's update.

No training today. As a matter of fact, no nothing today. I'm going to chill with Loki and that's about it. Have a great day!

July 18, 2009

So much has happened over the past week, and not much of it has been positive. Actually, overall, 2009 has been a pretty rough ride for me. I'd rather not go into details here, as the things I'm talking about are pretty personal. I only mention this at all because these personal issues have had an effect on the part of my life that I choose to make public, fitness. Somehow this week I've managed to stay on target (with regards to my cutting diet), but it's been an extraordinarily difficult struggle. I've been questioning everything lately. I've thought about everything from stopping my cut and starting a bulk to taking an extended break from updating this site, and even an extended break from training. Clearly my mind has been all over the place lately, and I think some of the personal issues I'm going through have been clouding my judgment.

Despite the turmoil in my personal life and the storm raging in my mind, somehow I've been able to intuit that doing any of the things I just mentioned would bring me more stress, not less. I still don't know what the next few weeks or months will bring, but for now I feel like the best course of action is to continue my cut, keep updating this site and not make excuses. I have to admit that right now I'm not feeling my usual inner-strength, but I'm going to dig deep and try my damnedest to keep all the balls in the air.

July 17, 2009

I'm sorry, but I've got absolutely no time to write this morning. Yeah, looks like it's going to be one of those days. Have a good Friday!

July 16, 2009

I feel like I'm getting back on top of my cut, and regaining some of the momentum I lost while I was on vacation. Last night I was having some pretty intense cravings, but I was able to withstand them. A big part of what helped me get through the cravings was thinking back to the very difficult HIIT cardio session I cranked out just a few hours prior. I didn't go through that killer workout only to screw it up in a moment of weakness. Also, it's such a great feeling to wake up the morning after you've fought through some tough cravings knowing you beat them. I'm enjoying that feeling right now.

There were some incredibly powerful storms in the area last night. None of them were near my home, but many of the apartments to which my company provides high speed Internet service were hit hard. This morning I've got all kinds of storm-related network issues to resolve, and so it looks like it's going to be a long, long day at work. I may have to push my workout to this evening as a result, which is fine. I'd better start making some phone calls and get things moving. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a fantastic day!

July 15, 2009

Last week I was talking a bit about my recent HIIT cardio workouts, and how tough they are getting. They are about to get even tougher. Today I'll be shortening the HIIT workout from 18 minutes to 14 minutes, but the intervals are going to be significantly more challenging: 45 seconds at a 100% effort, and just 30 seconds of active recovery. There will be a 1.5 minute warmup followed by 12.5 minutes of hell. Of the 12.5 minutes in which I'll be performing the intervals, a full 7.5 minutes of that time will be spent riding with a 100% effort. During those "all out" intervals absolutely nothing will be held back. HIIT is great way to lose fat, but it will also whip you into very good cardiovascular shape. I enjoy LISS cardio on occasion, but HIIT workouts are definitely my favorite type of cardio workout.

I've opened the August "100 Challenge" for entry. Details are immediately below...

Registration for the August 2009 "100 Challenge" is now underway! Your Official Challenge post must be made by 7:00 AM (EDT) on August 1, 2009 if you plan to participate--NO EXCEPTIONS! To participate, you must be a member of the forum. If you are not a member, simply create a free account. It can take up to 24 hours for your account to be activated, so don't wait until the last minute to register! For all the details, official rules and sample entry data, just head over to the August 2009 "100 Challenge" thread on the forum. If you are ready to work hard and want to challenge yourself in a fun and competitive environment, then please take part!

July 14, 2009

I sure slept well last night. Yesterday was a fairly stressful day at work, and I also banged out a very tough leg workout that left me completely exhausted. I went to bed last night around 9:30, and I think I fell asleep about 2 minutes after my head hit the pillow. I slept straight through the night and woke up at 6:00 AM sharp feeling rested and recharged. There's nothing better than a good night of sleep. I really hate it when I don't sleep well; the older I get, the more I feel it when I don't get enough rest.

I noticed this morning that I've got quite a bit more gray in my beard now. In a few months I'm going to turn 41 years old. It's hard to believe that I was just 34 years old when I started this journey. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago! I can't even imagine what my life would be like right now if I'd not changed my lifestyle. I truly believe there's a very good chance I wouldn't even be alive right now. These are the kinds of things I think about when I don't feel like training. It's important!

