There Goes My Decorating Budget...

April 11, 2011, 2:36 pm

Gee, How Did That Towel End Up in My Suitcase?

By SARA J. WELCH

Hotel guests may want to think twice now before walking off with that bathrobe. Linen Technology Tracking, a company in Miami, has patented a washable RFID chip that can be sewn into towels, robes and bed sheets, allowing hotels to keep track of their linens.

So far, three hotels — in Honolulu, Miami and Manhattan — are using the chip, said Linen Technology Tracking’s executive vice president, William Serbin. He said the hotels did not want their names used.

Mr. Serbin added that rising cotton prices were a motivation: “A bath towel that might have cost $5 last year could cost $8 or $9 now. High-end hotels want to watch those assets.” READ MORE

In all of my years of traveling I don't think I've ever taken a towel with me, even by accident. Now I can tell you that if I was to ever accidentally remove a towel I would never take it from my room but from the pool or fitness room, yes it would have the blue strip on it (kind of like a range ball) but at least I would have a matching set.

All this hotel talk reminds me of a hotel room tour that I took a few years ago...

It's Sunday......

Somewhat MIA this week, both from posting on here as well as the 52DC forum...
It was just one of those weeks. I managed to get in 3 solid RT's as well as 2 CT's totaling 6.63 miles. I had to late week meeting, one ended up at PF Changs, I never knew that you could create a 1000 calorie chicken plate without using breading.....It was a good meal.



I got a small surprise from the scale mid-week...211.2. Down from 236/237 during the last week of 2010. I should be able to hit 210 by Warrior Dash time. This weigh in was before the whole PF Changs nightmare and my planned Saturday cheat day.



My TNT Diet Book arrived yesterday and I've skimmed through it and it's not that far off from how I'm currently eating. I still need to drop my carbs more and increase my healthy fat intake. I'll need to concentrate on the "Muscle Building Zone" and do a better job of feeding the furnace after my workout.

The book cost me less than $9.00 with shipping..If this whole TNT diet thing doesn't workout I figure for the amount of recipes that the book contains I bought a pretty decent cookbook for $9.00. The exercises don't appear to be anything ground breaking as I must have 5 or 6 of the Men's Health exercise book.

Don't pull out the checkbook

Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison will make a fine commencement speaker at this year's Rutgers University graduation ceremonies. She will engage the students and inspire them with all the hard-earned wisdom of her 80 years. She also will leave the stage $30,000 richer. And that's a problem.

This is the first time that Rutgers is paying a commencement speaker. It's a bad precedent — not only for Rutgers but for other institutions that heretofore have shunned the idea of pulling out the checkbook to induce name speakers to address their graduates.

Read More

At first read I thought this was an Aprils Fools joke (it might still be) but I was amazed.......so decided to watch an episode of Jersey Shore this afternoon. After losing an hour of my life that I will never get back I must say "I'm impressed" apparently "Snookie" is/was smart enough to hire an agent that could land her a commencement gig that paid $32k.....damn.

Accomplishments week of 4/2

This past week
I replaced roadwork cardio with DVD cardio, not a bad choice
Got in 4 resistance training sessions
Lost 1.6 pounds
I managed to drop my carbs to under 80 grams per day



The scale showed 212.6 this morning, not a bad way to start the weekend. I'm going to chalk it up to the Cardio DVD's and the drop in carb consumption. I should be below 210 by the end of the challenge.



I dug out my old GymBoss timer the other day and began using it for intervals, planks and rest times between sets....I forgot how handy this thing can be.




The food of the week Gardein Beefless Tips Package. They were 2 for 1 at Publix....yes I'm a bargain shopper. I cooked them in garlic and low sodium Soy Sauce, not bad tasting. 150 calories, 8 grams of carbs & 18 grams of protein all in 3/4 of a cup and yes I ate the whole bag.

On a lighter note I managed to snag my wife with a great Aprils Fools prank. I made a fake hollow roll of toilet paper. When she went to pull the toilet paper off of the roll she was greeted with a nice April Fools message. It worked like a champ.....

No One Wants To Eat What I Eat

This morning I drank my normal morning morning shake while I made breakfast for everyone, I got cleaned up stepped on the scale and........I lost a few oz's.....Food was within 10 or 15 calories of the day before no there was no major calorie deficiency so how could I have possibly lost weight? Note the sarcasm in that sentence, could it be the types of food that I'm eating instead of solely that number of calories...Hmmmm



Breakfast consisted of one whole egg, 1/2 cup of egg whites, peppers, frozen spinach and some leftover ground beef....so how come no one wants to partake in that for breakfast? I think I lose them at the ground beef with the eggs.
Roughly 300 calories, 6.5 grams of carbs and somewhere around 30 grams of protein, not a bad way to get the morning going. Tonight chicken on the grill some lentils and a salad....salad, really what's the use?


