Ugh argh and ugh again

Okay well apparently getting sick and weak over the weekend and still having it with me isn't the best way to kick off a challenege. I'm feeling like I have a bullseye on me to get me to avoid the second challenge. I don't know what happened but I was feeling tired on thursday, okay on friday, not bad on Saturday and then yesterday and today I'm coughing, sneezing, hacking, aching and can barely keep my head up and eyes open. Franky I'm getting tired of being tired!! Bleah!! Additionally I think I've decided to stop dating for now. I've been seeing a couple of people, nothing terribly serious at all and maybe they aren't right for me or I'm not right for them or I'm just in a weird place...who the hell knows? All I know is that I'm meeting some really nice and cool people but I'm just not feeling it with anybody as anything more than a friend right now. Well if I can't get C2 started soon I'll hold off until next monday and just entertain you all with my blogging. I need to catch up and see how everyone is.

Shaking those Challenge Blues...

How do you shake those blues? Have a friend kick your ass a bit and make you go out and do some BOWLING!! Yep...for once in my life I actually bowled (I will NOT reveal the horrible scores on my part) and didn't wind up with a sore arm after the first game. Pretty amusing was the fact that they clocked your bowling M.P.H. on the screen (not sure how accurate it was) but the fact that I was bowling at 17-18 mph vs everyone else at 15-16 felt great...even if I did sink quite a few gutter balls. Thanks for the comments on my last post by the way. I needed the sympathy and the subtle kicks in the asses from you guys so thanks a lot!

Challenge 2.0 Redux

Okay folks I sorta pooped out completely and fell on my face. I had a great 1st week, then didn't plan for the second week very well and just completely died this week. I think it hit me when Bobby challenged me to eat clean 6 days a week and hit the gym hard. I looked at myself in the mirror and realized that I was BSing myself into think I had really "started" Challenge 2 when in fact I needed a little time before doing it. I realize that now and realize that I jumped the gun and needed a mental rest before really getting back into things. Soooooo...I'm starting Challenge 2 fresh again for sure on Monday January 30th. I know that sounds a little strange but I knew something was wrong when I wasn't blogging as much, I was starting to miss my gym times and furthermore I had...yes I admit it...a value meal at McDonalds on the way home last night, 3 snicker bars and a big pizza over the last 3 days. I realized I was starting to binge and considering I was making some big changes in other areas of my life I hadn't taken the time to look at my body as much as I had been promising too.

So with those thoughts and the fact that I'm sort of in the same mental rut I was in right before my first challenege I found myself ready to commit again. Weird. I think I felt the need to rush right into challenege 2 lest I get lazy and give it up and instead rushing in to challenge 2 MADE me lazy and want to give it up. The rest of this weekend I'm going to live it up a bit, get the rest of the apartment clean, then Sunday night I'm grocery shopping and making the meals for the week. I can do this, I did it before, I just realized that although my body was ready for it my heart wasn't where it should have been. It is now.

In other news I've been cleaning the apartment. Wow. I've thrown out 12...that's right 12 bags of stuff. That's not including the boxes of books that I'm goingo through and old clothes that I need to give to Good Will!! A lot of this is holdover from my ex moving out of the apartment and leaving a LOT of stuff here as well as some last minute moving of stuff to the front of the apartment when the back of it was flooded in August. I know I'm a hoarder and belive me when I saw some of the stuff that I was holding onto I about dropped my jaws in disbelief!! I had bank statements from 1993 in my closet!! I had copies of Windows 95 and even Windows 3.1...why????? Well I really don't know why but now it's all gone. So far the bedroom and the kitchen have been completely tackled and I've partially cleaned the office and the living room. I'm doing a little trick I call "surivor" where I'm sorting like things together and then going through and pitching duplicates, things of that sort that I don't need anymore or just plain don't want. It's been great. I've been doing this about 3-4 hours a day (probably too long but it's a big job) and in the mean time washing dishes, cooking and washing clothes as well...the usual grind. My hope is that once I get the big task of getting the clutter taken care of the usual weekly chores won't seem nearly as impossible.

That being said I'm looking forward to a great week to help kick of Challenge 2...redux. Hope all of you are well.

BFL for the Apartment, BFL for the wallet, How Bluetooth saved my life and other stories...

First of all sorry my posts have been sporadic and I haven't been commenting as much. It's been a busy week/weekend and I've been away from the blogs this week as a result. I've been reading your entries and commenting when I can so I'm not gone...just a bit overwhelmed with life at the moment and the blog time had to be limited for the time being. Rest assured I'm still doing my challenge it's just that I'm doing other "challenges" to get some of my other goals I made in January up and running.

