Jan 14

Managed to get in a workout today nothing that spectacular, but I got it done and out of the way.....
Back on the BBOE Fat Loss template, as hard as it was I did it. I added a few extra sets - Fallouts, Incline DB Press and some Kettlebell work so that I would make the 40 minutes.


Everyone wants to go to the ice rink tonight so who knows maybe
I'll end up on skates, it's only been 20 years or so how tough can it be? Planning to head to the beach in the morning for a CT, have a great Friday evening....

There's An App For That

I carry both the iPhone and the Crackberry, each has it's place and each has their strengths and weaknesses. I find the tactile keyboard of the Crackberry easier for typing and the iPhone has a better graphics display for watching movies and the latest You Tube Video.

With traveling my go to, must have application is TripIt! Once installed it monitors your e-mail account looking for your confirmation e-mail from hotels, airlines and rental car companies. Once it finds them it then organizes them inside TripIt as a separate itinerary for each trip. It gives you map of your hotel, touch the map and it opens up Google Maps and uses the iPhones GPS to get you there. If you travel with others you can create a group so everyone can see each others itinerary. You can also e-mail your itinerary to a loved one.

Now here's some really cool extra stuff that you get....it offers you seating advice, for example on a Boeing 737 rows 2-10 has and extra inch of legroom and rows 1-10 offer an extra degree of pitch in the seat.
It also lets you know of gate changes and delays...this afternoon our flight was delayed TripIt let me know a solid 5 minutes before the gate agent posted it.......5 minutes when your making a connection or trying to get home can be the difference in being able to switch flights or getting stuck for the delay...unfortunately today the 5 minute head start could get me on an earlier sold out flight.

Tripit offers a free and a paid version, the free version is all that I use but the paid version tracks all your hotel and mileage points. It's not worth the $50.00 yearly fee and the click through adds don't bother me.....I have it loaded on my wife's iPhone so see can always know where I'm at and hopefully what time I'll be back.

Jan 13

No exercise yesterday, due to flight delays and a late dinner.
One of the things I have a hard time when traveling is going from the Eastern to Central time zone. It's amazing just how much that one hour throws me for a loop. This morning I woke up as I usually do somewhere around 5:45, I rolled over to look at the clock and boom 4:45 welcome to Central time...Ughhhhh..



So I trudge to the elevator molest the buttons till I find the "L"...I shuffle to the front desk and mumble "Can you point me to the fitness center, please?" the desk clerk responds (just a bit to cheerily) "Lower Lobby"...back to the elevator and down another floor....I walked in and was greeted with a complete gym 7 or 8 resistance stations, a dumbbell rack that went up to 70lbs and a huge Cybex Machine. If you're ever in Nashville TN and need a hotel with a loaded gym, indoor and outdoor pool and close to the local attractions and the airport check out the Nashville Marriott.


I managed to squeeze in a 40 min walk on the treadmill. I tried doing ladders with the incline 1 min at 1% incline then 1 min at 2% incline etc... all the way up to 10%...it made the time pass a bit quicker. Then back to the room for and oatmeal, chocolate protein powder & peanut butter concoction and a shower. Have a great Thursday....

Jan 11

Got a very early workout in this morning, again I strayed from the BBOE Fat Loss workout and went my own way. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with this template, 3rd week into it and I'm not following it.

Gobble Squats 3x10
DB Bench Press 3x10
Push Ups 3x20
DB Highpulls 3x10
Scaption 3x10
Seated Reverse Fly 3x10
Planks 3x60sec
DB OHP 3x10
Suspension Strap Curl 3x10

I made into Tampa early evening, changed into my cut off sweatpants and looked for the exercise room....and I found it Ughhh... there was a homeowners version of a treadmill that didn't work, an eliptical that wobbled way to much for a piece of stationary exercise equipment. I ended up heading out for an evening walk around Tampa, FL. I decided that I must be in the better part of the city after I walked past Thee Dollhouse (you can Google it if you can't figure it out).

I can knock off two more 40-4-40's....and my eating is still staying clean, the calories are way under 2500...lots of tuna, chicken and very little of the carbs, especially the bad ones.

Meet My Next Door Neighbor

for the night.....
There's nothing quite as comforting as entering your hotel room at 6:00pm and seeing a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door and this mornings bill STILL sticking out from underneath the door.
This is an indicator that one of two situations have transpired....
#1 Dude inside the room really tied one on last night and he's still sleeping it off.
#2 Dude inside the room is dead.
I love hotels.......

MFT

A Few Of My Favorite Things MFT

Hey "Oprah" has her list of favorite things...so why can't I! The differences are that I can add to my list throughout the year and I'm not giving any of my favorite things away.......
I can't tell you how many blenders I've been through. From the Walmart's entry level Black & Decker to a high-end Cuisinart I've yet to have one hold up to the abuse that I seem to somehow hand out. Well I've found what seems to be the ultimate ice chopping, frozen broccoli destroying piece of kitchen hardware known to man.
This came as a gift from my wife and it's called the Bella Cucina Rocket Blender and it live up to the Rocket Blender part of it's name. It comes with 5 blending glasses, so I can let 3 or 4 of the glasses pile up in the sink before I'm forced to wash them...two sets of blades...and a shaker top in case I want to make my own Parmesan Cheese. I can finally blend ice cubes without having to smell the motor brushes burning.

Jan 10

Weigh in Monday...down 6 pounds for the week. I'm sure most of it was the "Holiday Bloat" leaving my body aka....no beer for the last couple of weeks.
Managed another Biggest Loser Power Walk session this morning before the workday started and then ended the day with a mile walk next to my wife. Tuna Tuesday is up next..Have a great evening.

