Cape Cod 2007 Pics

Taken during a biking excursion through the dunes...

Taken at the Truro Vineyards with AJ

AJ and I at the beach...as you can see, he likes being as high up as possible.

Another fun pic at the beach...this was taken right outside the beachfront place where we were staying...nice view, no?

I'm back baby!

Well...it has been a while, hasn't it?

Did I say I was going to write on Monday? If you guys knew me, you'd know that I'm late to everything! Heck, I was close to 4 weeks late for my own birth (My mother was none too thrilled with that one).

Anyways, I'm not giving up the weight loss goal and I'm not giving up the blog...Here's the deal:

• As I forgot to mention, I had a family vacation scheduled from 9/15 to 9/22 to Cape Cod (North Truro, MA to be exact). Trip was at a nice beachfront motel with my wife, her family, our son, and I. Was an overall good trip. Totally misplanned my wardrobe with the weather (Hint: Do not plan on hitting the water this time of year). Pretty lazy time actually.
• I brought my mountain bike with the plan of doing a LOT of biking. Got to do a decent amount of biking, but the crowd I was with was, shall we say, not in biking shape. So the biking ended up being much more leisurely than I would have hoped. A fun time and all, but not really the cardiovascular workout I had hoped for. I did do 40 push ups in the room (for whatever that's worth).
• Of course, since it is vacation, my food choices were somewhat relaxed. I actually did OK from a breakfast standpoint. Rooms had kitchens and I had Kashi cereal most days. Lunches were a mixed bag and dinners were all out in restaurants (read: less than healthy). There was also a decent amount of drinking going on throughout the vacation. Lots of wine and beer from my standpoint. Helps when you have so much family in somewhat tight quarters. :)
• So, when you add all of that up, we got back on Saturday night (10+ hour road trip when you count in baby feedings, etc...ugh!) and I got on my home scale for an "unofficial" weigh-in, I was 4 lbs heavier then my last weigh in...not good...
• But wait...it gets better...Stupid me plans a business conference trip immediately when I get back. So after I arrive home at 8PM on Saturday night, I have to leave for Chicago by 5PM on Sunday! Not much time for rest or relaxation...
• So, I've been in Chicago for the past 2 days on a business trip and all of the lack of exercise options and bad food choices that you are presented with in a business conference. I was supposed to get back last night at 10:30PM. Of course, when you plan a trip between 2 airports with the worst track records from a delay / cancellation perspective, you expect to be delayed...and I was...I got in at 2:15AM last night and didn't hit the sheets until 3:30AM...my body is all out of whack today.

So that's my story of the last week and a half...I'll hopefully have some photo's of the trip up soon, but make no promises. Heck, I told you folks I would write on Monday and you were pretty tough on me for not doing that! :)

I'll be posting some more on the need to get things back on track after a week and a half off the wagon...BTW...I can see how travelling salespeople and consultants end up getting out of shape...it's very easy to lose control of your regimen when you're in unfamiliar places...

Maintain Radio Silence

I should have mentioned this before, but I am vacationing on Cape Cod this week and have no plans to actively blog...Didn't weigh in either (hard to weigh in when the scale is over 9 hours away!)

Anyways...I haven't decided to stop blogging...Expect to see something from me this upcoming Monday...

Hope everyone is working towards their weight loss goals...because I am not (more on that later)

Pictures, pictures, pictures

Been a while since I've posted some, no?


These pictures were taken on 8/26/07 when my mother and grandmother (Nana) visited. My fantasy football draft was today and I am wearing my Jets retro jersey (Go Al Toon!) and AJ is wearing his Yankees bib. A sports themed picture for sure.




Here I am playing with AJ. My hair is ruffled because he likes to pull on it.


And finally a pic of my Nana with AJ. A nice picture to be able to show him of his great grandmother someday. It's amazing to get a pic like this...

Weigh In - Week 24

Week 24...wow...writing that makes this seem like a pretty long time...two more weeks to the magical half year mark...

I think...I think...I think I'm through this plateau thing...another 1 lb loss. Two weeks of small progress.

Of course, the pessimist out there will say that I actually puked up 2 lbs and gained a lb back. To all of you who say that, I say...screw you! :) I'll take my lb and enjoy it. Perhaps that's the lesson to be learned here...a good vomiting / diarrhea illness does wonders for the 'ole weight loss goals...just kidding, of course...

So what did I do this week? On the exercise front, I did almost nothing. My only exercise consisted of a 2 hour bike ride on Sunday morning...which was awesome as always. Of course, as AJ gets older, carrying him around gets to be exercise in itself. I kid you not that my arms have felt a little burn after holding him for extended periods of time or after extending high into the air over and over and over and over again...stealth exercise...

On the food front, I never give you guys all the good stuff I eat, but only focus on the bad. In that vein, I went to an Irish festival on Saturday and split a fish & chips and a scone w/ strawberries and cream with my wife. Then I came back and watched the end of the PSU / ND game with the neighbors and had a scotch and a few beers. That was probably the worst of it. I ate hardly anything on Tuesday and Wednesday as I recovered as well.

So that's the story for this week. Here's to hoping I will be at my goal (only 5 lbs to go!) by my 10 year college reunion on 10/20.

Feeling Better!

I've actually felt better since yesterday...Guess I caught the 'ole 24 hour bug. After talking to a friend who hosted a party over the weekend, I think I know who gave me said bug...I figure I'm good for a 24 hour bug like this once a year, so I'm not too worried about it being anything else...Still sucks to go through the whole vomit, weakness all over thing...