Firstly BFL for the Apartment....
Katiefeldmom sent me some great tips on cleaning up the clutter in my apartment and I'm starting make a game plan for that. I'm taking 10 days to clean the apartment, 1 day/1 task at a time to get myself clutter free and organized to the point that I can actually just do maintenance cleaning after it's all done. Mostly this is to get the clutter out of the way, throw out stuff I don't use, get better mileage out of the stuff I do use and overall improve the flow of the apartment.

Secondly BFL for the Wallet...

I made a promise to save half of my bonus and tax returns this year and open a savings account. I'm on track to do this right after HR Block puts the money in my account. I'm really pumped up about this as apparently I have yet another bonus coming up in March from the merger. I know lucky me...Bev has her fireman, Steven has his new baby boy, Karenna has her nursing, I'm falling ass backwards into some money so I'm taking advantage of it ;) Essentially the goal is to get the savings built up to about 3 months of salary by the end of the year which is very possible. Additionally I'm cutting some of the cable because I can rent DVD's and movies for considerably less a month and I will probably getting rid of the phone to save money because....

Bluetooth is saving my life...
I have a landline at home because I get poor cell reception from my apartment. Actually in my town (located in the middle of a metropolitan area and MAJOR university up the street) has terrible cell reception. In the past I could usually only use my cell phone if I nearly stood on my head in the corner of my office. Well after buying the new cell phone which had a more improved reception and more importantly a bluetooth enabled headset (I know dorky but I'll live with it to save 70 bucks a month) I can now put the phone on the nightstand where I get reception, turn on the headset and walk around the apartment. Also it seems to work well in the bedroom and the speakerphone is excellent so it's definitely looking like I can get rid of the landline and save about 70 bucks a month which is definitely nice!!

BFL is going well although last week I fell down on the workouts considerably I still ate pretty clean and I am back at it this week already so hopefully my head is back on straight now.

Geek-Tastic!!

Well I finally broke down and bought the PDA and surprise of surprises broke down again and upgraded my phone. I am putting half the bonus into savings so I don't feel bad about splurging a bit here. But I got the IPAQ 2495 which in the end barely edged out the Tungsten only because I was a lot more familiar with the interface (windows platform) and a few other things that eventually won out. It was a little more expensive but I think it will work out great. I also took advantage of a special my cell phone provider was offering to upgrade my phone as well as a discount from my company and got myself a new Motorola Razr phone. This thing is smarter that I am...digital camera, video camera, web access...did I mention it's a FUCKING PHONE???? It seriously took me about 4 hours just to figure out how to turn it off. It's sharp and terribly thin but it has the crispest clearest screen I have ever seen on a mobile phone. The camera...eh...I didn't buy it for the camera so I'm not too worried about that. Overall I'm happy with the purchases...now I just have to figure out how to make the best use of them!!

This update may offend...I blame the shaving posts...

Okay with all the talk of the shaving posts I feel that this post, although a bit revealing, is something we've all probably been going through in BFL. What the hell is up with all this extra time I'm doing in the bathroom peeing???? Okay I don't mind necessarily the amount of times I get up, it's the amount of time I spend doing it while I'm in there. I kid you not folk I was up at 3 am the othe night and was doing my business and all of sudden it stated to dawn on me that I was still going and if anything it was just building up steam. I'm not exaggerating like 2 minutes straight...I thought I was just hallucianting and yes that was probably the worst of them all but sheesh...I can't remember a time in my life when my body held that much...welll pee lol!! Has anyone else been having longer than expected bathroom breaks?

Okay my UBWO/LBWO combo today was fantastic and I'm DEFINITELY going to be feeling it in the morning...ugh. I had gains almost everywhere except the one set of shoulder presses at the very end although I probably could have gone to 50 instead of 40 but I just mentally wasn't there...meaning not only did I push my body to failure but by the time I got to that last set of the workout my brain was caught red handed trying to sneak out the door.

Overall it was a great breath of second wind for an otherwise pretty busy week in which I didn't get a lot of time away from work or a few other commitments to make it to the gym. So this week will finish with two ubwo/lbwo combos and 2 cardio workouts. Eating has been mostly clean and hopefully I can keep it up through Sunday although I have a feeling that my freeday is coming sometime before then as I have birthday party for a friend coming up either tonight or tommorow.

