1000 day challenge!

edit – The newest Version of the Blank Tracker is here: https://jeffthomann.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/1000-days-backup-backup.xls Tweaked it a bit. Fixed the 30 day counter part and added a few columns to the right, etc.

Also, created a new spreadsheet that is a 1000 day countdown thing. https://jeffthomann.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/1k-days-countdown.xls.

A pdf copy of this is available at https://jeffthomann.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/1k-days-countdown-xls.pdf

Feel free to use either file however you want (ok, don’t use it to go murder someone with paper cuts and blame me – I take no responsibility for your actions! If you succeed, don’t succeed with your goals, or don’t care, I still take no responsibility for your actions!).

The 1000 day countdown is a simple one page document with 1000 day counter on it listed in reverse order from 1000 days so you can cross off every day you get past your new days… For some people simple scratch off lists like this work better than the other type of check box list. For me personally, I’ll probably use both, also use the blog, and probably an excel file or two that’s saved digitally too since I find that checking off multiple lists helps me stay more in tune and in focus with getting goals done… making things down multiple times helps reinforce the idea that I actually am accomplishing something and can succeed. Not everyone is like that… If you do the 1000 day countdown thing, it only has room for small amount of notes, so maybe just do one of those countdown pages for each goal you have… maybe as a way to continue past the 1000 day tracker for all 33 checks just for the ‘really important’ goals that you feel you ‘must do’ for 1000 days in a row (for me that’ll be daily exercises – I will do an up and down slash on morning days, a cross slash through that to make a plus sign for the evening workouts, and a circle around the middle area where that plus should be daily for the ‘no s’ successful days — that way I’ve got that tracking my three huge diet and exercise goals, and the other tracker tracking that and everything else I figure out as my 33 goals, and the blog here and digital copies of the big tracker as a way to track another copy in case the paper gets torn, messed up by getting rained on, etc….)

Here’s a tip… on the row 3, column’s G-AL, type in your tentative ‘goals’ but change format to white background and white text so that you are not tempted to mark in things before the months those goals actually ‘start’… change the text to black on white background for each cell as you get past the 30th days… This way you are really only tracking one goal the first month, which should be the focus and primary ONE THING you are doing the first first month to make this new ‘thing’ become a habit. I’ve read online in various places you NEED to focus on ONLY ONE GOAL for a MINIMUM of 21 days til it become a ‘habit’… so DO NOT FORCE YOURSELF TO DO MORE THAN ONE GOAL PER MONTH. You can do the extra the first month if you want, but DO NOT COUNT ANYTHING OTHER THAN THAT FIRST GOAL THE FIRST MONTH WHEN MARKING THINGS DOWN SO THAT YOU DO NOT OVER-STRESS YOURSELF WITH MULTIPLE GOALS AND NOT BEING ABLE TO ACHIEVE THEM ALL… JUST FOCUS ON ONE GOAL AT A TIME, MAKE IT A HABIT, THEN THE NEXT MONTH ADD A NEW HABIT AND KEEP THE OLD HABIT FROM THE PRIOR MONTH(S) AS DAILY HABIT. IF YOU DO HAPPEN TO FALL OFF AND BREAK A HABIT ONCE, DO NOT BEAT YOURSELF UP OVER IT. JUST GET UP, DUST OFF, AND TRY AGAIN THE NEXT DAY. THE GOAL HERE IS TO MAKE YOURSELF DO BETTER THINGS AND HAVE A HEALTHIER, WEALTHIER LIFESTYLE CHANGE, NOT TO BEAT YOURSELF UP FOR NOT ACCOMPLISHING SOMETHING YOU WANTED TO ACHIEVE. THESE NEW DAILY HABITS OUGHT TO MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF, NOT MAKE YOU FEEL WORSE. IF YOU START GETTING DEPRESSED SINCE YOU ARE NOT ACHIEVING THE GOALS YOU SET FOR YOURSELF, DO NOT LET THAT CONTINUE. I read somewhere the other day that you need to fail about 12 times in a row before you succeed at anything. I believe this is probably true. Changing your lifestyle to be healthier or meeting your goals is a good thing to do, but YOU MUST NOT LET NEGATIVE SELF IMAGE THOUGHTS KEEP YOU FROM ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS!!! You are a great person, and just by trying to even change one thing to improve your lifestyle, you are already doing 99 percent more than most do usually who just go about their lives without many goals. DON’T YOU DARE BEAT YOURSELF UP FOR TRYING TO DO A GOOD THING TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!

If you find doing something 30+ days in a row to be too much, maybe try another way of doing things other than what I’m suggesting in this post. There’s a really great 21 day habit tracer over at http://lds.about.com/library/weekly/2004/goal_sheet.pdf… maybe give it a try instead of or in addition, or as a pre-requisite for trying this thing that I’m trying with the multiple monthly goals… actually that one might be better anyways since it would let you do the same ONE THING over and over and over til you get at least 21 days in a row… which is great. Hell, I might even end up using that instead of this thing I’m starting in the end, lol. I’m just doing the 30 day goals because I know I can accomplish this sort of stuff as I’ve done it before… but hell, yes, it has taken me a few attempts and failures, so please DO NOT beat yourself up if you fail a time or three, or 50… just try, try, and try again. You will get the habit formed eventually. I am proud of you for even trying to meet your new goals at least once, and you should be proud of yourself too!

Remember, ultimately NO MATTER WHAT YOU DECIDE, IT WILL BE THE RIGHT THING… We are all people on this earth — with all of our imperfections. You are ‘perfect’ since you were made in God’s image even if you don’t know it yet or see it. Yes, it is good to make new goals and achieve them, but even if you fail to meet your goal(s) from time time time, you are still made in God’s image, and as such, you are perfect as you are right now…

It only takes a little bit of self love, and seeing the truth behind things to understand this. It’s very difficult to see this sort of truth sometimes, but you need to understand that this sort of truth is truth, and it is beautiful, just as the whole world is if you let it be and stop with the negative self talk, stop with the looking at yourself and the world around you as bad, etc. Stop beating yourself up for being human. None of us is ‘beyond perfection’ but we are all ‘perfect.’ We all have our own path – our own stories, our own missions and quests in life at various stages. Learning self respect and understanding yourself — and not beating yourself up all of the time is THE way to achieve your goals ultimately. Others that don’t have respect for themselves yet because they have not opened their eyes to this truth yet will try to bring you down, and cause your own self image to follow in their footsteps in trying to bring you down, but you should not allow that to happen. Negativity breeds negativity. Try to stop having so much negativity in your life, especially when it comes to looking at your own personal surroundings, and ultimately your own inner self. Maybe one ‘goal’ you should set for yourself is to try to slow down or stop negative ideas, thought patterns, etc. from impacting you… I’ve read on several blogs that some people have accomplished this sometimes. It’s not something I’ve been able to do all the way yet, but might make that a goal one month someday as my ONE monthly goal that I want to turn in to a habit over time. Doing so might be the best ‘goal’ one could ever attempt to achieve because seeing the world as it really is is a good thing to do… not biased by the news media’s dreary tones and hidden messages and agendas… not biased by negative coworker’s sayings bringing you down and making you hate the amazing place you are employed for at the job you might actually like if you could just ignore the negativity they throw at you daily, etc. I find myself entering a ‘happy place’ when I do more things involving my right brain… stuff like taking pictures of asphalt and concrete walls, clouds, trees, dirt, flowers, etc. helps me see the world through a different lens. There is a really great video about this on Ted Talks that I posted to in a previous post… it’s over at http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html…

I will try to embed the video below, but it doesn’t seem to be working right for some reason, which is why the link above is there.

that sort of thing is one reason I MUST make art related goals some of my 33 goals. I need to find ways to bring art in to my life more as making art allows me to enter that right brain thought pattern more, and enjoy the ‘heaven on earth’ that it causes… It’s the sort of thing why I think artists, or musicians, or any number of others in their own professions can ‘enter the zone’ and the world becomes better for them… I could write a book or library of books on this topic, and may in future posts, but for now will just leave it at this since I’ve already probably gotten far off enough on the topic of this tracker for now, lol. I’m just saying, don’t beat yourself up much… and if you want, making changes in your attitudes and self talk patterns might be one way to do some personal goals if you really want TRUE change in your own life and to make good habits become great life-changing lifestyles for yourself that can very positively impact yourself, and all of those around you… Remember, we are all human beings… and everyone in the history books was too. ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