July 13, 2009

I hope everyone had a great weekend! My weekend was the perfect blend of productivity and fun. The house is spotless and I got some other projects done, but I also had time to play some poker, kick back with the family, watch a few films and play with Loki. Loki is a big 13 year-old dog, but he is as playful as ever. He can still run around and go up and down the stairs with no difficulty at all. He's such a good dog, too; he never, ever does anything wrong. Nothing relaxes me more than playing with Loki. I honestly don't understand how anyone could not love dogs.

Today is leg day, and I can already tell that I'm going to have a great workout. You know how some mornings you wake up and all you can think about is lifting? That's the kind of morning I'm having. I can't wait to get in the gym and kill it! I seem to feel that way a lot on Mondays, probably because I've had a couple days off to recharge. Leg day is a good day to feel like that, because it's one of my toughest workouts.

One thing I'm NOT looking forward to today is work. I get to spend the first half of my day reading a small mountain of dry technical documents, and then the second half of my day on a conference call discussing said documents. The conference call falls over my usual workout time, so I'm going to have to move my workout to late afternoon or early evening. Hey, whatever it takes!

I'd better get to work. Have a good Monday!

July 12, 2009

I'm cracking up! This morning I was going to write up my usual detailed weekly progress report, but as it turns out that won't be necessary at all. If you want to find out my current stats, all you have to do is go read the final progress report I made before I went on vacation. That's right, every single measurement this morning is 100% identical to the measurements I made the Sunday before my vacation: my scale weight, my tape measurements and even my body fat reading. I had actually lost a bit more after those measurements were taken but before my vacation started, so I definitely lost some ground by relaxing my diet.

I've maintained that I'm glad I decided to chill out on my strict diet while on vacation, but this morning I'm feeling a bit of regret for the first time. I hate backsliding, and I lost the momentum I worked so hard to build. I'm so "all or nothing" that on a certain level it's almost comical.

Well, by next weekend I should be breaking new ground again with regards to my cutting progress. I'm sure I'll feel better then, but right now I'm a little irritated with myself.

On a more positive note, Lisa's parents are coming over to spend the day with us. We always have so much fun when they come over; they are so laid back and funny. I know people who'd rather go to a funeral than a family gathering, so I feel very fortunate to have in-laws that I genuinely enjoy hanging out with.

I need to wrap this up and start cleaning the house. Have a wonderful Sunday!

July 11, 2009

Ahhhhhh. Saturday, at last! Lisa is getting ready to leave for work (she was off yesterday), and I'm getting ready to go outside and Miracle Gro all the plants before it gets too hot. After I finish working in my gardens I think I'm going to watch a movie before my poker game this afternoon. It should be a fun and relaxing day! I'm going to have to work an 18-minute HIIT cardio workout in there somewhere, but I'm pretty flexible on the time.

It looks like the dietary indulgences I enjoyed while on vacation set me back a little. My scale weight is right at 206 this morning, which is a little higher than it was before my vacation. I don't regret relaxing my diet a bit while I was on vacation, but at the same time I'm surprised that doing so seems to have done a little more "damage" than I thought it would. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now but keep going forward! Tomorrow I'll report my detailed weekly stats, body fat reading and measurements.

I'm off to make breakfast and then it's out to the gardens. Enjoy your Saturday!

July 10, 2009

I'm so glad that it's Friday. This may have been a 4-day work week for me, but it sure didn't feel like one. The good news is that by the end of the day I should be pretty much caught up on my work! I hate feeling behind on my work; it just eats at me constantly until I get caught up. Sometimes I wonder if vacations are worth it... ha, strike that. They are worth it!

I'm very happy with how my workouts have gone this week, but I sure have lost a lot of size since my bulk. I didn't lose the size while on this cut, though. I lost a significant amount of my bulking gains in the weeks following Turtle's death because my diet was poor and my training was more or less non-existent. Part of me is cool with the loss in size because maintaining a large amount of muscle requires a tremendous amount of work--especially at my age. High maintenance is something I want to move away from. Another part of me (the competitive side of me) wants the muscle back, and then some. I go back and forth on this subject so much...

Alright, I'm already running late this morning (I slept in an extra 30 minutes somehow), so I'm going to sign off for the day and get to work. Happy Friday!

July 9, 2009

The extra two minutes I added to my HIIT workout yesterday really hurt. If you think two additional minutes of HIIT doesn't sound hard, the you're not doing HIIT right. My intervals right now are also pretty tough: 2 minute warm-up followed by repeating intervals of 45 seconds all out (all out means 100% effort)/45 seconds active recovery. Next week I'll reduce the total workout time to 14 minutes, but change the intervals to 45 seconds all out/30 seconds active recovery. Get a few intervals deep into that workout and the 30 seconds of "rest" will seem more like 3 seconds, I assure you. Over the next few weeks I'll ramp up the length of the workout until I reach 18 minutes (or have a heart attack, whichever comes first).