Jan 9

Managed to enjoy the beautiful South Florida weather today with a bike ride into the Everglades. I headed 25 miles out into the "River of Grass" where I found Shark Valley and their 15 mile bike path. I've spent the last few months seriously considering buying a bike. It's probably been 20 years since I've been on a bike, and it's true what people say - You never forget how to ride a bike.





But I can tell you that I forgot what it feels like to ride a bike 15 miles......by the time I hit the observation tower (the halfway point) and dismounted from my bike both the bike and my butt let out a heavy sigh........
I grew up down here and saw many alligators during my youth but to this day I never tire of seeing these huge creature. The trail banks were littered with coots, herons, turtles and gators.

From the top of the 65' tower the view was amazing saw grass, water and palmetto bushes. At the bottom of the tower 3 of the biggest gators I'd seen all day were catching a few rays themselves. I rode past Boy scouts hiking, a few runners, lots of families and a bunch of photographers taking pictures of the animals and landscape.

Nothing but grass...click picture for biggie size

Got home early afternoon and managed to get in a RT. My legs were fried from the bike ride so I ignored the designed template and just played it by ear...and here's what I ended up with.

Tomorrow is weigh in, lets see where I'm at.........

Accomplishments week of 1/7

Click to biggie size......

This past week
2 nights out of town (Orlando & Sarasota FL)
Managed not to visit an airport
Started the Winter 52DC
Started using FitDay..again....which really works for me when it comes to diet
Went the whole week without a single beer
Tweaked my accountability worksheet to track food calories

As one that has been through more than their fair share of TSA screening I found the below report very interesting.

TSA Scorecard

2010 statistics on Airport screening from the T.S.A. and Department of Homeland Security :

Terrorist Plots Discovered 0

Transvestites 133

Hernia’s 1,485

Hemorrhoid Cases 3,172

Enlarged Prostates 8,249

Breast Implants 59,350

Natural Blondes 3

Jan 7

TGIF!.... even having Monday off the four day work week was brutal, but I did manage to stay out of the airports.
The morning started with an oatmeal, flax seed and peanut butter breakfast, followed by the grueling commute to the gym....once on the back porch a 40 minute RT session ensued.



My car needed an oil change, so while at the local Firestone I noticed that there was a park behind the shop...as it turns out the park had a walking trail....so off I went 40 minutes later the oil change is complete and I've ticked off another 4-4-40.......





"LUNCH TIME" - since I missed out on a real "Tuna Tuesday" I participated in my own "Tuna Friday"....a 2 egg, egg white, spinach, cheese and hot sauce omelet had the kitchen smelling like the local fish market but it did taste good.
The evening came and of to Sam's to stock up on chicken, veggies and red meat

Jan 6

Rolled back into town this evening to a healthy meal of baked chicken, wild rice, roasted brussel sprouts and raw carrots.
My wife and I had planned for an after dinner walk but as things, like the weather, seems to happen in South Florida, it started raining.. so instead of nixing our plans we pulled out a new "Biggest Loser Power Walk" DVD that we bought over the holidays. It turns out the DVD was broken down into four 16 minute one mile segments. Perfect for the 40-4-40...40 minutes 2.5 miles....easy.....or not

I've never really given much of a thought to exercise DVD's, I thought they were something that I wouldn't be able to get much out of..after all I've always trained as a power-lifter and only did cardio when I thought it was necessary..come on how high could your heart-rate get walking in place? Well somewhere around minute 20 by glutes were on fire, sweat was building up on my brow and my heart-rate was actually elevated... I was kind of glad to see 40:00 displayed on the DVD. Would this be something that I want to do everyday? probably not, is it something that I'd do every week or so ...maybe.....possibly next challenge I make a PG to do 4 or 5 new types of workouts.

Jan 5

Today begins the Winter 52DC, and I weighed in at 231.6 a mere .4 lbs less than I weighed at the beginning of the last challenges....the holidays were very, very good to me! At first the scale showed "One At A Time Please" and just look at those little toes it's no wonder that I have no balance..

Participants have posted their goals and they range from limiting alcohol/soda, reading books and going to church.....to posting body composition pictures, to no nail biting.....it covers the gamut.

I've decided on 3 Personal Goals
40-4-40 - 40 minutes of exercise for 40 of the 52 days
Warrior Dash - Participate in the Warrior Dash on 1/30
Lose 10 lbs - self explanatory.
I got an early morning 40 minute resistance training in and then hit the road North to Orlando then across the state to Sarasota. Unpacked my suitcase threw on my sneakers and shorts and headed out for an evening stroll. Runkeeper told me I walked for 41 minutes...so that's 2 of my 40-4-40's out of the way.
I've been using FitDay to track my food intake, this strategy has always worked for me...inspect what you expect.
Food breakdown
Fats 35%
Carbs 27%
Protein 38%
One thing that I've learned from all the years of exercise is that my body does not react kindly to lots and lots of carbs, (Isn't beer high in carbs?) unless I'm bulking then my body is very happy....so next Monday I'll post another weigh in picture and we'll just see if the FitDay strategy pays off again.

Jan 4

Morning walk in the park, looks like I was "Walking Drunk"

Jan 3

Had the day off from work so I was able to get in both a CT and a RT session as well as get work stuff organized for the upcoming week.
The 52DC starts on Wednesday and as usual we'll have close to 100 participates and it would be great if all 100 made it across the finish line.

On a side note my wife is already fed up with me telling her that I am in "Warrior Training"....and that consuming mass quantities of beer and letting my bread grow is part of this training.

Cardio Training

Resistance Training