The 33rd goal really just starts on day 991, so if you want to continue this past first 1000 days, you should take that in to account. Some blogs I’ve read indicate that you need to do one new thing at least 21 days in a row before it’s really a ‘habbit’… I only went up to day 1000 since it seemed like a logical number to go up to… You could theoretically only do 990 days and then start a new 990 days after that, etc. I just figure 1000 is a good goal since it’s easy number to remember… If you get that far you should probably allow yourself a little slack since hell, you just accomplished doing something for over 3 years in a row – great pat on the back!!! 🙂

If you prefer it in Google, here it is (Google’s formatting is not as pretty):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AppC9Gwr9zBIdFBsN1hRWDhQRnhkejBYYTBPSzJfWUE
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Read about a lot of 30 day and 100 day challenges in various places in the blogsphere, but no 1000 day challenges yet… so I’ve decided to create a way to track something like that. The idea is really to do a series of 33 one month challenges and form those challenges in to daily habbits… and use a checkbox type of system to keep yourself in check with all of these challeges. I figure since I screwed up the 90 full days of doing the Power 90 already, this is a new start sort of… but a continuation of that… so the counter starts over sort of, but in a completely new way with much more in the focus than just that 90 day end goal…

Could be something as simple as smiling at someone daily, doing a workout in morning, doing a workout at night, cutting out snacks from diet, cutting out soda from diet, cutting out having seconds at meals, cutting out sweets from diet, or as complex as you want it to be… it doesn’t even have to be focused on health. Maybe you want to give yourself the habbit of doing some thing every day and want a way to just build that in your life…

Anyways, below is the blank tracker for this thing on google docs. Tried to make it so that it tracks days, has check boxes for all 33 challenges for every day even though you would not use all of them til the last month… and also put in dashes on every 7th day since you probably need to build in one day a week that you ‘rest’ and ease up on yourself… after all doing any one thing for 1000 days is a heck of a lot. You could do it every day and not do the one day of rest if you wanted, but really you just like I am human, and made in God’s image (if God exists) so you need to let yourself have one day of rest probably… but hey, if you think you can do something every day for a thousand days without any rest, go for it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AppC9Gwr9zBIdDh0dXAwTlRSckpHVDIwVVE3Q1dQM2c

the excel file above may need to be changed in page setup to make it print right. Below pdf was adjusted with a few changes in that… Sorry that the legend on right doesn’t have 1-33 on each page. That was the original intention. Could probably be fixed with a little tweak here and there.
https://jeffthomann.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/1k-day-challenge.pdf

The idea with the ‘goal for the day’ and the legend as it is is for it to be a write in just like the others are… because every day if you write in your date, goal, and write down in the next box to the goal for the day the goal you completed it becomes more of a positve ego booster type of thing… You right your goals for day down in morning before you try the goal, then write down the goal in the daily notes box after you completed that day’s goal. If you are making it a 30 day challenge thing… do the same goal every day for 30 days, and use the one on habbits as the checkbox for that day, etc. The legend is just a sort of reminder to yourself about what your goals are… in case it gets confusing. This thing is made to be used on a clip board or something similar so that it’s easy to keep track of… but you could just edit it in excel file you update daily or whatever. I like using clip boards and have been doing that with power 90 to track my stuff in addition to this blog and an excel file in my computer. I use all three to track stuff like that since it keeps it more in my brain…

The last few days have been heck on the power 90 goal… with the arm stab thing, and then trying to workout again after that. I’m making up this 1k day tracker to start tracking my own goals in getting healthy and figured it might help others do similar which is why it’s here.

My first goal is probably going to be doing the Power 90 or some similar type of workout in the mornings… Then maybe add habbit 2 as doing workout at night, etc. Up til now I was tracking power 90 and the nightly add ons with handwritten papers on clipboard. I think this sort of tracker will work better and be nice and neat and actual help me keep track of goals better without being sloppy, hard to read, or time consuming to put together.

Not sure on this but some of my 33 goals are going to probably be morning workout, afternoon workout, no snacks, no sweets, no soda, check sugar in morning, check sugar at night, do some writing daily in a journal (not sure if I can make myself do the 3 single space pages that the artist’s way books call for, but might try it… just not sure on it since that’s a lot of writing and that amount of writing eats at free time that might go towards family time r&r time, or workout in evening time… but maybe doing something like one page a day for a month, then two, then finally 3 might make it possible? My hand cramps after writing that much, etc..), drawing a day, 3d model a day, or maybe even something simpler…. no negative thoughts for day, smile at people today, stay focused on one positive thing every day, etc… not sure on all the goals yet, but health goals will likely be my main focus for a while. I know goals will change over time, that’s why this is all fairly blank and just a skeleton right now…

I know I can change my ways to be better and get healthy. I know I can ultimately get to a great goal BMI weight by 1000 days from now. I’m not sure if I’ll start this tracker thing this week or next week. Might aim for starting it on the beginning of the month, but not sure yet.

Some other ideas for my ‘goals’:

MORNING WORKOUT
EVENING WORKOUT
NO S… NO SNACKS, NO SWEETS, NO SECONDS, NO SODAS (MIGHT HAVE TO BREAK THIS IN TO 4 MONTHLY GOALS)
MINIMUM OF ONE SIMPLE 5 MINUTE DRAWING A DAY
WRITE ONE PAGE OF MORNING PAGES WITH ARTIST’S WAY
WRITE A SECOND PAGE OF MORNING PAGES WITH ARTIST’S WAY DAILY
WRITE A THIRD PAGE OF MORNING PAGES WITH ARTIST’S WAY DAILY, AND MAYBE MORE…
MINIMUM OF ONE SIMPLE 10 MINUTE DRAWING A DAY IN ADDITION TO THE 5 MINUTE DRAWINGS
ONE POEM A DAY
MINIMUM OF 10 PHOTOS A DAY
ONE CONCEPT WRITING/DRAWING IN SKETCHBOOK DAILY
ONE PAINTING BASED ON ONE CONCEPT WEEKLY. (MINIMUM ONE HOUR PER DAY FOR 6 DAYS IN A ROW
ONE BLOG POST DAILY?
REMOVE NEGATIVE THOUGHT
ADD POSITIVE THOUGHTS TO YOUR DAY ABOUT AS MANY THINGS AS POSSIBLE… CHANGE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS IN TO POSITIVE ONES. TALLY THEM UP AS YOU COME ACROSS NEGATIVE THOUGHS AND COUNTER EVERY ONE NEGATIVE WITH 3 POSITIVE
LOOK AT NEW ARTWORK DAILY – BLOG ABOUT IT.
DO DISHES
MINIMUM OF 20 PHOTOS A DAY
WALK ON MORNING BREAK AT WORK (NOT SURE ON THIS ONE SINCE I’LL BE DOING THE MORNING/EVENING WORKOUTS)
WALK ON AFTERNOON BREAK AT WORK (NOT SURE ON THIS ONE SINCE I’LL BE DOING THE MORNING/EVENING WORKOUTS)
CREATE ONE DOODLE, SKETCH OR CONCEPT ON LUNCH BREAK… OR ALTERNATIVELY DO ONE 3-5 MINUTE SPEED DRAWING IN THAT TIME SINCE LUNCH BREAKS ARE ONLY 30 MINUTES
PROTIEN AS 20% OR SO OF MEAL AT EVER MEAL (EGGS OR DELI MEAT MOST LIKELY IF NOT SOMETHING ELSE), 3 MEALS A DAY
COUNT CARBS — NO MORE THAN 55 PER MEAL!!!! 3 MEALS A DAY.
CHECK SUGAR IN MORNING
CHECK SUGAR IN EVENING
GRATITUDE JOURNAL – WRITE 5 THINGS YOU ARE THANKFUL, HAPPY, OR APPRECIATIVE ABOUT DAILY.
NO SIX DOLLAR, SIXTEEN DOLLAR, OR SIXTY DOLLAR SH!T5 (don’t eat out)

My suggestion, or at least one thing I’ve done to modify my own personal copy that I’ll use to log this thing in my computer is to add new row above day one and then in the 1-33 edit formatting to type sideways… then in daily goal for first 30 days make the content of those fields equal what is in that field (g3 on mine but really depends on how you edit on yours…) That way you only have to write the one goal out if you are doing this in computer instead of on clipboard once, and then can just add notes later freely, etc… Since it’s a spreadsheet you can also add whatever you want to new rows and columns… track an entire lifetime, add in new columns for sugar level checks, blood pressure checks, etc. Heck you could even make it in to a daily calander with to do lists since you’ll look at it every day.. put birthdays on there as a yearly goal so you get cards to who you need to. Put change oil on car every x months, etc.

