So, I figured I’d at least get one post in every month in 2012. That being said… it’s January 31st. I think for a while there I was shunning technology a lot. Crawling into my little hole and trying to ignore electronics for a while seemed like a fitting thing to do with all the workload I was under for so long. It’s been really nice to have the last couple of months be somewhat “normal”, if there is such a thing. I rolled into 2012 with some cool tech toys… upgraded my failing HTC G2 with a nice Samsung Galaxy S2, scored myself a Transformer Prime and I’ve been on a rampage of updating things the last few days on the backend of my servers. Feels good to be back in the saddle again. I may even pick up some lightweight development projects for android along the way if I can keep this up.

So, 2012… a new year and lots of things to do. Fitness, major revamp of that project in order this year. I haven’t gained any weight back but I’ve been in this maintenance mode for all too long. It’s quite pathetic and I need to bust out of the plateau and just finish the job. I only have about 10-15 lbs to go out of my journey, why just settle now? 215 is right around the corner and is taunting me. Still, where I’m at is quite the departure from the 270 I started at. *shudder* Aside from the obvious non-resolution, I’ve decided this year to spend some time getting some things in order in my life… the typical gambit of things… doing more family stuff, finances, future goal setting/planning, etc… etc… I figure I’ll get it all figured out just in time for the 12/21/12 apocalypse… *laughs* whatever. Top on my list of things to do, be a little more focus on who I should be… This blog is probably going to turn into the most bi-polar representation of my psychological state that anyone has ever seen trying to meet that goal. Should be fun from an observers point of view though so stay tuned!

With that… I need to go to bed.

Wow…

And that’s all I have to say about that… It’s been a little over 24 hours since completion and I’m still feeling like I just got done. If there was ever a course on the planet that could make you feel every ounce of just how out of shape you could possibly be, this is it. Blistered, burned, bruised, scratched and cramped should about sum it up… Major thanks out to Randy and Nef for dragging me through that last bit… I never would have made it without them. All in all not too shabby… I do have to admit, I skipped a couple obstacles – I had to… Mostly due to pure exhaustion and a throbbing pain in my hand/arm from having it stepped on in the cargo net, but hey… that’s part of the game right? 20/25 obstacles is still OK in my book when you look at the scope of what that course is like. Next year I must best it though.

I do have to say though… I’ve never experienced anything like that before and the training I did to prepare for it was GROSSLY INADEQUATE. There will definitely be MAJOR changes to what I do to prepare for it, should I decide to submit myself to that kind of torture again. Two things on my list… hill running and cold water treatment. Those are the two things I need to focus on because traversing 4200+ vertical feet of Beaver Creek on foot is no joke nor is swimming through sub 40 degree water. I quite honestly thought I was going to collapse from the shock of that alone.

I still don’t think I’ll ever have the guts to do electricity though… That particular obstacle I had no physical reason to skip, that was all a solid wuss move. Electrical current is just something I can’t purposely subject myself to. lol

Props out to anyone who tried that event yesterday, bigger props to anyone who finished and ultimate respect to all those who completed all the obstacles and finished. Amazing.

Soo… I ran my third Bolder Boulder today and successfully shaved off another 11 minutes from last year and came in at 1:03:32! So in total from the first time I ran the race I’ve shaved off 17 minutes and 25 seconds. Next year I think I’ll break that one hour barrier and see just how far under I can go. I probably would have come really close to that one hour mark but I drank too much water before the race and  had to stop at bout the 6k mark and hit a roadside port-o-pottie, lol.

Here’s the results from today… not too impressive overall but I’m well pleased!

Running Activity 6.51 mi | RunKeeper.

overall place: 18472/49208
division: M32
division place: 323 out of 497
gender place: 11221 out of 22348

mile 1: 00:09:44.80

mile 2: 00:09:47.22

mile 3: 00:10:39.53

mile 4: 00:10:18.56

mile 5: 00:10:08.29

mile 6: 00:10:54.11

net time: 01:03:31.48

pace: 10:13 (based on net time)

Next stop… Tough Mudder Colorado… Just 25 days and counting!

Tough Mudder… for those that know what it is, you know what I’m talkin’ about… For those that don’t? Well, it’s 8-10 miles of obstacles of rock, water, tubes, walls, wood, fire, electricity and yep, you guessed it, mud.

What am I thinking? Honestly, I’m not quite sure, LOL.

I got drafted by Randy to join in this, sure to be, adventure at the end of June…  Am I ready for it? No way what so ever! What does that mean? Yep, you guessed it… intense training. Am I nervous? You bet!

Training starts tomorrow and boy I can’t wait… *face palm* Surely I’d have picked a better day to start than the day after DST begins eh? *rolls eyes* It’s about 18:30 right now and I’m feeling as thought it’s going to be hard to go to sleep tonight… only to turn around have to get up at the equivalent of 2:45 (3:45 DST) to start working out. For the record… I don’t give a rats rear end about the stupid reasons behind DST. It’s dumb, and it kills people. (I’m actually not being dramatic, read: Is Daylight Saving Time bad for your health?) Regardless, I will be up at the crack of dawn sweating to the P90X blues, working during the day and then taking on another interval training in the afternoons before dinner and slipping into a coma due to exhaustion, er going to bed. What better way to lose weight right? I’m actually doing pretty good.

