Goodbye “Fun” Paulie

On Sunday we joked about the loss of our “fun” Lauras (“Martha” and “I Know That Trick”). Yesterday started the repealing of “fun” Paulie, you know, that guy you can always count on to go out for beers and chicken wings.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Replace one meat-based protein at lunch with a high-protein food such as beans, eggs, tofu, or nuts.

Although meat contains healthy protein, it can also be full of saturated fat or prepared in a way that makes it less than healthy (like chicken salad that’s got lots of mayo, for example). Swapping out the meat and trying a new food means you’ll still get protein, but your lunch will be lower in unhealthy fat. It may even inspire to you try another meat-free lunch in the future.

Now that “fun” Paulie is going away I will start doing more things like this.

The Writing Wasn’t On The Wall But The Reflection Of A Fat Man Was
Let me start off by saying that I am proud of myself. No, not for allowing myself to get fat again, but rather to once again decide to do something about it — and let’s hope that this year I don’t suffer another injury in the process.

I didn’t want to go to LA Fitness yesterday, and traffic tried to help this feeling, but I did! My first thought was to drive to the LA Fitness on Peachtree Industrial because that club is so much nicer than the one near my office, but the three blocks of traffic in which I sat convinced me otherwise. With the Jackmobile once again pointed north I fought a shitload of traffic to make it to the Perimeter Place LA Fitness. Truth be told, had it not been raining and miserable I would have parked my car at work again and walked to the gym.

All last week my boss has been telling me how surprised he was that no one was going to the gym. I guess they were all waiting a week to let things “die down” because last night the place was crowded.

My first idea was to walk on the treadmill for an hour, but when push came to shove (not literally, of course) I talked myself back into lifting weights.

It wasn’t easy, the convincing or the lifting, all the while seeing the reflection of myself wearing a yellow “technical” t-shirt and looking like a jar of yellow mustard whose contents have bulged at the bottom.

But goddammit I did it.

ITP Flickr Pic
I should have taken a photo of me in my workout clothes, you might eat less today upon seeing that. But I didn’t and I have nothing today.

Whip It Up Good
After showering at LA Fitness I popped into the car with a good bit of hunger. One thing I know about myself is that I eat much better, or at least I actually think more about what I am eating, when I am working out because I don’t want to ruin all of the hard work I am doing. So instead of stopping at a restaurant for dinner, I drove home to cook.

While I won’t say the omelet with some sausage and cheese that I whipped up at home was the healthiest thing I could have eaten (with a glass of milk, mind you), the portion was at least much better than anything I would have gotten at a restaurant.

Ten Weeks To A Sane Household
This is an aggressive schedule (especially with some of the travel commitments on my schedule) but I am trying to focus on cleaning a room a week. As I think about my house there are ten “rooms”:

1. Master Bedroom
2. Guest Bedroom
3. Den
4. Kitchen
5. Dining Room
6. Living Room
7. Basement (A/V)
8. Basement (bar)
9. Basement (Game Room)
10. Basement (Utility Room)

The goal for each room will be to clean it physically, and in the process remove unwanted items and either sell them on eBay or donate them to Goodwill. For each piece of furniture in the room I will also have to decide whether or not it would be something that I’d have to have upon moving to a smaller living space (I’m assuming that I’ll be cutting my living space in at least one-half).

To give myself a little leeway I’ll be starting this project next week, so if I am not done by the beginning of April you can give me as much shit as you wish. April, that’s Springtime, seems like a good time to sell a house, does it not?

Today’s Personal Project
Return to LA Fitness for a cardio workout.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – my upper body is sore (shocker!) but I’m pleased that I’ve decided to start changing my life for the better again.
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – I don’t use Siri often, but I find it funny that people are making collections of the Shit that Siri Says.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – if you read today’s post you already know
Morning Weigh-In – Oops, I failed to check. Let’s say 215 pounds.

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~6.9 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 1 (0 cardio)

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

January Goals
– clean my basement to the point where I could have people over
– hire a plumber to fix all of the sinks at the ITP Estate
– walk no fewer than 75 miles
– have European trip plans in place, if not carved in stone

2014 Goals: Measurable
– Get my weight down to 190 pounds so that I can wear a 36″ waist pants comfortably
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Completely run at least one 10k
– Fix all (or at least most) of the things which are wrong with the ITP Estate
– Sell the ITP Estate (tentative)

2014 Goals: Unmeasurable
– Continue to Simplify, simplify, simplify
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
– Start, and continue, to make my own bread using my bread machine as well as using the technique outlined in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
– Read and discard magazines during the month in which they arrive (even digitally)

Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2014

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]