ughh...

I am sorry that I am slacking on the blog front. Just to keep everyone updated, I am still working out, still counting calories, still bored. I have started to change up my swimming workouts. I am hoping that one of Santa's elves ( read: bitch slaves ) will bring me the swimming stopwatch I want. That would push me more I think. I have gotten to the point, however, where going to the gym is just what I do. It is becoming part of my routine. I like that. Its the first time in a long time where honest to god working out is a part of my vocabulary. I am sorry for the slacking. I will try to be more vigilant in writing these.

Happy Holidays!!!

I think I found why I gained weight over Thanksgiving. This is my favorite role models Hunter and Jessica. Their recipe for stuffing is amazeballs! Watch below!



So I am still on the wagon. I am just having trouble finding things to blog about besides just working out. I have found a neat side effect of monitoring my food intake. As I said before, I am not dieting at all. At least not in a traditional sense. I keep a food log and exercise log. Yes... there is an app for that! I use My Fitness Pal. It monitors everything. I put in all my exercises and weight and food and... ehem... drink, and tells me everything that I have consumed down to the vitamins and minerals. What I have noticed from doing this is that I never go hungry, I just find stuff that fits my needs. For instance, I love bread. Like, for real. But by switching to whole wheat, I can eat more of it. It is more important for me not to be hungry than to eat white bread. Its a different way of looking at this whole process. I also never realized how much sodium is in Diet Coke. YIKES! I am cutting down on that asap.

So being that it is now officially Christmas Season, I will leave you with my favorite, gayest Christmas youtube video. I mean, don we now our gay apparel!!! I present to you: THE TWELVE GAYS OF CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was expected! Plus musings from my week off.

Well 2 steps forward... and 2 pieces of pie...

So I actually only had one piece but still. I did however consume more than a fair amount of alcohol on numerous evenings in a row. Nothing says Happy Holidays like avoiding family time and COCKTAILS! I didn't work out on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday! Yikes! But I only gained 1.5 pounds back. I thought it would be a lot worse. I am thankful that it was an amount that I can manage. Thats about it for the update so I will leave you with an anecdote from my time swimming on Monday before Binge Fest 2010.

So... I am swimming and swimming endless laps for what seems to be eternal damnation. Counting my laps like a record that is skipping. Remember what those are? I digress. So I am on lap god-knows-what and I see an object to my left. A spectre if you will. You see there are skylights that shine down into the pool. Brilliant beams of light poor into them around noontime. So I glance over to see what can only be the grim reaper coming to take me to the hereafter! Death herself has finally arrived to take my wretched vodka-soaked soul to whatever hell is worse than swimming 9 million laps. IT SCARED THE BAJEESES OUT OF ME! For those who don't know, a bajeese (noun;singular) is a small creature that lives in huge numbers inside of highly jumpy people. They will flee their inhabitants body en mass if the person is frightened. They are invisible. I am unsure of their ability to swim.

In case you think of me as over reacting. Here is a picture of what I saw. Terrifying!

becareful what you wish for

So... A few posts back I was talking about how crowded it was. ( The PiPi post ) Well today was like swimming in the Mojave Desert in Wario's world. You know. Mario's opposite in the Mario 64...



The resemblance is uncanny.
SO... with that convoluded joke I am trying to make the point that there was not a soul in the joint. I would go on to say it was desolate. When I walked in, I thought I was in heaven. Just me, my jerry rigged shorts, and the life guard. A wonderfully exuberant and attentive fellow who really loves his job. I thought that the smooth glass top of the water would be a fresh sheet for me to begin my journey.

I started swimming and its was the cocoon-like comfort that I am used to. I love that aspect of swimming. When you are below the water, it is just you and your thoughts. No music, no talking. Just the fluid barrier cushioning the whirs and gurgles of the water. But I found something missing. Well, besides the actual people.

It was their energy. Having people around you pushing themselves to their limits feeds your own ambitions. Its competition in its purest form. There is an unspoken transfer of good hope towards each other. The energy can be felt and, in turn, used to fuel your workout. I think it is an often overlooked aspect of competition in today's society. Competition makes us all strive to be our best. That is the entire point. If we lose focus of that, then we become complacent in our habitual mediocrity. Winning isn't everything but it sure is something that can shine the light on your path to being your best. A true win is when your are the very best that you are. It is a constant state of growth and development. A trophy is just a dot on your path. Winning is a constant state of being.