I finally got rid of my “work related weight gain” that I acquired last summer due to insane hours and lack of working out for 3 months and the subsequent 2 months of recovery I needed after. *NOT* doing that again. Only 15lbs from goal weight overall! Of course, after I finish up with this I have no idea what I will weigh… In other news, along the way I’ll be hitting up a couple 10k’s if all goes well. The Bolder Boulder is a must but if I’m training for the Tough Mudder, you can bet I’m going to decimate my time from last year. Last year I came in at 1:14:50. I’m looking for sub one hour this year. While I don’t know for sure if I’ll land in the upper 40′s, I will be breaking the hour barrier and at least be in the mid to upper 50′s. (personal goal setting at it’s finest!)

Here’s to hoping I don’t hit the snooze button tomorrow!!!

Ok, so I figured I would do a few postings up about different things in 2011, specifically, game reviews and other various topics. While it’s fun to put up crazy computer problems, personal updates and rants, I think adding in some more informational things might help out quite a bit as well.

This game review is for “Your Shape: Fitness Evolved” for the Xb0x 360 Kinect.  For a comparison to work with, I have also played The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout.

Out of the box, Your Shape is much easier to use than The Biggest Loser as far as interface goes. The interface for The Biggest loser is really hard to maneuver and lock onto target while Your Shape has a very intuitive system that actually keeps close proximity to your avatar and allows you to select, then confirm your action in an easy motion. It also helps you to warm-up a little while you’re traversing the menus… rather than small controlled movements of the hand, you’re using your whole arm and moving it around to select options within the menu system. Kinect tracking is also better in Your Shape as The Biggest Loser tends to lose you a lot more. You also have you change your angle a lot and it does a poor job tracking you in different positions. Another advantage to working out with Your Shape is that you’re able to see your body moving on the screen to ensure that your actions are being interpreted correctly by the system and matching the trainer’s poses and speed. The variety of the workouts between the two is pretty comparable, while The Biggest Loser has a little more variety and somewhat easier exercises, Your Shape focuses on form and speed matching the trainer to get the most out of your exercise as possible. When comparing similar timed workouts, I was able to burn nearly double the calories with Your Shape than The Biggest Loser per my Polar Heart Monitor. Both games do a poor job of actually tracking the amount of calories you’ve burned during a session.  Both The Biggest Loser and Your Shape give you some things that keep things from getting too boring in the form of challenges (The Biggest Loser) and Gym Games and Classes (Your Shape). One of the nice things with Your Shape is the expandability and the “classes” they have for things like a Zen Workout, Bollywood Dancing and Cardio Kick Boxing.

While the actual workouts themselves seem to lack some of the detail and technique you’d pick up in an actual gym in actual classes or sessions with a trainer, I personally feel that Your Shape delivers about the best you’re going to get from a video game. Ubisoft has done a great job with a first release workout game for the Kinect platform. While the scoring system sometimes falls on it’s face because the system can’t exactly tell you’re doing the move right or wrong, it still does a better job than The Biggest Loser. The only downside to both of them is they do fall short when verifying correct form and encouraging correct form when your form is improper. However, anyone who knows their body should be able to determine if they are doing the exercise right or not as you should actually feel the exercise as opposed to feeling pain or nothing from the exercise.

My recommendation if you’re looking for a workout game for the Kinect, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved.

Now to get my hands on EA’s new game and see how well that works.

That’s me. I am the professional blog slacker.

Well, to be honest I think I have a decent excuse or ten… It’s been pretty hectic. I think where I last posted was a good sign things were ramping up to drive me completely nuts. To be honest, I don’t recall everything that has occurred over the last couple months but it’s been somewhere in the lines of tons of career work and lots of home related work (remodel, kiddos, car stuff, workout, etc) so needless to say blogging has been the last thing on my list.

So to bring my little online community up to speed for things they may or may not already know. I successfully made it into the 220′s (albeit high 220′s) on the weight loss and I’m hovering around 19% on the body fat count. I can’t complain really, that’s pretty good considering I was out around 270 when I started this whole thing two years ago. So, almost 42 lbs down and more than 6″ off my waist is nothing to be disappointed over. We’ll see how this next round goes. I’m doing quite a bit more cardio as Amanda and I are training up to run the Bolder Boulder at the end of this month. Projections say I should see around 215 again. That would be nice… lol

In other news, we finished cleaning up the three bedrooms and the hallway to the upstairs in the house with a little remodel. Nothing like pulling out all the insulation in the exterior walls and replacing it with 2 levels higher of an R factor to make things a little cooler/warmer in the bedrooms. It pretty much wraps up most of the work in the house in the odd areas. All that’s left is the kitchen/livingroom combo remodel and the two bathrooms and this house is done. I kinda wonder what we’ll do after that… Hopefully start building the house in the mountains if all goes well. Some pictures will be posted up shortly if they’re not already there when this is read.