I've been enjoying this latest workout template, mostly from the book Power Training, it's a book I've had for years and so many of Coach Dos's workouts seem to help me shed
weight.


I bought a Bob Harper DVD at Sam's a few weeks ago and had never taken the time to run through it...damn 40 minutes into the 60 minute workout I was done....I even did it without weights. I must have something to do with weighing 160lbs and not 213.6.

Life In The Healthy Lane

After two years in the making, Albert Lea Hy-Vee rolled out its Blue Zones checkout lane in January.

While most checkout lanes are stocked full of candy bars, gum and sweet treats attractive to children and adults, the Blue Zones lane features a variety of healthy snacks, including granola bars, carrots, dried fruits, string cheese and flavored water.

Hy-Vee dietitian Amy Pleimling said since the Blue Zones lane opened, the store has seen an average of a 42 percent increase on sales of items featured in the lane. READ MORE

I remember when my kids were small and still fit in a grocery cart I never knew what I actually purchased till I arrived home and unpacked the groceries. The reason Clepto #1 and then Clepto #2 would wait till Dads back was turned and then they would drop a candy bar or two (or three) on the "Motion" belt and Dad was never the wiser, until he unpacked the groceries - Where the hell did this candy bar come from? Cut to Clepto #1 smiling :)
The grocery store marketers know what they're doing, you're done shopping, you're in the checkout line, you're exhausted Little Johnny has flat worn you down - You just want to go HOME.....all of sudden you look to your left and it's a chocolate, potato chip, cookie cornucopia.....ahhhh time for the impulse buy! It works every time and it has for years the bad thing is that it sets a bad example for Little Johnny - shopping = food treats. Marketing's job is complete.
Enter Hy-Vee and the Blue Zone. Checkout lanes stocked with some healthy alternatives. Child friendly and for that matter adult friendly. the best part is that the Marketing Dept. can still smile "the store has seen an average of a 42 percent increase on sales of items featured in the lane." We'd all like to see a 42% increase on a featured item.
We, as the consumer, are still faced with the impulse buy and as we all know those "Healthy Nuts" are very high in calories so you can still be faced with weight gain, but if nothing else it does show us and our kids that there are alternatives if you just take a moment to think about it.

Welcome To Monday

Make Good Decisions to Start the Week

Did you burn a lot of calories over the weekend? Did you make a couple of trips to the gym, do a lot of yard work, and watch your calories as you should?

If you did, you’re definitely in the minority.

I didn’t make it to the gym over the weekend, nor did I get much of a chance to burn calories outside as it was raining. I also had a couple of meals out with the wife where I had no intention of counting calories. That’s fine, though. I feel great.

Today is another day to make a whole new set of decisions. Read More

I subscribe to the RSS feed of a couple of hundred blogs - from health and fitness to the craziest of the craziest I skim through them each and everyday. There are some nuggets everyday, some posts that you learn from some posts that make you chuckle and some posts that make you wonder "Why did I even bother going to school". The above snippet came from 344 pounds, it's an amazing transformation and shows what the mind and body can do when you focus and apply dedication.

I seem to always do better with food and exercise on the weekends. Yes, I manage to get in my low carb beer (Yuck) but the weekends allow me to get in at least 3 exercise sessions, cook some food for the upcoming week.

It seems like most trash their bodies on the weekend and "poof" they go cold-turkey at 6:00am Monday morning only to fall of the wagon by noon on Wednesday. This whole healthy lifestyle thing is a journey, it's not a destination. There is no finish line, maybe the finish line is living with low cholesterol or without diabetes....who knows. Just because Tuesday evening you had a bowl of ice cream ( a big bowl of course ) that doesn't mean that you've undone all of the healthy stuff you did on Monday and most of Tuesday. That's part of the strategy behind the 52DC challenges....so you manage to eat half of the pizza instead of the just one piece (who can really only eat one slice of a pizza) it doesn't mean that you've lost progress for the whole day. You choose to eat the pizza, don't beat yourself up over it.

It's all about taking those little baby steps and listening to what your body is saying. I know that if I miss out on exercise for 3 or 4 days I know that my mood will change, like most people I know if I load up on a high calorie - high sugar meal at some point my blood sugar will come crashing down.....I don't let the scale set my mood for the day, if I weigh an extra of couple pounds in the morning, so be it.....I just look at my weight graph and I can see that downward progression that I've been making and I know that my journey is moving in the right direction.

So welcome to Monday - it's a brand new never before used Monday, enjoy it.