Does that even make sense?

Temptaion Station

So... I had to walk to the gym close to my house because my usual ride, aka my parents, are down in the OBX. So I figured I would walk there for cardio and lift weights there to keep active till tomorrow. These are the things I passed on my walk. In order:

1. Not one but two dogs in their yard without a leash. No fence. Nothing. They were cute as buttons until they tried to eat my BUTTons.

2. A car full of douches laughing at me.

3. A Bruster's Ice Cream

4. A pizza joint.

5. A Chinese food joint.

6. A Culinary School for Kids.

7. A Sub joint.

8. A Sushi point.

Then I get to the YMCA. Well... the sign at least. I couldn't seem to find the entrance. All I could find was the entrance to the local grocery store ( Yet another purveyor of food stuffs on my march through the 9th circle of diet hell ). I walked around to the back of the building but it was just a collection of garbage bins. I could not for the life of me find this place. Where is this damned entrance?

Oh there it is! INSIDE THE FUCKING GROCERY STORE!!!!!!!!! Are you seriously serious?!?!?!?!?!? Who does that? Its in a grocery store. Like, for real. I took the elevator up to the second floor. I was shocked. I mean what else could be more awkward? OH! I know.... PUTTING FLOOR TO CEILING WINDOWS LOOKING OUT ON TO THE ENTIRE COLLECTION OF DELICIOUS VERBOTEN TREATS! You can't make this stuff up. Oh and here is the kicker... They don't carry Muscle Milk. BITCH! That should be in a huge Vegas style lit up display of epic proportions right by the entrance which also happens to be an entrance to the most AWKWARDLY PLACED GYM EVER!!!!!

Oy... Im going to bed!

Nice long weekend!

I had a great time with my pi lambda phi brothers this weekend. I most likely consumed a lot of empty calories which I do not regret for one second. I don't have much to say for this post. I did go to the gym today so I guess I could give a holler about that.

So today was a weight lifting day so I only swam for 35 minutes. I did a half mile and called it quits. I have to say that I am seeing a lot of strength development. Which is really awesome. I know that I will hit a plateau soon enough so I need to start mentally preparing for that. I don't want to discourage myself for no reason. Plateauing is a part of the process. You just have to be patient.

Well thats all I got for today. I know it is a lame post but I feel if I let myself slack on posting I will fall out of the habit!

RED ALERT!!! RED ALERT!!!!

I almost had a full blown defcon 5 melt down at the gym today! I weighed myself when I got there and I had only lost 1 pound in a whole week. I was so demoralized! I count everything that I eat and drink. I chart all of my activity. I count calories and what not. This was not the jump start I wanted. Talk about sucking the wind out of your sails!

I begrudgingly shuffled to the weight room looking like a Zoloft commercial. Scuffling my feet like a child who just had their Halloween candy taken away. If there were rocks on the ground, I would have been kicking them. I was having enough trouble gathering the wherewithal to make it to the gym as it was. And now THIS?

So I went and lifted weights. There was a glimmer of hope today. I am seeing a lot of strength gains, which is awesome. I it feels nice to move up to a higher weight in that aspect! So I really pushed through and maxed out to what hot jocks call "total muscle failure". Couldn't they come up with a more pleasant term than that? I mean really... "total failure" is something you usually try to avoid, unless you are a politician.

So it was off to the pool for some sprints and a leg workout. I am trying to change up my routine so I do sprints and weights 3 days and swim a mile on the other 2. Anyway, so I was talking to a lifeguard who noticed I looked, let's just say... despondent. I told him about the scale fiasco and he asked me if I had zeroed the scale. I HADN'T. I mean... the thing looks so expensive it could clone humans. I didn't think it was an issue. The lifeguard said, "Like... TOTALLY!" ( He is a lifeguard ). So I went in after my workout and tared the scale and low and behold I had lost 6.5 pounds! And yes I drink water the whole time so it is not water weight Negative Nancy!