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Day 67

Day 67 of the Power 90 workouts is now complete. I did the Circuit III-IV today. It was tough. I didn’t do as many pushups as I normally do. I think I also bent my knee wrong in some of the calf raises since it was in a bit of pain, but it’s not so bad at the moment. I am still not sure if I’ll do the I-II or III-IV cardio ab tape tomorrow. I am going to try to do an add on tonight but we’ll see how I feel. I have to go to the dentist today so may not feel like working out tonight.

day 66 – rest day

I’m taking a rest day today because I had a bad night last night… It was self inflicted since we had Mexican food last night for supper… All that high carb and gassy food really upset my stomach and lower back most of the night. It finally had to sleep with a pillow under my legs to get some pressure off of my back as I laid in bed, and even that didn’t help enough so at 1:30 am or so I went to the living room and laid with a back massager on my lower back for about a half an hour before I finally went back to bed, and then I still didn’t sleep very well and was up to go to the bathroom and stretch out my back a time or three… my stomach is definitely in no shape to do the cardio tape today. I was tempted to do the I-II tape instead of III-IV… I got through a few minutes of the stretches in III-IV cardio/abs and just decided I’m not in shape to do the cardio abs today today… there’s no way in hell I’m ready to do any sort of crunches in this condition and I’m sure my stomach won’t take the running and jumping jacks, so I’m just going to consider today a rest day and workout the rest of the week. I hate doing that since I really eventually want to get back to the rest days being on Sundays, but I need to listen to my body and it’s telling me it needs more rest right now. Got to start being more strict with the No S diet… No more sixteen dollar shits! I did avoid soda and snacking yesterday though, so I am starting in the right direction with that, (even if I did do a ‘seconds’ sort of if you count the nachos at Mexican place as seconds)…

I think part of me is subconsciously, or consciously afraid to do the cardio abs tape since I keep avoiding it… Maybe I should go back to to the I – II tape when I try again in a couple of days and do that for a week or two since that week off due to the stab wound probably has made my body not be at the level it needs to be at to do the III-IV tape on that. The III-IV circuit seems easier to me than the III-IV cardio/abs… I think your body has to be more ‘in shape’ to do the cardio because of all of the crunches and stuff — which is stuff you have to have muscles for. The circuit is still tough too, but it’s not as intense as all of those exercises in the ab ripper if you aren’t fully prepared for it. Kinda weird how that works since you’d think the it’d be the other way around since circuit is the tape that uses the weights.

Going to be tough to avoid coffee and soda on a day like today when I’m missing out on some sleep last night, but hopefully I can do it.

Another reason for the rest day today – Shin splints. These were really bothering me badly last night, and still are bothering me a little today if I hold my legs in certain positions. I’m hoping the pain goes away with a day of rest… I’m thinking the level I-II cardio abs may be the way to go at least for the rest of this week when doing the cardio so that I don’t overdo it.

day 65 evening…

No workout tonight. I originally was planning on doing a workout every night and every morning, but am feeling a little sore today in abs and have a little bit of a headache and feel dehydrated, so no workout tonight. Tomorrow will be a new day. Weigh in tonight: 284.6 lbs. That’s a loss of .7 lbs since 8/16/2012 (i.e. last Thursday). Still have not lost all 3.5 lbs I gained on the forced rest days but but since this is day two of the NO S diet I think I’m not doing too bad… So far have avoided soda, snacks, and sweets today. Hope to keep it up tonight. It was tough smelling the chicken at the gas station after work as I was filling up gas… there’s a chicken place next to the gas station in the same building… but I avoided it. Also avoided going in to the gas station by paying at the pump. I need to do that more often. Now that snacks are out of my diet, I hope to do the pay at the pump thing more. Up til I started this diet I had started a very bad habbit of always going in to the convenience store and getting a 45 oz diet mt. dew mixed a spash of tropicana… God just writing that out here is making me salivate. Might try a round of turbo tapping to help erase this…

This diet is making me appreciate food more when I do eat during meals. Not sure on what the headache today is about. I think it’s due to one of the rooms I was in this afternoon for a meeting at work being excessively hot, also due to stress at work, but I think dehydration and sinus issues are part of the problem. Even though it’s still extremely dry around here and hot outside ragweed is popping up all over the place and spreading it’s evil pollen everywhere. Damn you weeds! Damn you to hell…

Day 65

Day 65 of the Power 90 is now complete. Performed the Circuit III-IV this morning. Last night I did not do too good on the ‘no seconds’ or ‘no soda’ rule for supper’s No S diet, but did avoid snacks and sweets yesterday. Tekla brought me a diet mt dew for supper and I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth… However, today is a new day and we are starting off better today. Had a hand full of deli meat and will now finish off a bowl of cereal with flax seed as soon as I get this post published. I really like this eat protein with every meal idea. It really does seem to help with sugar spikes and making it easier to not snack…

Day 64 add on…

Day 64 cardio workout for tonight has now been completed. Today it was tough not doing any snacks or sodas, but I got through the day ok. It can only get easier going forward.

Day 64 – partial workout

Day 64’s workout this morning was a partial workout. I did the cardio/abs III-IV tape til the first round of run lunge and quit after that since I was feeling out of breathe, very sore, belching some, etc. Stomach, abs, and legs are not ready for this today after the almost full week of resting last week. However, I did at least try. I might actually have to go back to level I-II if I find that I can’t do this III-IV tape by the end of the week. However, I’m hoping that if I ease my way in and don’t overdo it, just doing partial workouts like today that I will be able to get back in to the III-IV routine regularly quicker than taking backsteps to I-II. I will try to do a workout tape tonight too…

Also, today is the first day of the No S diet. No sweets, no snacks, no seconds, except on Sunday for Supper. I’m also adding a no soda rule… Not eating snacks or drinking soda will be a big change for me, but I think and know I can do it. I will likely drink more water though, which isn’t a bad thing. If I’m cranky the next few days — now you know why.

I’m also trying something a little new with the diet too. Going to try to make sure to eat at least 20% or so of each meal as some form of protein… either eggs or deli meat for the most part. The reason for this is that based on some reading (see links in previous posts) doing this helps the body hang on to the carbs a little longer when you eat them, making getting rid of the snacks not be such a harsh thing… supposedly the protein causes the release of energy from the food with the carbs take a little longer since the body takes a little longer to break down the protein… also supposedly that helps regulate sugar a little better since there are not as many glucose releases that cause spikes in blood sugar… Hopefully the theories behind all of that work. It sounds logical. It also explains why I was always snacking a little at work now and then when I let myself in the past.. eating cereal and milk is basically nothing but carbs and that’s what I used to always eat for breakfast…

Day 60…

Well, it’s day 60. I’m kinda bummed out since I have not been able to workout the last few days because of the cut on my arm. Doctor’s instructions were to rest a few days. I’ll probably start the working out again this weekend or on Monday at the latest. I was going to use this weekend as an excuse to go hog wild since I was going to start the No S diet stuff on Monday, and also start hard core on doing the workouts twice a day then… but after tonight’s weigh in I’m not so sure that that’s a great idea to not workout on the weekend… because I went up in weight! I’m now 285.3 lbs.

That’s a total loss since the first weigh in of 11.2 lbs, and a weight gain of 3.5 lbs since 8/9/2012, which was a week ago. Today at work we had a monthly meeting that they do the birthday cake at and I had 3 pieces of cake… Last night Tekla and I had speghetti, and I’m sure the serving size was way more than it should have been, especially with all the french bread. Tekla keeps reminding me that I want to make these changes for life, not just the 90 days, so little setbacks are not a huge thing since I have the rest of my life to reverse them and get back on course. She is, of course, right, but it is still frustrating when stuff like this happens. I was expecting to look a lot better than I am now by day 60. Going forward, I know I can do better, especially if I’m doing the workouts at night too. The few times that I have done them I’ve felt great afterwards. I really like the idea of doing two workouts a day.

Of course, the scale I’m using seems to be off. Tried to weight the jack handle and when I weight with it in my arms it’s saying I lost weight today, lol. Might be time to change the batteries?