I also took the day off of work today just to get some things done and to give my brain a rest. Ever since I came back from the New Year I've been hitting the ground running with work and lots of new processes and expectations after the merger and also those that are new since I was promoted. It's a challenge that I'm handling but I'm getting better at it. I'm having to go out and finally by a PDA this weekend. I've been avoiding it like the plague but I think now is the time to get one as I'm having to do a lot of work at home and a lot home stuff at work and that thing should help me keep some of that stuff in between. Sigh...such is the life of a tech worker. For someone who works in the technical world I actually prefer being a luddite in the real one.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic day and I'll keep you all posted.

Lat Pull Downs including Bar Weight (5lbs)
12x55
10x65
8x75
6x90
12x75
Seated Rows - 12x60

Seated Incline Dumbell Curls

12x40
10x50
8x60
6x70
12x60
12x40 Hammers

Seated Hamstrings

12x55
10x85
8x95
6x105
12x75
12x90 Deadlifts

Shoulder Shrugs
12x60
10x70
8x90
6x100
12x80
12x40 Shoulder Press

Update by popular demand

Okay a few people were bitching that I hadn't updated and I apologize :) Nothing crazy just haven't had time to update as my time off work has been filled with some designated driving for a birthday girl and her friends, a few late night work meetings and sleep...so much so that I've been eating clean but haven't hit the gym for the past 3 days...however, I did get 6 workouts in last week and will get 4 in this week as I'm taking the day off tommorow for a mental break and hitting the sweatshop at the YMCA. Still eating pretty well this week and happy to see my stomach still slimming down!! Hope everyone is doing well and keeping happy :)

Ringo? I got your Ringo right here baby...

Okay did my cardio today but ate..well not so clean plus the 2 beers at the party tonight surely didn't help anything no matter how much water I drank...I did however have a great time at the party and actually sat in on a few jam sessions as the drummer. Now for those of you who don't know, I was actually a drummer in high school as well and a drummer in a college band. I left the band for artistic reasons (the lead singer insisted the next song would be The Police's "Roxanne" in which he would belt falsetto...badly...and had had enough with them anyways and left) and hadn't been behind a drum kit since the summer of 1994. Sure I still have a pair of drumsticks around the apartment and I've still got some chops that haven't died...but I think I played pretty damn good for not having done it in nearly 12 years. Of course everyone else around me was fairly intoxicated so I might be wrong and they just didn't know any better. But to suffice to say it was a nice fun party and a lot less tame than I thought it would be. I mean how many birthdays parties for your boss can you say you go to and a musical jam sessions breaks out? Probably not many. I actually had a number of people come up asking if I wanted to play with them sometime and maybe I will. Maybe I will...so on that note I'm giving the universal Hook' em Horns/Devil Sign with my my thumbs and fingers and heading backstage for my sleepytime intermission...I'll be back tommorow for my encore...thanks you very much...GOOD NIGHT!!

Challege 2 Day 5

Well I finished the lifting for this week and the next two days will be cardio and ab workouts. I'm doing more abs this challenge as I just really did not focus on them whatsoever in challenge 1 and really feels it's a part of the workout I should have focused on more. Other than that last nights meals were right on again. I was only able to get 5 in but they were all clean!! Todays workout was a bit odd because I realized right after the triceps workout was done that I had actually been using the weight goals for the chest which were actually less and thus I got off track there and lifted as much at in the beginning and a little less on the highpoint...oh well. I made gains on the legs incrementing in 5 lb increments and basically avoided the smith machine this time around as my knees weren't feeling terribly well after the seated leg press so I just used it again for the seat calf workout which did me just fine. Hope everyone has a great day!!

Tricep Pulldowns:
12x 40
10x50
8x60
6x75
12x60
12x60 Overheard Pull Down using rope

Dumbbell Bench Press:
12x40
10x50
8x60
6x70
12x60
12x60 Dumbbell Flies

Leg Press
12x235
10x275
8x295
6x315
12x295
12x95 Leg Extensions

Calf Raises Seated
12x215
10x255
8x295
6x315
12x295
12x100 Standing Dumbell Calf Raises

The Big Sleep...

My Apologies to Raymond Chandler...

Well today I just needed sleep and lots of it so I'll be taking my workout freeday today and getting the rest of it done Fri Sat and Sunday which I don't mind because it's a nice way to keep energized through the weekend. Today I just woke up sore, mentally and physically tired and decided that since my sleep hadn't been terribly restful that I needed to listen to my body and take time recover. It was nice to say the least and I feel great now. I think I started off the week short as I only had about 4 hours sleep leading into monday and just never really felt like I got myself back on track. So folks definitely listen to your body when it tells you things!!