I don't have a whole lot to post on this week, but still felt the guilty need to post something to keep things rolling on the site. Let's see what I can do in my favorite bullet form:

• Never had a chance to post on the personal trainer thing, so here goes. I took my 2nd "free" personal training session at my gym. I took the first one over a year ago and hadn't seen the need to do it again. Now with the plateau thing happening, I thought a personal trainer might be able to help me out of my rut. The session was a mixed bag at best. I asked to be paired with a guy who understood the issues I was going through. Instead I was paired with Greg, who was 22 - 23 at best, and could care less when I explained my weight loss to date and current problem. Instead, he said the "free" sessions were just to explain the use of the machines, which he would gladly do. So, we walked through some exercises for body areas I normally don't exercise and that was it. Not pleased overall with the experience, but most of the exercises he showed were over in the free weight area. I usually steer clear of this area due to the meat head quotient and my lack of knowledge of what to do. Now, at least, I know what to do...
• Some of the comments in my "Sick!" post make me think I gave the wrong impression. I lost the 2 lbs prior to getting sick. I lost (briefly) another 2 lbs after getting sick. So, if I counted an official weigh in on Wednesday, it would have been 190. Hopefully, that 2 lbs will stick, but it looks like 1 lb is already back.
• I was already thinking of taking an official week long "break" from the weight loss thing to shake things up with my metabolism and then start again next week. The sickness, and ensuing disruption of my week, solidified my thinking on that one. I have not done a pushup this week and I have not gone to to the gym. My food intake is a little weird at this point because I ate very little on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I'm not holding myself too close from an eating standpoint. What's funny is that even when I don't want to eat well, I still do. I have things like a soft chocolate chip cookie and I feel gross and full after eating it. Don't get me wrong...it tastes great going down, but my mind and body are pretty used to the idea of getting by without much chocolate, red meat, etc. Can still put down the beers though. For me, beer is a social trigger and social crutch that I use. I usually don't drink alcohol when I'm by myself...

So there you go...I probably will not get a chance to post much over the weekend (I hardly ever do). See you guys at the next weigh in!

Sick!

This was me for roughly 6 hours yesterday ----->

That is why I wasn't able to post my weekly weigh in...

I'm not 100% today, but feel better enough to get back to work and blogging....

Is it sad that I saw as silver lining to puking roughly 10 times in 6 hours that I would probably lose a pound or 2 in the process (not to mention the solid ab workout!)

Don't worry...I'm not going bulimic or anorexic or anything...

And I did check the home scale and I am down roughly 2 lbs as a result of this...I'm sure my body will regulate and I will put those lbs back on...

Update: I will not be pushing myself this week from a workout or pushups persepctive...I reset the pushup ticker to 0 and have no plans to do any this week...Sorry Jynell...

Weigh In - Week 23

What a weird and wacky week (alliteration!)...

First...sorry for not posting a whole lot lately...there has been a lot on my plate as of late (rhyming!)...

As you can see, I got the 200 pushups in last week...I also met with the personal trainer and got to see the scary "free weights" side of the gym for the first time in a long time...I'll post more about my personal training experience in a seperate post...

My food choices this week started out pretty well and ended poorly by design...I figured I needed to shake up my routine a bit, confuse my body, and perhaps take a short term hit on the scale for a larger gain down the road...So, on Thursday, I went to see the Eagles take on the Jets in a meaningless preseason game. I had lots of beer, a turkey and bacon hoagie, and sausage and peppers...On Sunday, I went to a Labor Day party and ate lots of blondies and a few beers...

And I lost 2 lbs! Go figure...

Haven't posted this in a while...Here is the excel graph I've been keeping:

Weigh In - Week 22

Slip sliding away...

BTW...that's a Polish road sign...who knew?

Jeebus...This now a fifth straight week with no weight loss...and a 1 lb weight gain to boot...

I'm now officially on the wrong side of my aggressive goal at 1.9 lbs average loss per week. Not too worried, but now I'm officially annoyed with my body...

The good: Worked out twice plus 185 pushups plus 2 bike rides. Food choices were good throughout the week...as for the weekend...well...

The bad: Had 7 bottles of beer on Friday night...Had a small ice cream from Merrymead (sounds like nothing, but it is very heavy)...Had a nice dinner out on Saturday, which was a mixed bag of good and bad I guess...

Maybe I need to go back to my Healthy Choices blog posts for some more focused attention on my food choices...Maybe the pushups are adding muscle which is keeping me from losing weight short term, but will help in the long term...Maybe my body is just telling me this is where I need to be (no wait...that's my Mom)...

Anyways, that's where I am...thank goodness I'm not participating in this weight loss race anymore...I'd be getting my butt whooped in that too!

I *heart* Metacritic

Another post about websites that I love (and frequent often)...

Sure you've taken advice from Siskel (sadly no more) and from Ebert...Perhaps you've read your daily rag to see if they gave the movie you have to see four stars or zero stars...

But they are just one voice out there in a world of hundreds...How do you know if they are the one crank out there giving four stars to that potential $10 movie ticket investment? By checking out Metacritic.

For movies, TV shows, books, music, video games...they go out to all of the critic's sites and convert their scoring system to a 100 point system (i.e. a 3 /5 star review would score as a 60) and then average it all together to come up with one score based on all of the reviews they could find...they won't officially post a score until they have a minimum number of reviews to average either...and they only take legitimate critics into account...

The other reason for posting this is the fact they have a nice chart of when shows will start airing for the fall season. I wanted to know when I can start watching new episodes of The Office and 30 Rock...

Anyway, it's a cool site and I thought I would give them a little love today. I'm not a pay per poster or anything, so it's untainted love...