Will I stick with the video workouts I’ve been doing after the 90 days… Not sure… may try something new. Reading about the No S diet was interesting… The guy that created that diet is in to shovelglove, which is swinging a big sledge hammer around as a form of working out. I can identify with the sledghammer/lumberjack idea a little being from a rural area, and also having gone up to Astoria and Portland area a couple of years ago since my wife has some relatives up there. (one of the family members up there specializes in importing exotic wood from Japan and elsewhere, etc. Kinda goes with the ‘exotic farmer’ saying mentioned in an earlier post from back in college, lol). I don’t own a sledge hammer yet, but do have a big jackhandle that I got from my granddad’s house earlier this year when we were cleaning the place out that I might try using. Swung it around a little today and almost broke something, so if I do it I will definitely have to do it outside or in the laundry room across the hall… apartments too small for that sort of exercise.

Ok… Time for the videos… I kinda like looking at the videos here on the blog next to one another since it makes it easier to compare/contrast, etc.

Day 60, 285.3 lbs:

Day 30, 289.2 lbs:

Before Power 90, 296.5 + lbs:

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The “battle wound” – this is a shot of the knife wound taken the morning after it happened.
Kind of a crappy pixelated video, but it gives you some idea. Kinda hard to show it in camera since the angle was straight on as the pointy end of the knife went straight in. The knife was in the dish rack drying when it happened… my arm hit it while trying to wash some other dishes, so I guess I sort of impaled it on accident. Needless to say, any dishes I do from now on, the knives will always have sharp edge down, not up. I used to always point the knives up to keep the part that touches the food less prone to getting germs on it, etc. but not any more… just too risky with our damn small kitchen sink.

No idea how far the knife went in, but my guess is based on the width and angle, it probably went in about half an inch or so. The wound bled through several napkins I used to apply pressure to it. It quit bleeding by the time ambulance got here, so I didn’t go in with them to the ER… I probably should have since the stupid hospital will probably bill this thing as a x99 ‘patient convenience’ item, which some insurances don’t pay… urgh.. don’t get me started on how screwed up the insurance world is these days.

High calorie per minute exercises and workouts

http://joshsgarage.typepad.com/articles/2010/01/kettlebell-training-burns-1200-calories-per-hour.html – Kettlebell 1200 per hour!

http://www.livestrong.com/article/224735-number-of-calories-burned-per-activity/

http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/fitfacts_display.aspx?itemid=2666&category=13

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/calories-olympic-athlete_n_1735846.html#slide=1324072

modified no s diet

I’m contemplating eventually starting a modified NO S diet.

The rules would be, if I start it, NO, WHEN I START IT:
– no snacks
– no sweets
– no sugary foods
– no seconds
– no soda (or coffee, or anything other than tea or water usually — even then, no tea during meals since I read somewhere that tea has some chemical (riboflavin or something like that) which causes you to not digest food as well as you should – tea is fine between meals but not during meals because of that?..)
– no salty foods
– no six, sixteen dollar or sixty dollar shits (in other words, no eating out at restaurants, cafeterias, or overpriced places like that where the cost per meal is usually about six dollars or more per plate, which usually just results in you overeating and having to go use the toilet an hour or two later — you paid sixty dollars for that shit at the steakhouse)
– no steakhouses
– no saltines (I’m the type that could put a whole pack of saltines in a bowl of soup if I allow myself too… guess this falls under no salty foods, but maybe it could be a new rule – no soup?… )
– no salsa (I tend to overeat at Mexican restaurants, etc.)
– no ‘sleeping in’
– no ‘staying up late’ (need to go to bed by 9 or 10 PM instead of by 1:30 AM, etc.)
– no ‘sorry’ – in otherwords got to stay focused on positive things and not looking negatively at things I have not accomplished yet… and if/when I do falter and get off course, get up, brush off, and continue onwards instead of getting sullen and feeling sorry for myself or whatever. Got to get rid of the negativity in my life since that just drowns me and snowballs in to depression ultimately. Can’t let that happen any more.

except on Sunday for Supper.

Sunday will be the ‘rest’ day for the workouts, so this should work nicely if I can do it. It will take a lot of willpower to not do snacks. I’ve become too used to having them… It’ll also take a lot of willpower to go without soda and caffiene since I’ve made diet soda my ‘way of life’ since getting diagnosed with diabetes, but I think I can make this change eventually and WANT to make this change. Goal is probably to start it Monday, but we’ll see.

I guess I can call this the NoS 2WO diet – No S, Two Work Outs a day.

the witch doctor’s brew cabinet is open…

Between watching Dr. Oz and listening to John Tesh and doing some reading… I’ve started adding spices to my unsalted sunflowers these days. This is being done to help stop inflammation, lower blood sugar, lower blood pressure, etc.

Spices in the witch doctor’s cabinet at this time:

Tumeric, Curry, Garlic Powder, Cinnamon, and Ginger. Out of those I think tumeric is the ‘wonder drug’ that does the best, so I add it to the stuff most often, usually with one or two of the others.

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-662-TURMERIC.aspx?activeIngredientId=662&activeIngredientName=TURMERIC

I also use flax seed in cereal in the mornings somedays, but not every day. Here’s a little tip I bet you didn’t know… Both sunflower seeds and flax seeds should be refrigerated to keep them good for longer periods of time. Weird, I know, especially since the Hy-Vee here in town stores there unsalted sunflower seeds in tubes that are not in the refrigerator section. I guess maybe the tubes might be air tight, so that might be part of the reason for that?…

:(

Went to the Urgent Care today. They were not able to do stitches since over 12 hours has passed since the time of the accident. They won’t do stitches past that time since they are afraid it will cause infection…

and…

what’s worse is it’s advised that I take a few days of ‘rest’ so as to not infect this wound on my arm with sweat and/or damage it due to movement of the skin and muscles in the wounded area… 😦

so…

I guess I’m going in to days 58-62 without working out… 😦

It kinda pisses me off that I can’t ‘finish strong’ but since I plan to continue the workouts well past day 90, I guess it’s not too bad of a thing.. just kinda irritating…

Day 62 will be Saturday… After that I’ll decide if I need to rest on the weekend too or workout then. I’m thinking about just ‘resting’ til Monday… since the wound happened Monday night that’ll give me a week to heal basically. After that, I plan to get back in to the workouts regularly. Just kinda makes me mad that I can’t do the full 90 days this go round… but I guess I’ll have many more months to do that in the future since I plan to continue working out regularly the rest of my life… Not sure if I’ll keep blogging about the workouts, but might… it has helped me stick to the plan when I take the time to blog about it, so maybe for that reason I should continue the blogging about the exercises…???…!!!…

Day 58 – forced rest day… stabbed myself.

Today I’m going to take a rest day. I’m very sad about this since I was planning on doing rest days on the weekends going forward. However, last night after my cardio workout I decided to wash some dishes before taking a shower and ended up accidentally stabbing myself in the arm with a steak knife. It was in the dish drainer drying and my arm accidentally hit it at an angle that the tip went straight in to the top of my forearm, about a half in to an inch or so and it took a good hunk of meat off. It was bleeding profusely when it happened. However, I held paper towels on it tightly and it eventually quit before the ambulance got here after I called 911. I was going to go to urgent care to have it looked at but they closed a few minutes before I got there… so I might try to make an appointment with a doctor to have it looked at today. We put a couple of butterfly banaids on it. It’s not hurting too badly if I don’t touch it. I just need to probably have someone look at it to see if I need stitches since the point of the knife went in so deeply. My wife and I have decided I better take it easy today so I don’t start the bleeding up again or get it infected.

Day 57 add on!

Day 57 add on is now done. First cardio add on that was over 30 minutes. Whoo Hoo. Look at them calories burning! 🙂

Diet Quotes

I come across various little quips and quotes the more I read about diet and excercise in various places online and offline. Decided it’s time to start a list. I’ll more to this later as I find more.
======

=========================
Flu Shot Q&A:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/flushot.htm

Why do some people not feel well after getting the flu shot?
The most common side effect of the flu vaccine in adults is soreness at the spot where the shot was given, which usually lasts less than two days. The soreness is often caused by a person’s immune system making protective antibodies to the killed viruses in the vaccine. These antibodies are what allow the body to fight against flu. The needle stick may also cause some soreness at the injection site. According to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), rare symptoms include fever, muscle pain, and feelings of discomfort or weakness. If these problems occur, they are very uncommon and usually begin soon after the shot and last 1-2 days.

