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Work Travels Over For Awhile
Friday September 03 2010
I flew red-eye back to Boston last night in order to miss potential air traffic delays from hurricane Earl. I was in Arizona again for work, same project, more responsibility. Things are going interestingly, there are a number of issues I need to work out, but on the bright side, the issues will keep me busy and if I help solve them, will help me earn my worth at work.
In any case, I'm glad to be back in Boston for awhile. I'm actually very content all around right now - my health and fitness progress is going well, and my finances are positive. Within the next month (October) I will be firmly on my last credit card, according to my fiscal plan. I think I'm even in a good enough place to start my paycheck rewards plan. This plan is an effort to slowly buy the things I want, without harming my debt repayment plans too much. Of course, any money spent on anything other than debt, is less money spent towards debt reduction, but I can't keep sending all of my money to debt... I'm feeling a bit like a slave to my past. It's worth spending a little on the present/future in order to prevent financial depression! I may start this with my next paycheck, and I think it may be the Vizio Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer. ($170 on TigerDirect.com)
I tend to talk about the two big plans in my life right now: health and fitness and finances. Of course there are other things going on in my mind, but these are my priorities right now. Having already gave a summary update of my finances above, time to talk about health and fitness. Good news! I'm down to 207.8lbs (20.3%bf) which is the lowest numbers I've been at in a long time. I'm pretty proud of my results. Still got a long way to go before I reach my long-term goal, but after having successfully reached my last short-term goal (being under 210 by my birthday, last week) it is time to set a new short-term goal.
My newest short-term goal is to be steadily under 200lbs (have I described what this means to me? I'll do that in a second.) and under 19%bf by Halloween (October 31st, which means roughly 2 months from now to reach this goal). I use the term "steadily under", which for me means that even if I cheat one day by having a few beers or eating a "dirty" meal, I don't crash and go back above the target weight. My weight may fluctuate, but for instance, I will have succeeded if I hit 198 lbs by Oct 31 and then that night, since I will most likely drink to celebrate the holiday, if I gained a pound to put me at 199lbs, this is still a successful short-term goal achievement since I did not go back above 200lbs. With that said, I would like to be in a larger safety zone than that. I think with 2 months ahead of me, I can really out do the short-term goal, but it's good practice to make short-term goals easily attainable, while being significant.
Along with my recent achievement and new short-term goal, I have had some new enlightenments and enacted some new actions to help keep my progress going.
Enlightenments
- No more artificial sweetened foods or drinks. Recent articles I've read suggest that even though artificial sweeteners promise guilt-free consumption, they carry a dark veil of consequences.
Most of the artificial sweeteners do actually have an impact on insulin levels in the body. Normally, the presence of insulin is due to the fact that carbohydrates (primarily sugars) are present and need to be metabolized. When we consume artificial sweeteners, the body increases insulin availability, but there is nothing for the insulin to act on. The consequence is increased insulin sensitivity, which is typically seen in those who rebound after crashing on low-carb diets. When you finally do ingest carbohydrates, your body frantically grabs them and stores them as fat. The psychological effects are also potent, hence the "cravings" people feel for carbs when on low-carb diets.
The long-term consequence of the above is actually the worst reason of all: continuing the process above of having excess insulin without any carbohydrates to metabolize over an extended period of time can force the body to become insulin resistant. Your body becomes screwed up, since it doesn't know when to produce insulin any more, which can lead to type 2 diabetes.
Last but not least, the artificial sweeteners can actually cause an additional psychological component in some people, which actually increases their desire of sweet foods. Unfortunately, the physiological effects don't trigger the satisfaction of sweet cravings, thus only compounding the cravings making it harder and harder to resist diet crashing. - Perform more full-body exercises. Isolated, local-compound exercises are still good and will appear on my workout plan, but I have read and believe the sentiments that activating more muscle fibers per workout will yield the fastest results. Over time, I will begin adding more full-body exercises, such as the "Barbell Power Cleans to Press"! Yeah, that's a mouth full, but seriously, it's a total body exercise. It's difficult for me to initially do, but like any truly new exercise, you get better at it very quickly. I started with the Olympic bar and 25lb plates on either side. That was a challenge. I was only able to put out 4 reps for about 2 sets. That was a few weeks ago, now I am able to put out my more standard numbers of 7-5-3 (which are the reps per set, intended to be heavy enough so that the last repetition is *almost* failing).
Actions
- Eat more vegetables. Everyone knows that vegetables are good for you. They provide the bulk of naturally provided vitamins and minerals along with dietary fiber to help regulate digestion and keep oneself feeling full. But just the way I've lived life, I've always done so avoiding vegetables. This is a bad habit that I'm going to break. There are compounding difficulties, for example, it's hard for me to keep salad. If I buy two bags of salad, chances are, the second bag will go bad before I even get to it. That means I need to buy salad in small quantities and more frequently. One bag typically lasts me two salads, which typically translates to two days. That means I need to hit the grocery store every other day, if I intent to eat salad daily. (I probably won't eat salad daily, so I won't actually have to go grocery shopping every other day, but the point is there.) In order to have variety in vegetables and to avoid grocery shopping every other day, I'm going to start keeping bags of frozen vegetables that "steam in the microwave." Particularly, I've become fond of green beans in this manner.