Accomplishments week of 3/26

This past week
Spent time in Jacksonville, FL
Got in close to 18 miles of cardio
Got in 3 resistance training sessions
Lost 1.8 pounds


Again the scale was kind this week, dropping 1.8lbs for the week including a major breakfast screw up, I'll just call it a "Metabolism Adjustment". Three days on the road this week and I really didn't get near enough food into my system....then you add in all of the exercise it's no wonder that I lost weight and I'm sure some muscle along with those pounds. Dropping the carbs is working I'm going to continue on getting the total carbs down closer to 50 grams each day.

Calories 1,571

Fat 59.3 grams 34%

Carbohydrate 100.4 grams 26 %

Protein 155.8 grams 41%

Hump Day

Got on the scale this morning to a surprising 214, down from 217 on last Wednesday
The major change is the diet and particularly in the area of carbs and types of carbs. I've gone from approx 150 grams per day down to 100 grams per day and I've replaced the brown rice with the lentils and black beans. I'm trying to eat most carbs early in the day and after I workout.



Post workout breakfast this morning - egg, egg whites, frozen spinach and fresh peppers and about 1/2 cup lentils.
The water intake has also increased, as much as I dislike water I forcing myself to drink 96 ozs per day......Believe me it keeps you alert looking for rest stops on long drives.

The new workout template really seems to test my endurance, it's been a few years since I've done dumbbell complexes as a warm-up and the kettlebell swings as a finisher manages to send the heart-rate towards the higher numbers.

I've managed close to 15 miles since Sunday, which for someone who is not a "runner" sucks. I have no idea how anyone ever ran or jogged before WalkMans and iPods.......if I didn't have something to listen while running I'm sure that I would get lost in my thoughts and run into a telephone pole.

The Sunday Funnies

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.


'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.'
'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two
groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its
recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora' ), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself
spending half your paycheck on accessories for
it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ('el computador') , because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model..

The women won.

OK, so it's starting to come back to me.

After 2 days of good clean eating mixed with some exercise I'm back in the grove. The KB Swings are giving my cardio a run for the money. It's been over a week since I've gotten a decent RT session in.

The RT plan is as follows:

Warm Ups	Sets		Reps
DB High Pulls	2		5
DB Hang Snatch	2		5
DB Squat Press	2		5
DB Bent Over Alt Rows	2		5
Push Ups	2		5
Core Rows	2		5
Workout A	Sets		Reps
1a Weighted Hip Raises	3		10-12
1b Suspended Inverted Rows	3		10-12
2a Goblet Squat	3		10-12
2b DB Bench	3		10-12
3a Plank	3		60 sec
3b DB One Arm OHP	3		10-12
4a DB Shrugs	3		10-12
4b KB Swings	3		25
Workout B	Sets		Reps
1a Deadlift	3		10-12
1b Kneeling One Arm Row	3		10-12
2a Sumo Squat	3		10-12
2b DB Incline Bench	3		10-12
3a Side Plank	3		60 sec
3b Lunges	3		10-12
4a KB Swings	3		25
4b Hammer Curls	3		10-12

Ahhhh Another 52DC Begins

The Spring 52DC has begun (FAQ's Here).

I've backed off on some of my goals due to an enormous workload the next month or so.
CE: 90
RT: 17
CT: 17
PG1 (Lose 5lbs):
PG2 (Walk with wife 10 times):
PG3 (Post to FitDay 30 days):

Starting weight is 217, Ughhh up a half of a pound since the end of the last challenge. I've been signed up for another Warrior Dash....at the end of May, so I'd like to go in weighing under 210lbs.

It's been a tiring last week or so, I got some sort of stomach bug and re-framed from eating for a couple of days, then the time change and then a change in time zones due to travel...it has been exhausting.

I'm having a hard time getting motivated for the start of this challenge, hopefully a RT this afternoon will kick it into gear. I lost a clean eat last night....I've had 6 flights in the last week and 5 of them have been delayed due to mechanical issues......so last night once I landed it was Corned Beef sandwiches and PBR's...yes I'm back on the no beer thing for a while.

M.I.A. .......not really......

It's been a very busy last week, but I've managed to exercise almost everyday since the challenge ended including 15+ miles of walking/running.
I've signed up for another Warrior Dash...... and can't wait for that weekend to arrive..this time "More Beer"



Starting last Monday I've done all that I can to cut as many carbs out of my diet that I possibly can...by the end of the week I had dropped 3lbs. Around Christmas time I was at 236, 10 weeks later 213, maybe I will stop snoring now.

Along with dropping the amount of carbs that I've been eating I've traded brown rice for black beans...lets see if the rest of the household appreciates this change as much as I do. I've also been drinking more WATER.......Ugh as much as I try I just have a hard time sipping on water all day.

Something I Saw Today

Via: Term Life Insurance

For all you soda drinkers.....