=====================
Chronic Cardio Links

http://fitnessforfunction.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/chronic-cardio/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/chronic-cardio-2/#axzz2979kFXvU

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread63751.html

http://crossfitmeanstreets.com/2010/09/08/chronic-cardio-is-forcing-your-body-to-kill-you-and-how-you-can-save-yourself/

http://paleohacks.com/questions/81844/what-is-chronic-cardio#axzz2976c86fS

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread67113.html

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-you-shouldnt-burn-more-than-4000-calories-a-week-through-exercise/#axzz2979kFXvU

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/chronic-cardio/#axzz2979kFXvU
===========
Quick tip: try to get at least 30% of your total calories from protein because in a Danish study… People who got 30% of their calories from protein lost twice as much weight as people who ate less than 15% of their calories from protein and here’s why… Your body burns the most calories when digesting protein.

(use meat/fish for protien when possible – some vegan possibilities do exist, but it’s probably best to go with lean meat since it’s about as much ‘protien’ as you can get.. don’t go with protien shakes/bars after working out if you can help it because that’s processed food, and processed food is typcially worse for you than ‘real’ food because the processing drains some nutrients out… cheese/eggs is another ok food source… but watch it since cheese can be high fat — the process that creates cheese drains most carbs from cheese, which is why cheese is actually a diabetic friendly snack (unless your sugar is low and you need to spike it to get back to where sugar level needs to be, in which case a glass of milk or juice is better – milk has about 10 g of carbs per 8 oz serving. Juice has a lot more, and if you are really low is faster acting than milk because of that… also, as far as milk goes, skim or 1% is better than 2% or higher percentages milke like whole milk – reason is that fat content stops insulin from working… which is why type II diabetes exists in the first place… more fat in your body and food = slower time for your blood to absorb the carbs you throw at it to increase sugar levels).)
=======
A positive attitude is very important for successful weight loss and weight management. To lose weight permanently, you must make a commitment to gradually adopt a healthier way of life.

—
===================
Flaxseed vs Fish Oil Pills — the solution… Take both if you can afford it.

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20080912/flaxseed-oil-pills-vs-fish-oil-pills

http://www.genesmart.com/pages/fish_flax_confusion/85.php

http://www.livestrong.com/article/404266-flaxseeds-vs-fish-oil/

http://blogs.menshealth.com/bellyoff-nutritionist/fish-oil-vs-flax-oil-which-is-best/2011/02/11/
===================
http://www.mikemahler.com/online-library/articles/fat-loss/maxwell-sledgehammer-workout.html

The mechanics of the sledge swing are the exact opposite of the KB Swing: the effort is bringing the sledge down with as much force as possible. If you want an extra good workout, hold at the bottom of the handle, fists touching, and use a large, windmill-like overhead stroke to engage as much musculature as possible

======================
Caffiene is bad for you!
http://www.livestrong.com/article/282235-how-do-i-avoid-caffeine-withdrawal/

http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/articles/mn5.php

http://www.starling-fitness.com/archives/2008/10/28/avoid-caffeine/

==================
Kettlebell tip: Get a stronger grip so as to avoid neck pain…

With the momentum of the swing, the exerciser is able to endure flexion and extension of the arms, without pain and can work an often under respected asset: the grip. When the grip is weak, the forearm is weak. Then the elbow and also the shoulder, which leads to neck pain. Point being: Don’t have a weak grip.

==================
Diet Soda is bad for you:
http://www.wnho.net/new_aspartame_studies.htm

http://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/health_food/healthy_eating/your_diet_cola_is_killing_you.html
=================
Determine your BMI
There are several ways of measuring your ideal body weight. One of the most popular methods to gauge whether or not you are overweight is the body mass index (BMI). The BMI uses a mathematical formula that measures both a person’s height and weight in determining obesity. To calculate your BMI, multiply your weight by 703, and divide the answer by your height in inches. Divide this figure by your height again.

(Weight in Pounds x 703) / (Height in Inches) = BMI

For example, a 250-pound person at 5’10″ would have a BMI of 35.86. People with BMIs of 25 and above are considered to be overweight. Having a body mass index over 30 places you at risk for developing obesity-related medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease. A BMI over 40 indicates that a person is morbidly obese.

————-
The President’s challenge isn’t just for kids…
https://www.presidentschallenge.org/challenge/adult.shtml

=======
Caffiene has an impact on blood sugar! No wonder diet soda is not good for you, and coffee is/was slowly killing me (did have a couple of cups today – mixed sugar free hot chocolate in with it, so asking for major trouble — and now it’s the end of the day and am feeling that major trouble… caffiene headache… ouch… if you’ve never had a low sugar incident from diabetes, imagine the same sort of sensation as caffiene headache but more dehydration – like the front of forehead from temple to temple ‘feels like a dried sponge looks’ … some don’t feel that way when low/high, but when I’m low that’s how I feel.)

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/blood-sugar/AN01804

http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20050309/caffeine-tied-to-blood-sugar-problems

======
Dirt Cheap Weight Set – learn to recycle! 🙂
http://fitsupermom.com/at-home-improvements/
http://www.designboom.com/contest/view.php?contest_pk=17&item_pk=19008&p=1
===
http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/dumbbell-only-home-or-gym-fullbody-workout.html – dumbbell only full body workout
—
http://amerryrogue.blogspot.com/2012/05/tractor-tires-cinder-blocks-sledge.html – Tractor Tires and Cinder blocks
===
Kettle Bells are suppossed to be an awesome way to burn calories and work out… Going to post some interesting links about them here:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/01/08/kettlebell-swing/
====
http://life.familyeducation.com/foods/weight/46752.html

Make a fist and observe the size of it. This is about the size of your stomach.

…A fistful is still plenty of food to sustain your life, give you energy, release excess fat stores, look great, feel great, and get healthier.

=========
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/28/weight-loss-success-habits_n_1348488.html#s372882&title=Brian_AFTER

Strategy #1: Be Very Specific
When we make goals that are vague, like “I want to lose weight,” we set ourselves up to fail.

Motivation happens when your brain detects a difference between where you are and where you want to be. When you are specific about your goal (I want to lose 10 pounds), that difference is clear, and your brain starts throwing resources (attention, memory, effort, willpower) at the problem. A clear target looks something like this: “I want to weigh 135 pounds. I weigh 155 now, so that’s a difference of 20 pounds.”

Being specific gives you clarity because you’ve spelled out exactly what success looks like. That means more motivation — and better odds of success.

Strategy #2: Create An OK-To-Eat Plan
Faced with unexpected temptations — the dessert menu, the catered work lunch — we end up eating things that sabotage our weight-loss goals. The best way to guarantee you make the right choices is to create an “if-then” plan:
“If the dessert menu arrives, I’ll order coffee.”
“If I am at a business lunch, I’ll have a salad.”
Studies suggest that coming up with safe-to-eat plans makes you two to three times more likely to reach your diet goals.

Strategy #3: Track Your Success
To stay clear about that gap between where you want to go and where you are now, monitor your progress. Keep getting on that scale; mark the days you exercise on a calendar.

Another thing: When you think about the progress you’ve made, stay focused on how far you have to go, rather than how far you’ve come. If you want to drop 20 pounds, and you’ve lost 5 so far, keep your thoughts on the 15 that remain. When we dwell too much on how much progress we’ve made, it’s easy to feel a premature sense of accomplishment and start to slack off.

Strategy #4: Be A Realistic Optimist
As much as we want to believe otherwise, losing weight isn’t easy. It turns out that it’s important to accept this.

Believing you will succeed is key, but believing you will succeed easily (what I call “unrealistic optimism”) is a recipe for failure. Take it from the women, all obese, who enrolled in a weight-loss program in one study. Those who thought they could lose weight easily lost 24 pounds less than those who knew it would be hard. The successful dieters put in more effort, planned in advance how to deal with problems, and persisted when it became difficult.

So don’t try to tamp down your worries — they can help prepare you for shape-up challenges.

Strategy #5: Strengthen Your Willpower
The capacity for self-control is like a muscle: It varies in strength from person to person and moment to moment. Just as your biceps can feel like jelly after a workout, your willpower “muscle” gets tired when you overtax it.

To strengthen it, pick any activity that requires you to override an impulse (such as sitting up straight when your impulse is to slouch), and add that to your daily routine. And take baby steps. Instead of going junk-free overnight, begin by eliminating, say, those chips you eat by the bag, and substitute them with a fruit or vegetable.