- Eat some fruits, particularly berries. I was at the grocery store the other day and found myself staring at the blueberries in the fruit section. I decided to give them a shot - and the discovery was that I LOVE chilled, fresh, blueberries. From now on, I intend on keeping a basket or two in my fridge in order to have a handful for snacking purposes. Blueberries provide vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. The sugar content is nominal in most cases, assuming I don't eat both baskets in one sitting. (I'm pretty sure I could, but I won't let myself do it, haha.)
Those are my new additions to my health and fitness lifestyle. There are plenty of other rules already in place, such as taking a multivitamin, performing some type of exercise daily, nutrition timing, drinking plenty of water, avoiding processed foods and alcohol, etc. For those who are just starting, it can be extremely overwhelming to implement all of these rules at once. I highly recommend my approach of adopting a handful of new rules each time you reach you previous goal and set your next one.
Last note on my health and fitness - before I went to Arizona, I was extremely pleased with myself because I was able to life 205lbs on the bench press without a spotter. It's been a week since I've done the bench because of traveling, but I'm hoping I haven't lost my progress. I'm hoping I can convince my lifting buddy to actually go with me to the gym this weekend so I can push past 205 safely and increase my strength. Right now, I'm hoping that I can get to the point where I'm benching 225 without a spotter. (That's two 45lb plates on each side of the 45lb Olympic bar.) Oh, and I do have a goal for the exercise I talked about above (the Barbell Power Clean to Press); I would like to be able to do that exercise with two 45lb plates on the bar. Wish me luck!
Twenty Third Birthday
Wednesday August 25 2010
Yesterday, I turned 23 years old. Wow. Twenty three. Perhaps this is pessimistic, but according to average life spans of males in my generation, I'm about a third of the way through my life. That's assuming I don't figure out how to live forever, ha. As you can see, I'm not actually pessimistic about this, it actually motivates me. Means I gotta do what I wanna do before time's up - or, I gotta find more time, mwahahaha.
Any way, it's been a nice week off from work. Relaxing mostly, and just being able to do whatever I want for a few days. Sadly it rained Monday and Tuesday, so I was stuck inside, but that's alright, it was still relaxing. I was able to put up 205 lbs on the bench press Monday morning by myself, without needing a spotter. That's pretty good, that's where I was back at RIT after I had been lifting for a few months steadily. At this point, I'd say I've recovered my gains. Now I just gotta see if I can push it a bit further. I'm hoping that I can bench 225 lbs without a spotter. With a spotter, I'd like to be able to put up over 250 lbs. What would make sense? 4 x 45 lb plates plus the 45 lb bar is 225 lbs. If I add two 25 lb plates, that's 275 lbs. That'd be nice, but that might be a little too much for me on the bench.
As for my weight loss efforts, I tipped the scales at 210.2 lbs today. No improvement from a week ago, really, but I'm alright with that because I've got more muscle mass, which means if I've remained the same weight, but have gotten stronger, I've replaced the fat with muscle. That's acceptable. I did reach my goal of hitting 210 by my birthday, so I'm also happy on that front. My new short term goal is to be 200 or less by Halloween. I still won't have the body I want for my "risqué" costume (nothing specific, just a guiding theme) but it's a step in the right direction. A little more long time, I'm hoping that I'll have a flat stomach by next summer and then if I'm really dedicated, some ab definition by my next birthday. Yikes, that's a long ways away.
I'm in Rome, NY right now visiting my mom and dad. Dad came in from Erie, PA pretty much the same time I did. We're just hanging out for a few days, and I'll probably leave Saturday night. Then I head to Arizona for a week, even after just having come back from there a week earlier. Ah well. I was asked if I was comfortable doing 25% travel, and I said yes. So far, it's been a little more than that. And it's all been to Arizona. I'd be happier if I could go other places instead of just the same place over and over again. The last two times flying home, I got really sick on the airplane. Not sure what's wrong there. Hope it's just a instantial thing and not like I'm developing motion sickness or something.
Hanging in the desert
Thursday August 19 2010
I'm back in Arizona again. Seems like Goodrich is very keen on sending me here for some reason. I've speculated that it might be because the people with more seniority get to travel to the cooler places like Hawaii and the international sites. Ah well, I don't really mind. It's nice to travel every once in awhile because it changes up the daily routine. It would bother me if I had to just do the same thing day in and day out.
And then, when I get back, it's my birthday weekend! This marks my 23rd birthday. Yikes. I'm getting older... I've gotta do something about this pesky mortality problem, haha. In any case, some friends are coming up to help me celebrate, so I'm happy about that. CJ, Erin and Steph are gonna be here. Then of course the Boston locals, Tess, Brent, Sam, Paul, Noah and Brooke. Not entirely sure what we're doing yet, but maybe just hang out at my place Friday night, then go out somewhere Saturday. That'll make a decent weekend of mayhem. Then I requested the whole week off from work, so that'll be nice.
I'm a little worried about taking the time off though, particularly because there is a lot going on right now. I may cave in and go in on Monday. Maybe. Maybe not, haha. At the bare minimum, I need to submit my expense report for this trip because my AmEx card ended up absorbing some of the costs of this trip in my current statement. Balance is due in full each statement period. I don't have an extra thousand dollars floating around, so I need to get the expense report in ASAP.
Towards the end of next week, I'm heading to Rome, NY to spend a few days with my parents. I'm sure that'll be fun. Some sarcasm there, ha, naaah just kidding, it'll be nice to see the parents for a few days.
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