I'm really enjoying my new computer. The trouble of migrating to a new system was absolutely worth it. My only regret is that I put it off for so long. It's so nice to be able to do my work without suffering through the long delays, lockups and crashes that I put up with so many years. As soon as I got the computer I wiped the drive and installed Windows 7 Release Candidate (64-bit). There were a few issues getting everything working right (and a few remaining issues), but overall I'm very pleased with the O/S. It's so much better than Vista, which I loathe. I happily pre-ordered Windows 7 Professional, which will be released in mid-October. Right now you can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional editions at half off, but you only have until July 11th to do so. If you plan to upgrade, be sure to take advantage of the huge price break!

I'm having a tough time getting caught up on my backlog of work. If things stay relatively quiet today and tomorrow I think I may be fully caught up by the end of the week. So, that said, I'm going to wrap up here and get back to it!

July 8, 2009

My first day back at work was pretty brutal. By the middle of the day I had a splitting headache, but I think the headache was caused by pollen and not stress. We have a beautiful peace lily that was given to us by our vet when Turtle died. The lily has a lot of sentimental value, so I really don't want to get rid of it, but when it flowers I always seem to get sinus headaches. I think the trick is to cut off the insides of the flowers (which is where all the pollen is) as soon as they appear. Sometimes I forget to do this and I always seem to get headaches as a result.

So with my head splitting open I was not feeling much like working out yesterday afternoon. I forced myself to lift anyway, and the workout + post-workout hot shower really helped alleviate the headache quite a bit. A few hours after my workout the headache was totally gone! Of course I also cut the inside of the flowers from the lily out, so that may have had something to do with it, too.

Today is a cardio only day. I'll be adding 2 minutes to my HIIT cardio session (18 minutes total). It's going to be tough!

Time for breakfast and then it's back to digging myself out from under the massive pile of work that accumulated while I was on vacation. Have a great day!

July 7, 2009

I really enjoyed my time off, but today it's back to work. I've got quite a backlog of work, so the rest of this week is pretty much going to be spent playing catch-up. I still have 5 more vacation days to use before the end of the month, so once I get caught up I'll probably take another week off!

My leg workout yesterday was amazing! I think the pasta cheat meal I had Sunday evening provided me with some extra energy. Also, I think I felt a little bit guilty for skipping my delts workout on Friday, so that probably added some fuel to the fire.

By the way, I've probably not mentioned this enough, but I more than welcome Transformation Spotlight of the Month nominations from anyone. There are so many success stories on the forum that it's impossible for one person to keep up with them all. So if you know of someone who you feel would make a great TSM, please email or PM me!

I'm going to start climbing this mountain of work. Thanks for stopping by!

July 6, 2009

I'm back from my vacation, and feeling good! Unlike my last vacation, this time I got to enjoy myself with very few work-related interruptions. My new computer system finally arrived this past Thursday evening, so for the past 3 days I've been working on getting all my data transfered over and getting everything properly set up. It's been a mostly fun, but occasionally frustrating, experience. I still have a lot more to accomplish, but the worst is (hopefully) behind me.

On the first day of my vacation I decided that I was going to allow myself to break my diet a couple of times. I know that I originally planned to stay 100% strict, but I changed my mind. Hey, I was on vacation! I didn't change my mind because I was craving something and gave in right on the spot. Instead I decided that I would be allowed two cheat snacks (gee, guess what that was?) and two cheat meals. The cheat meals were actually not too bad: I grilled some rib eye steaks on the 4th of July, and last night I made some delicious pasta and garlic bread. I'm a bit bloated this morning, but that will be gone in a couple days. I honestly don't regret my choice, so that's good. I'm actually pleased that I was able to relax a bit without going crazy. Now it's back to 100% strict dieting until I reach my goal.

As for my vacation workouts, they were all excellent! I have to admit, however, that I skipped my delts workout on Friday. I was all wrapped up in working on the new computer system and, frankly, didn't want to break away. Lame, I know, but that's what happened.

My employer decided to give us today (instead of Friday) off for the 4th of July, so I'm off today! That's a really nice way to come back from a vacation, right?!

It's good to be back! I'm going to be playing on my computer all day, but I will break away long enough to get my leg workout in this afternoon. See you tomorrow!

July 1, 2009 - July 5, 2009

No update - on vacation.

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