Overall eating went well. My meals were identical to the ones I had monday so in the interest of brevity and my loathing of monotony I'll not post them. It's been a long week at work so I think I'm going to be VERY lazy this weekend and kind of do things spontaneously.

Challenge 2 Day 3

Well I'm a little less sore today but I'm sure I'll be hurting in other places tommorow. I did another UBWO/LBWO combo today focusing on Back, Biceps, Shouders and Hamstrings. I didn't eat as clean as I wanted yesterday because a friend of mine had car trouble and paid me back by taking me to a late night dinner in which I had a philly chicken sandwich but Meals 1-4 were great. Overall the workouts are tough but I'm really feeling like I'm getting somewhere with them...the tightness and firmness are starting to return again...the good ones not the bads ones, and that nice to see the "Pump" in the biceps and triceps as well.

Meals:

M1 - Two Pieces of Peanut Butter Toast and a Bananna
M2 - EFL Pot Roast
M3 - Protein Shake/Fruit
M4 - 3 Can Chicken and Rice (Hey it's gotta last me 4 days lol)
M5 - Philly Chicken...bah!!

Workout:

Lat Pull Downs including Bar Weight (5lbs)
12x45
10x55
8x70
6x85
12x70
1 Arm Dumbell Rows - 12x25

Seated Incline Dumbell Curls

12x30
10x40
8x50
6x60
12x50
12x30 Hammers

Seated Hamstrings

12x50
10x80
8x90
6x100
12x70
12x80 Deadlifts

Shoulder Shrugs
12x40
10x60
8x80
6x90
12x70
12x40 Shoulder Press

3 Can Soup Chicken and Rice..by request...

Okay I found this on the BFL website under their approved recipes and have tried it 3 times and it's great and FILLING. I actually use two cups of brown rice and 1/2 cup of skim milk. If you use frozen breasts just throw them right in...no need to thaw them out!!

3 Can Soup, Chicken and Rice

Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can 99% Fat-Free Cream of Chicken Soup
1 can 99% Fat-Free Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 can 99% Fat-Free Cream of Celery Soup
1/4 cup of Skim/Fat-Free Milk
1 1/2 cup Brown Rice

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all soups, rice and milk in a casserole dish lightly sprayed with Pam or "I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter" Spray. Lay chicken pieces on top. Dot chicken with spray butter and sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika. Bake 1 1/2 hours

Feeling the soreness today...

Well it was great to get back into the gym yesterday but man I'm paying for it today but the cardio was a nice way to clear out the cobwebs overall. I did 20 Minutes HIIT on the EFX machine and about 10 minutes cool down. I need to stretch a little more this week as I'm feeling tighter than usual after the workouts. I also need to stop by and get some Glucosamine and another multivitamin refill on the way to work as I've run out of both. It feels great to be back in the gym hardcore again though as I'm just really glad to be sweating and grunting again as it REALLY relieves my stress. It was NOTICEABLE difference at work yesterday to be a lot more relaxed after I hadn't really been working as hard the last few weeks as I could have been.

Yesterday's Meals were:

M1 - 2 Pieces of Toast w/Peanut Butter and a Banana
M2 - EFL Pot Roast
M3 - Protein Shake and a Banana
M4 - Chicken, Rice and 3 Can Soup (BFL Recipe GOOD STUFF)
M5 - Fruit Cup
M6 - Protein Shake

Here they are...Week 12 Pics

Okay I'm going to try to post them later on in three before and after pics but for now just click here to view them on my tracker profile. Front, back and side pics are all there!!

Challenge 2: Electric Boogaloo...

Okay I just couldn't resist the title (really bad knockoff of the 80's film Breakin' 2: Elektrik Boogaloo) so there you have it and that's enough of that. Okay Day 1 of Challenge 2 is in the books. This time around I'm mixing UBWO and LBWO so I can train my muscles more during the week without fatiguing them all at once. This worked pretty well for me in the latter weeks of C1 so I'm keeping with it. I had a great workout but I definitely see some room for improvement. Best thing is that my strength seems to still be there and I made some gains in a few areas as well. I've already packed my food bag so my eating will be 100% clean today so that's a wonderful beautiful thing!! So here are the results of today's workout:

Tricep Pulldowns:
12x30
10x40
8x60
6x80
12x60
12x60 Overheard Pull Down using rope

Dumbbell Bench Press:
12x30
10x40
8x50
6x70
12x50
12x50 Dumbbell Flies

Leg Press
12x230
10x270
8x290
6x310
12x290
12x90 Leg Extensions

Calf Raises (Smith Machine)
12x110
10x130
8x150
6x160
12x150
12x310 Seated Calf Presses

Challenge 1 is done!!