Hang in there, and sticking to your diet will become easier because your capacity for self-control will grow.

=======

====

When someone starts a new exercise program, they often experience muscle soreness. The more intense and “unfamiliar” the program, the more intense the muscle soreness.

This soreness is most prevalent 24 to 48 hours after each workout. In the first few weeks of a new program, soreness is the body trying to “protect and defend” the effected or targeted tissue. Exercise physiologists refer to this as delayed-onset muscle soreness, or DOMS.

This type of soreness is thought to be caused by tissue breakdown or microscopic tears in muscle tissue.

When this happens the body protects the tissue. The muscle becomes inflamed and slightly swollen with

fluid retention. This temporary retention of fluid can result in a 3- to 4-pound weight gain within a few

weeks of a new program. Keep in mind that muscle soreness is not necessarily a reflection of how hard you

worked. In fact, some people feel no signs of muscle soreness, yet will experience the muscle protection mechanisms of water retention and slight swelling.

Most people are motivated enough to put up with this temporary muscle soreness. Yet, many, especially those who really need immediate weight loss to keep them motivated in those first couple of weeks become

discouraged and quit!

===
http://www.experienceproject.com/question-answer/Which-Would-You-Rather-Be:-A-Hungry-Free-Man-Or-A-Contented-Slave/582714

There was a dog who was bound on a chain, before a butchers shop. Came along a wolf, looked at him and asked: “Now, how did you get that well fed?” The dog asnwers “I have to guard that door behind me, and get a slab of meat every day for it.” The wolf replied “I could gaurd a door too…seems to be profitable.” Dog says “well, you definitely should, why not ask my master?” Wolf looks at dog, noticing the neck of the dog being almost naked and sore from the chain, and when he proposes the dog to come for a walk,. the dog can’t he’s chained to the wall. So wolf says: “Sorry, but I’ll be rather free and hungry than fat and chained…”

————
http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8787

Giving it 100% is way easier than 97% because that little “just this once” monster sneaks in there and creats a battle every time no matter if he wins that round or not!

JUST DO IT!!!
No excuses. No more thinking about it. Not tomorrow. It’s simple. Just Do It…..and do it NOW!

it’s what you do consistently day in and day out that will matter most in the long run

leave out all the self berating! You don’t deserve it because perfection is only an illusion…everyone slips up now and then.

It doesn’t matter if you fall flat on your face. What matters is what you do next.

let it go, and move along.

Being hungry is NOT an emergency red-alert situation. There are people who would like you to think it is. Many of them are somehow involved in selling food.

Habits take time to form. There is no known way to expedite or rush this process.

“Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.”
W. Somerset Maugham

=======
https://www.facebook.com/nosdiet

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
– Winston Churchill

So don’t eat when you’re hungry. Don’t eat when you’re depressed. Don’t eat when you’ve seen a good number on the scale and you think you can afford a few extra calories. Eat when it’s time to eat, just like thin people did for thousands of years.

====
when you are sore, work out some more! Working out again helps get the heart and lungs pumping which means circulating your blood around to remove the lactic acid built up on your muscles from previous exercise.

====
Great Abs are made in the Kitchen.

You can’t out-train bad nutrition.

I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

There are just three rules and one exception:
No Snacks
No Sweets
No Seconds
Except (sometimes) on days that start with “S”
That’s it. Do that and you’ll probably lose most if not all of your excess weight.

==========

insulin + available protein = 90% reduction in proteolysis, while insulin + no available protein = 45% reduction in proteolysis.</blockquote>

…
And here’s the takeaway:

Every time you stimulate insulin production by eating carbohydrates, you need to eat some complete protein with it—or instead of rebuilding your muscles and tissues, your body will continue to disassemble itself to get that protein. And the higher your blood sugar spikes, the more your body will disassemble itself anyway. Are you seeing the problem? When you eat, insulin signals your body to stop eating itself…but only if you’ve eaten protein, and only if your blood sugar isn’t spiking.

Every time you eat candy or drink a soda by itself, not only are you signaling your body to store fat…you’re disassembling your own muscle.

It’s even worse. That ‘healthy’ mid-afternoon apple or orange, to keep your blood sugar up? Same problem. And remember the food pyramid? Those “7-11 servings of heart-healthy whole grains” we’re all supposed to be eating every day? How are you going to stuff eleven servings into three meals?

You’re not: you’re going to snack.

That’s what we’re advised: never, ever let yourself get hungry. Keep your bloodstream filled with sugar and insulin at all times! So that’s what we do. Crackers, bagels, muffins, corn chips, rice cakes, cookies, danishes…all low-fat, of course.

And, even worse, low-protein. Being grain and sugar-based, snack foods contain little protein—and the protein they do contain is incomplete. (Corn and wheat are deficient in lysine, one of the essential amino acids.) If your body is short on any essential amino acid, it will still have to disassemble itself to get the one it needs, regardless of how much of all the others are available.

Every time you eat high-sugar, protein-deficient food—even whole fruit and “heart-healthy complex carbohydrates”—you’re making yourself fatter and weaker.

…

Conclusion:

Snacking Makes You Fat, And Snacking Makes You Weak.

This explains a lot, doesn’t it? Why so many joggers can pound out hundreds of miles and still squeeze up muffin tops? Why so many cyclists can spin for thousands of miles and still have to stuff a beer gut into their Lycra? Why even the skinny ones often look like famine victims—not like strong, healthy, capable humans? And why you never look like the people in the magazine ads, no matter how long you spend on the hamster wheels at the gym?

This helps explain why so many vegans (especially raw vegans) appear scrawny and malnourished. Fruit might have some nutrients in it, but it’s still essentially protein-less sugar.

… Stop eating birdseed (‘grains’) and diesel fuel (‘vegetable oil’).
Start eating real food.

“No one can hurt you without your permission.” – Ghandi

————
the application of the information is the key to success:

Ingredient #1: Think Differently
Ingredient #2: Believe Differently
========================
Interesting link about Marathon Monks who do a 1000 day challenge of their own sort…
http://halikhan.org/blog/general/marathon-monks-and-the-1000-day-challenge/
————–
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaih%C5%8Dgy%C5%8D – another link about the monk’s challenge
——————
http://www.bikramyogavancouver.com/blog/post333.php – interesting article on a guy who did 1000 days of yoga.
—-
http://cookdingskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/10/1000-day-challenge.html – article about the ‘Lenten Challenge’ – sort of a 1000 day challenge for martial artists… which is sort of based on the Buddhist monk challenge listed above.

=======================
URBAN NINJA LINKS
http://www.urbanninjablog.com/ – interesting little article on living in Thailand for under 1000 dollars a month!

============

Outer order contributes to inner peace, so spend some time organizing bills and tackling the piles in the kitchen.

——————————————
That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is more than a cliché with P90X—it’s your life.

Short-term goals are nice. It’s one way to stay in the game. But if you want to make a worldwide impact, then put your energy into the long-term goals.

Day 57

Day 57 – Circuit III-IV is now completed for the day. Today I’m really going to try to do a cardio workout tonight. I’m hoping to start doing that in the afternoons every weekday if I can make it happen.

Day 56 – Rest day

I’m taking a ‘rest day’ today from the Power 90. I kinda feel bad about that since this is really the second one in this 7 day segment, but I’m doing it to re-align the rest day back to the weekends. Somehow a few weeks ago I got the rest day put in the middle of the work week and it was stuck there til now. That made things a little weird since the day I was ‘resting’ from physical workouts I was still getting stress from work, etc. Realigning to weekend is more in line with the real goals of the program I think. It also prepares me to do the afternoon workouts during the work week.

new plan…

ok… new plan on working out.. will work out every morning, and then on afternoons when I can during the week. I really don’t feel like getting a second shower on weekends to accommodate working out twice. During the week it’s not so bad since I kinda want to get out of work clothes as soon as I get home anyways. Will I be able to do the nightly workouts everyday Monday – Friday? Not sure… maybe, only time will tell. I need to stay focused on making the morning routines work and stick with them, at least til the 90 days are up. I have been doing that pretty well. Need to stay on that goal before hopping around to new goals. I do like the idea of working out in the afternoon in addition to working out during the week, just not the idea of having to take two showers a day, especially on weekends since it dries out skin, etc. During weekdays it will be more tolerable. Just a matter of if I can make myself do the workouts during the week.

