Today I Am Starting A Diet

APRIL FOOL!

Actually, no.

I am proud of the working out that I have been doing, unfortunately I have been undoing each and every one of those workouts be drinking and eating too much. In order to lose weight I need to expend more calories than I have taken in, and the only way that is going to happen is if I stop taking in so much.

Today’s Personal Project
Change my habits so that I can start losing weight.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Vary your stride as you walk somewhere today, switching from short, peppy steps to long, slow ones.

Changing the length of your stride strengthens muscle groups in your legs, ankles, and core that don’t get used when you walk normally. And because you’re engaging a greater number of muscles than are necessary for regular walking, you’ll get your heart rate up and burn more energy. Plus, who knows when you might have another chance to pretend you’re a tiny dog and a massive giant?

If this topic made you think of Matthew Wilder’s “Break My Stride” subtract a point from your ITP Coolness score. 🙂

At Least It Wasn’t A Total Loss
As planned I made it out to LA Fitness on Saturday morning before heading to ATDC for the Developer Bootcamp.

My workout was fine, by and large I lifted as expected. I decided to leave my car in the parking garage, prepping myself for the $12 charge to come, and walk to get lunch. It was about 11:40am and I knew that Tin Drum has a location in midtown so I was going to eat my lunch there — but I found out that location didn’t open until noon. FAIL! With me having a hunger and the bootcamp starting at 1:00pm I needed to eat sooner than at noon. I looked across the street and saw the Gyro King was open and offering a $6 weekend lunch special, which I might add was quite tasty.

I should have known that the bootcamp was going to be a bustcamp as soon as I arrived. There was a session from 8:00am-noon dealing with Ruby on Rails (something I wish that I had time to learn); as I said my session was due to start at 1:00pm. When I entered the room I saw five, count ’em five people. Uh oh. To make matters worse, the organizer said that she wasn’t feeling well so she left at the start of the second session.

If there were more people in attendance I would have left within the first twenty minutes because it was clear that I wasn’t going to get much out of this session. The presenter was distracted, perhaps by the low turnout, and at his first request for a five-minute break admitted that he wasn’t feeling well either. I decided to stick it out, and admittedly did manage to eke out some information during the next hour. As two more people excused themselves I told the presenter that if he was indeed ill that there was no mandate for him to go all the way until 5:00pm. Thankfully the three remaining packed up and left a little after 3:30pm.

I was home in time to field a call from my boss who was itching to do something. We met at Brick Store Pub in Decatur for some drinks and dinner.

Total spent on parking Saturday: $17. Ugh.

ITP Flickr Pic
This is the remains of my dessert dish at yesterday’s Easter Sunday Brunch at The 57th Fighter Group.

You’ll read about this in the next section…

I Completely Forgot About The Easter Ride
Not that I was invited… 😉 And the weather wasn’t all that great either.

Instead, as you’ve seen above, I joined a coworker and former coworker for brunch yesterday at The 57th Fighter Group.

The plan was to do an hour on a LA Fitness stationary bike in order to “earn” my brunch buffet, but as I was driving to LA Fitness I realized that I had left my dress shirt hanging on my bedroom door. Not being sure of what stores would be open on Easter and not wanting to eat an Easter Brunch dressed in an undershirt, I had to return home and by that time I didn’t have the time to fit in a workout prior to going to the restaurant.

The 57th Fighter Group’s normal Sunday Brunch was beefed up (get it?) for Easter by offering prime rib as well as lamb, and raising the price to $30/person. I had my fill of food (too much in fact) and was satiated for the remainder of the day. Had I not been weak and eaten a piece of freshly-baked bread while watching hrefThe Amazing Race I wouldn’t have eaten the rest of the day.

RealiTV Update: The Amazing Race — I Can’t Say That I Am Upset
SPOILERS RETURN (insert your own Christ-related joke here).

There was really only one team that I didn’t want to win this season of The Amazing Race, that would be Meghan and Joey (I like her, he is insufferable).

Unfortunately, they are still racing.

The hockey boys were fortunate to get, and complete, the Fast Forward especially on the first try. This episode can’t have been your favorite if you enjoy watching the hockey boys.

I found it interesting that two of the teams were pulled over for speeding. Who knew? I was especially pleased to see that the pretty Nashvillians weren’t able to sweet-talk their way out of the ticket, though I thought the episode would have been more interesting if that guy had driven off with their $100USD.

For some reason the Asian women/girls/whatever got on my nerves a bit. They were nowhere near as irritating as the “twinies” from last season, but there was just something about them. They were smart players; I was surprised that they didn’t make it to the final three.

Lavanderia Noche
I’m nearly out of workout clothes so it’s time to clean what I own.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, just feeling a bit rushed
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – How meta would if be if April Fool was itself an April Fool prank?
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – sadly, 213.6 pounds

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

Days Of Bed-Making – 0

Vegetarian Meals – 0
Carnivorous Meals – 0

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

April Goals (These are identical to March’s Goals. DO OVER!
– not get sick
– lose two pounds
– walk/run no fewer that 50 miles
– lift weights at the gym no fewer than eight times
– finish at least two of the books I am reading
– take at least one box of things to Goodwill
– post at least ten photos in the blog
– drink a lot less alcohol
– prepare a house repair plan and budget
– return ITP-Reader Martha’s coffee percolator to her
– return ITP-Terri’s crutches to her

2013 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
– Dissolve Sharpened Stone
– 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

2013 Goals: Unmeasurable
– 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)
– Take two real vacations, perhaps one abroad
– Take a more proactive approach to meeting women (read “stop being such a pussy”)

Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2013

1. Pages 1.7 for iPad (Timestompers Guide) – by Sean Wells
2. 60 Mountain Lion Tips – by David Sparks and Brett Terpstra

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]