Okay folks it's done, over, Finito!!

Am I happy with the results? HELL YES!! HELL FUCKING YES!! I've gone from 235 lbs in July done to 189 lbs as of today. 15 of those lbs were body for life. Additionally almost all of the eating healthy and muscle gains were made on this plan. I'm sooooo incredibly happy that I've done this...soo incredibly happy that I've met so many wonderful people online and in person. I'm sooooo incredibly happy that I'm not spending another lunch eating mcdonalds and drink a gallon sized cola and thinking about the good old days. I look great, feel great and I think that's the best late Christmas present I've ever had!!

On to challenge 2!!

Thank you all for helping me with your inspirational words and humrous pimp pictures!! I honestly couldn't have done any of this without all of you and your love and support has been deeply DEEPLY appreciated. I'm starting Challenge 2 tommorow I'm cooking the potroast and some chicken dishes so I'm pumped to start!! Another great feeling? I bought some training pants yesterday and I finally could fit into something that didn't have an XL on the tag...this one had a medium!! Man I am going to SOOOOOO kick ass this time around you folks aren't gonna believe the results heh heh heh. I'm going to really use everything I've learned these last few months and apply them a hundredfold to this challenge. I'm taking my 12 week photos in the morning so hopefully I'll have them up tommorow or Tuesday!! So someone go on tracker and sing my praises dammit ;)

Jeremy

Limping to the finish line...

Well I'm finally going to finish week 12 and I already feel like I'm in the bag. I've only been to the gym twice this week and my eating has been downright awful. I'm terribly scared to take my photos because I guess I just feel like I've not really sucked it up towards the end. Here is the weird part though. I really psyched about starting my second challenege on Monday so why am I so blaise about finishing this one? I know a lot of this stuff is mental, but still it feels so bizarre. I've been in a funk since the beginning of December and I just haven't been able to shake it except for the idea of starting the second challenge. But I can't really start the second challenge until I finish the first one and then...well I start going in circles about what I'm thinking. GAH!! Otherwise work is going well and my social life has some interesting things going on which I hope to shed more light on soon. For those blogs I haven't been commenting on the last week or so I offer my sincere apologies and hope to be back in the swing of things by Monday. I'm just trying to make sure I keep enough motivation to make it to the finish line Sunday and just enjoy my free day and prep for Monday morning.

Back in the game...

Sorry I've been out of it the last few days folks I've been taking some time to refocus my energies and really get my head ready for the New Year. I usually do this right after Christmas as the days before and after the first I reserve for reflection and also for looking ahead and trying to make a list of thing I want to accomplish. Overall I'm hoping for a fantastic year and here are some of the goals I've come up with:

1. Put 1/2 of my Bonus and Tax return from work into my savings account and sit on it. Additionally put 1-200 dollars a month into that account every time my paycheck hits the bank. See if my bank can do that automatically.

2. Start working with my manager to get on a program for the management track and start making myself more visible at work. I talked with my parents about this quite a bit over the holidays and a lot of this "Happy" energy has provided me with some new found confidence in my abilities and I want to use that in other areas of my life. I hope to see what my options are and what I need to work on in that area sometime this week.

3. I need to clean up my apartment and let it flow a lot more. I need to get the old clothes and old working electronics over to the goodwill and start going through old stuff that I have and get rid of it. I live in too small of a space to be as much of a packrat as I've become.

4. Finally my BFL goals. I've actually planned ahead for not only Challenge 2 but for Challenge 3 which will end on June 26th. In Challenge 2 I'm hoping to eat clean 85% of the time, start to see more definition in my arms, chest, shoulders and legs. Want to finally get the tummy flat if not a bit defined. Challenge 3 will be to eat 90% Clean, start getting the body fat really down and will hopefully start seeing some ab muscles. I think these are realistic and very achievable goals considering the success I've achieved in my first Challenege so far. I've learned what does and doesn't work and I've also gathered some incredible support. I've got more tools to begin my next challenges than I've ever had before and I'm excited to start it.

I think if this list holds up I'll probably have some more goals to add after Challenge 3 as that will be around the halfway point of the year. I'm really excited about where I'm going to be mentally, emotionally and physically at the end of June!! I hope you all are having a wonderful new year so far!!