Day 55

Day 55 of the Power 90 is now complete. I did the Circuit III-IV tape today. It was a little more tough than normal since I’m a little low on sleep from last night. We went to the drive in and watched Bourne Legacy and Ted in a double feature. It was fun, but we got home pretty late since movie did not start til dusk (think it started around 9 PM). Pretty good movies. Pretty predictable, but not-too-bad.

right brain power is Heaven on earth!

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/229

starting tomorrow…

Starting tomorrow I will start the ‘new schedule’ of doing the power 90 in the morning and another cardio workout after work. I was going to start it today, but probably overdid the caffeine today with several diet sodas and a sugar free amp… Also, thinking about it more, I like the idea of starting the every other day thing tomorrow since tomorrow will be Circuit day. Doing a circuit workout in morning that is focused on weights will work nicely with a cardio workout at night to supplement it. Also, this will be nice since it will isolate the power 90 cardio workout to being on days by itself. That’s good because sometimes that ab ripper about kills me with pain. Need to give the abs time to recover, and this spacing out of things should allow for that I think.

Funny little things about Power 90

In Phase III-IV Circuit when Tony does the lunge/squats he miscounts on the first one and only does 4 instead of 5 squats.

In phase III-IV Circuit when doing the stretching at the beginning Tony says now switch arms but then corrects himself… The stretch goes from in front of the shoulders to behind the head with the same arm.

Tony’s little remarks to the camera about not sweating after the III IV sweat’s power yoga is not that funny if you are sweating a ton by then. I ususally end up flipping off the camera while in Warrior Pose as he says that. Same type of things goes for the ‘extra set of arms’ in the same tape when he lies and says there is only one when he starts the second set.

Might add more here later as I notice them.

Humor can be a good thing when working out, but being a jackass when you are instructor with snide remarks isn’t all that funny.

Day 54 …

Day 54 Workout was partially done. I was doing the Carido Abs III-IV tape and got up to about the last round of side kicks before I had to stop the workout. I was belching a lot and felt like I had some heartburn starting up. Also, the muscle on the side of my left leg under the sciatic nerve was starting to hurt a lot. I get sciatica there sometimes. Since we had greasy ol G&D pizza for supper last night I figured it was time to quit the workout today. I don’t feel like spitting up again today like I did the other day… We ate pizza last night because Tekla wanted to ‘celebrate’ and she loves that place. She was celebrating because yesterday was the first day she gave a full hour massage at school. She’s in a year long certification program at the Healing Arts Center in St. Louis so if you need a massage therapists over a year after you read this you might look her up if you are in this area and was a bit worried that she wouldn’t be able to do longer massages like that but she came through with flying colors. She’s going to be a great therapist.

I will probably try to do a cardio workout tonight though.

I thought about how to set up a realistic and obtainable set of goals today, which might be more realistic than the goals I set the other day, and more trackable too…

So here’s what I came up with…
Continue with the Power 90 workouts, or something similar after these first 90 days EVERY morning except the once a week ‘rest day’ whenever that will be (varies week to week depending on how I’m feeling any given day of the week)

Write 3 single space pages every night as a form of ‘morning pages’ for The Artists Way that I’m just doing at night instead of in the morning. Might be more productive and hit subconscious connections more in mornings, but I need to do these at night when I have more time since time is limited in mornings due to the workouts.

Do a cardio workout at night EVERY OTHER night.

On the nights that I don’t do the cardio workout, do a ‘photo walk.’ Photo walks are basically just nature walks with a camera. Sometimes these might be long walks with few photos. Other days they may just be short walks that don’t even move past a 12 foot area where hundreds of photos are shot in one area. In the past when I did this sort of thing it was very relaxing and helped me relieve stress, open up right brain thinking, open up ideas on composition creating, etc. I want to get back in to that sort of stuff. Practice makes perfect. I think of the camera as a sort of tool similar to a sketchbook or blog, etc. to capture textures, ideas, compositions, little ideas to build on later etc.

The walks probably won’t be super long… maybe 10-20 minutes. Might be longer sometimes. Only time will tell.

After the walks I will try to work on painting or drawing or maybe work on 3d stuff in computer — making stuff for Turbosquid, etc.

I’ll try to track most of this stuff in clip boards, excel files, and sometimes here on the blog, etc. I find that if I do all three I tend to stick to the program more and not get off course too much since the three ways of recording the thing makes it sort of sink in more… similar to the way elementary teachers try to get their students to learn by hearing the stuff, writing it down, and then regurgitating/repeating it back, etc.

Day 53 weigh in

Day 53 Weigh in:
Current Weight: 281.8
Loss since last weigh in 8/5/2012: 1.1 lbs.
Total Loss since first weigh in: 14.7 lbs.

I’m not feeling too great right now since back is aching, got slight muscle aches and headache. I think I might have possible electrolyte imbalance issues, and this working out every night and morning is too much. Going to skip workout tonight and try to do workouts at nights every other day and continue workout in morning every day and see how that works. I think that should theoretically give me enough rest time. Muscles need time to rest and repair. The extra nightly workouts are nice for the extra calorie burn but I don’t want to overdo it and burn out. Also, I think this workout every other night plan is awesome idea because on the off nights it’ll allow me time to do some more photography before the sun gets to where it’s not out at all after I get off of work and/or time to do painting, etc.

I am very happy to see that I did lose weight even though I carbed it up this week with taco bell, pizza at work, and some other stuff noted in previous posts. Makes me really see that this thing is working and working darn well! 🙂

Day 53!

Day 53 of the Power 90 is now complete! I did the Circuit III-IV tape today. I was sweating a lot more than normal in this workout. I think the workout last night + this one in the morning makes it more tough since body has less time to recover. However, the calorie burn doing two a day is incredible, so I plan on keeping it up if I can. It is causing me to have to go back to the five pound weights instead of the 10 but that’s ok.

day 52 bonus

Day 52 add-on cardio workout is now complete! 🙂

Day 52 got done somehow…

Day 52 of the Power 90 is now done. I almost gave up on it about the time I got to the jumping jacks since I was sore, stiff, and sweating more than normal.

Yesterday was horrible eating day… For lunch the Lead bought us pizza and I had 3 pieces of it and then had salad too. I also had a lot of diet soda… and then for supper had gyros, fries, and another big salad.

All those carbs from the gyros and pizza is kicking my stomach today. It’s gross but I ended up with heartburn during the workout and ended up actually spitting up by the time I got to the very end. Very nasty stuff. I have got to get my act together on the dieting since I can’t continue to do the workouts and be enthusiastic about it unless I do.

Day 51

Day 51 of the Power 90 is now complete. Today was a tough workout. I am sweating like crazy, having trouble breathing a little, etc. Last night we screwed up royally and didn’t have a supper meal planned out properly, so went to taco bell and had the doritos locos box. All of that bad for you food is kicking me today.

The sad numbers:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/taco-bell-doritos-locos-tacos-box-26466404

Calories 1040 Sodium 1850 mg
Total Fat 37 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 14 g Total Carbs 148 g
Polyunsaturated 0 g Dietary Fiber 15 g
Monounsaturated 0 g Sugars 76 g
Trans 0 g Protein 44 g
Cholesterol 95 mg
Vitamin A 0% Calcium 0%
Vitamin C 0% Iron 0%
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Between that and the lasagna, icecream, and soda I’ve been having the last couple of days my body is really craving to eat right again. Tekla got us some of this comfort food since her school work is getting her in the mood for that sort of stuff I think. I eat it because I am here, but should probably eat better. I am hopefully going to do a better job going forward. Going to take some effort, but I think I can do it.

Sugar was 123 this morning, so that’s not terribly bad… not as good as I’d like it to be, but not nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be after that taco box.

Day 50 – Lasagna inspired rest day.

Day 50 is today. I am taking a rest day since we had lasagna, garlic toast, and I had a huge homemade salad to go with all of that last night (salad had an orange, a tomato, spinach leaves, sunflower seeds, cheese, spiced turkey, peppers, and catalina dressing! Yum.) last night. I really overate with 3 slices of the bread and two slices of the lasgana. I figured since it’s a new 7 day week according to my paper calendar that I’m using to track all of this stuff with, it’s time for a break today. I really was not looking forward to doing a ton of crunches this morning on a full stomach like this. I do need to watch carb counting more. Pasta is this Superman’s Kryptonite. I love Italian food. It’s a good thing we don’t eat it too often, lol.

Day 49 Power 90

Day 49 of the Power 90 has now been completed! Circuit III IV workout. I used the 10 lb weights on all of the curls this time except the open arm ones. This is getting easier. It’s still tough, but the body is getting more used to the workout as I continue.

inspiration: theosophy

http://theosophy.org/

http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/his/theosophy-art.html

http://albertis-window.blogspot.com/2011/05/mondrians-evolution.html

http://www.schikelgruber.net/art/mondrian.html

http://www.radford.edu/rbarris/art428/MondriananddeStijl.html

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd-hp.htm

inspiration: Nick Knight

http://nickknight.com/main.html

Day 49 weigh in

Weigh in weight today: 282.9 lbs. That’s a total loss of 13.6 lbs since 6/24/2012.

Day 48 of the Power 90

Day 48 of the Power 90 is now complete. I did the Cario/abs III IV tape today. Ab workout about kills me by the time I get to the full body crunch and bicycles, but I struggle through and complete them since the are the last part of the workout. The stretching after that is not so tough and gives your abs a little bit of a rest. I don’t know if it’ll ever get ‘easy’ but the rest of the workout is getting easier to I suspect it will. I am now able to do all of the Power Yoga without too much problems even though I am sweating a ton by the time I get to the part where Tony says, “look I’m not even sweating” like a jackass.

Day 47 Power 90

Day 47 of the Power 90 is now complete.

I did the Circuit III-IV tape today. I used 10 lb weights on the first couple of weight exercises and 5 lbs after that on the others. I think that this is enough for now since it really gets the workout started off but without super amounts of strain on joints and muscles. I am not using bands or really even the bars on the weights, just a weight itself so I am having to do one lb weights on the first of the wrist lifts since I can’t make the weight go the right way that way. I can do it with 5 lb and have a few days already here and there, but I have my middle finger through the hole in the weight so on the wrist where wrists are lifting upwards with palms down it’s too much strain to do that with 5 lb. Turning it around is no problem. Just tough to fight gravity that way. I will probably try to start using the bar in the coming weeks to fix that problem.

for the 7x7x7 pushups and max pushups I’m still doing girl push ups since it’s less tough on the wrists for the ones where hands are close together and also because it lets me do the max a lot further out than I normally could.

Last night we went out to Buffolo Wild wings and they had updated menu to put calorie counts on the stuff. OH MY GOD! I never realized how many calories were in that stuff. I always just assumed that since it’s chicken, which is fairly low carb it should be ok… It’s not. Some of the stuff on menu was over 2k calories and that was just in appetizers! Most of the stuff is in the 1k plus range. We have got to start eating at home more often. It’s bad when a place you think is somewhat safe is worse than the worse places out there! I don’t think those calorie counts even counted the sauces in, so I’m sure it’s horrible.

I think I’ve got the workout thing down a little. Next phase is focusing on what I eat more.

Day 46 add ons

Day 46 cardio add on is now complete. I’m going to probably need to start watching sugar levels more if I keep up these two workouts a day thing… Sugar was below 130 at 2:00 or so this afternoon and at 96 or so after I got home from work. If my sugar goes below 100 I start getting headaches, sweating, lost train of thought, etc. Supposedly metformin won’t make you crash like insulin does but the working out twice a day might?… Body is definitely feeling the burn. I’m also finding myself doing random movements more at work that are like the workouts… some not so random actually. I use my lunch box as a weight sort of and use it to do curls down the hallway, lift it up like I’m doing shoulder lifts going down stairwells, do jogging lunge things – where you put your arms in air like you are peddling a wheel with arms when going down stairwell without the lunchbox… I can only do that on one of the stairwells though. Can’t do that sort of stuff on the circular stairs since you have to keep balance as you turn body to ascend or descend the circular part.

Concept idea for tonight:
SELF PORTRAIT from lower left to upper right of canvas, arm extended across the canvas, reaching… on the left the old ways, thoughts, themes, on the right new ideas, new themes, beautiful stuff… Hand is reaching towards the new… reaching for the future… Other hand is possibly holding a shield type pose blocking face from the past sort of… not sure on the other hand thing… our past is a part of us – why hide from it?… since it’d be back of head shot it might be trying to do too much putting two hands in…?

Inspiration for this idea:

Gerhardt Richter:

Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel

Day 46 of the Power 90

Day 46 of the Power 90 workouts is now complete. I did the Cardio III IV tape today. Not having done this tape all the way through since 7/25/2012, which was just over a week ago, this was tough… especially the ab work. However, I got through it. Back to more regular patterns now and doing it every other day hopefully.

Power 90 mid-point weigh in!

Since it’s day 45, which means I’m halfway through the Power 90 (although I plan to continue this lifestyle far beyond 90 days) I figured it’s time to do another weigh in.

Current weight: 284.8 lbs. That’s a loss of 3.1 lbs since Sunday, and a total loss of 11.7 lbs since the first weight in on 6/24/2012!

Not too bad of a result for 45 days of working out fairly regularly. I think adding the addon workouts will help a lot, so I really want to focus on getting those done every night if I can.

day 45 add on.

Day 45 add on workout is complete now! 🙂 Burning calories like crazy today.

Idea for a drawing – zebra in a silhouetted background landscape with red and purple and blue background sky… I was at the zoo the other day and loved the patterns on the zebras. The black and white is such a powerful contrast. The hair mane hair sticking up is so interesting looking… http://southafrican-wildlife.blogspot.com/2008/09/information-on-zebras.html

The 30 day challenge on the photo taking is off to a horrible start. The Little Cobra Camera seems to be broken today when I tried to use it. Battery was fully charged and it just won’t turn on. I have an ancient camera that’s only 1.3 megapixel and uses 4 AA batteries I will have to use as a backup. Really sucks that this happened. I wish the old Kodak Easy Cam worked off of the base, but it’s broken too and only works if attached to the charger 😦

I haven’t done the ‘morning pages’ that I’m not doing in the mornings any more yet, but will before the end of the night.

Today’s been kinda crazy, but in a very good and excellent way.

Fidgetting is good…

http://www.livestrong.com/article/121707-lose-weight-fidgeting/

ADD isn’t necessarily a bad thing… just a different way of life. Instead of feeding the kids meds, give them something to focus on.

Also, remember, your children will have plenty of time to rest and stay still after they are dead. Let them live while they are still alive!

Great Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym!

Great Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym!

Day 45 of the Power 90

Day 45 – Circuit III IV is now complete! I can’t believe this first 90 days is now half over!

It’s got me thinking that if I can do this, I can do a lot more daily too.

After watching that 30 Day Challenge Ted Talk video the other day it has got me thinking… I’m going to set 3 daily goals for 30 day challenges, and try to make myself a bit more of a Renaissance man in achieving those goals every day. It’ll be simple things. I don’t know if I’ll be able to achieve all of them, but if I make it simple goals I think I will be able to, and can just add on to that over time.

Besides doing the Power 90 workouts, the goals are going to be

Goal 1: Snap at least 5 photos with a digital camera daily.

Goal 2: Spend time at night before bed (or just after work after the workout – see goal 3) writing 3 hand written, single space pages daily. This will be my equivalent of ‘the morning pages’ from The Artist’s Way. I’m going to do these at night since I don’t have a lot of time in the morning as I’m doing these workouts in the mornings.

Goal 3: Do a cardio workout in the afternoon after work… It will be a cardio workout likely, and it might not always get done since I will need to rest some days I suspect.

Goal 4: Create at least concept for an illustration or painting daily. It doesn’t have to be complicated. I’m hoping to also try to actually do some of the best works created from this brainstorming as paintings or illustrations, etc. One thing I’ve not done a lot in the past was prep work in coming up with ideas for illustrations and paintings, so I was not achieving too much as some cliches would come instead of real great works that were worthy of being created. I’m hoping that new ideas daily can help with this.

Goal 5 is here too, but I won’t track it much… that is to track keywords in Turbosquid. If you have guild membership there they update keywords that you can track. I used to track these some, but haven’t done it much lately. I plan to start doing that more… but if it doesn’t get done, it doesn’t get done daily – no biggie. I’m hoping that that will help with the illustration/drawing ideas, etc. since some of the artwork created from that may have some focus on those type of keywords and/or be 3d models for that sort of thing, etc. I haven’t used lightwave in a while, but might try to get back to that in future 30 day challenges.