I also passed another birthday… 31, wooo… I dunno. I remember thinking as a kid that I would be lucky to see 21 and here I am with 10 more years on top of that, two kids, a wife, a career, debt and everything else that goes in between. Wow.

Tons of stuff in between but hey, I’m still alive and all is well so that’s pretty much where we’re at. Hopefully I can get at least one or two posts a month as things go forward eh? *rolls eyes* riiiight.

wow… bad cardio week… i mean, terrible. lol At least I didn’t really gain anything but I didn’t knock off as much as I had hoped for. I lost pounds but not so much bodyfat. Bummer.

This week’s results:

237.4 @ 21.14% bodyfat ( -2.0 lbs -0.19% bf)

So, the results thus far:

START:  246.2 lbs @ 24.31% bodyfat
EOWK1: 245.4 lbs @ 23.46% bodyfat
EOWK2: 241.4 lbs @ 21.94% bodyfat
EOWK3: 239.4 lbs @ 21.33% bodyfat
EOWK4: 237.4 lbs @ 21.14% bodyfat

Month 1 Results:  8.8 lbs and 3.17% bodyfat lost

Well this week is back to the gym with weights again and the switched up routine to start off month 2. Hopefully I can get some better results in by the close of this week. This week was just silly. I definitely had enough cardio in and hit my burn marks but I think towards the end my eating habits fell apart which led to some less than ideal results on the bodyfat drop. At least I actually landed my weight goal and the math says I’ll still hit my goal by 4/3.

We shall see.

I’m going to hit a good number this week… even if I can’t roll out of bed next Sunday from being wore out, lol.

So the end of week 3, beginning of week 4 results are in:

239.4 lbs @ 21.33% bodyfat

Not too shabby if I do say so myself. I hit my goal of 2lbs for the week and managed to drop the bodyfat down further.

Summary of results thus far:

START:  246.2 lbs @ 24.31% bodyfat
EOWK1: 245.4 lbs @ 23.46% bodyfat
EOWK2: 241.4 lbs @ 21.94% bodyfat
EOWK3: 239.4lbs @ 21.33% bodyfat

Total Weight Lost to date:     6.6 lbs
Total BodyFat Lost to date:  2.98%

So far for the year it’s looking pretty good. I upgraded my version of my tracking software at the beginning of the year so I don’t have last year end summaries anymore since I couldn’t retain that data with the software. Just looking at pictures though it’s pretty crazy. Amanda and I were comparing pictures of me last February to pictures from today and it’s amazing. I can’t wait to see the difference when April 4th rolls around.

It never fails…

You finish off a holiday season and you come back to chaos!

Actually it’s not that bad. It’s just been really busy since I got back to work. I had fully intended on writing this blog out a couple of weeks ago only to be delayed consistently with things going on. Anyway, on with the show…

I had mentioned prior to the new year posting up results and such on my latest rounds of working out with Andy. One of those ‘let the knowledge that others are watching drive you to complete the task at hand’ kind of things. Well, here I am. Granted we’ve been back on it for 3 weeks now but it’s never too late to start posting up the fun.

Before I get started on me, there are some funny observations to cover and some advice to hand out. Anyone who hits the gym on a regular basis will understand fully where I’m coming from here.

Do you ever notice how trying to hit the gym in January is like trying to go shopping on Black Friday? Not only is it completely impossible to work with your usual routine without constant interruption to your normal flow, but it’s usually interruption by the absolute worst perpetrator possible, the gym noob. Most of the time, these poor souls make desperate New Year resolutions to lose weight that only ends in their own disaster and embarassment. They seem to come into the gym and see everyone in there busting out workout routines that they have been doing for months and try to “fit in”. They only end up getting in the way or more often getting hurt. Seriously folks, you will experience first hand the EPIC FAIL that will end your resolution as quickly as you came up with it. You will not meet your goal, you will not lose weight and you will only get frustrated and continue to get larger if you rush into something for some stupid reason like a New Year’s resolution.

If you are truly concerned about your weight and would like to take steps to resolve those concerns, take some advice and do one of three things:

a) Get yourself a trainer, someone who can review your current fitness level and help you with a plan to meet your goals. This individual will be your gateway to a new, more fit lifestyle if you take to heart their advice and accept the structure they give you.

b) Get a workout buddy who has lots of experience and will help you start slow and ramp your way into a full blown routine. While this is not exactly using a trainer, if you have a friend who you feel can really help you, try it. If it doesn’t work, you can always choose another alternative.

c) Do some research. Don’t just show up at the gym expecting to dive right in and learn what to do by looking at what other people are doing. You will not figure it out the secret to weight loss and getting in shape. Go online, pick up a book, talk to people, etc… learn what it is you can do to meet your needs and create a routine that works for your fitness level and beyond. 

Most importantly, please go see a doctor if you have any health concerns.

Regardless of the method you choose remember two things when you are at the gym with other people around you. It’s not about the size of the weight you’re using or how fast you can move on a cardio machine. DO NOT get caught up in what everyone else is doing and try to ‘fit in’. You will fail. If you are weight training, pick a weight that works for you. It’s all about form and motion, not about how much you can lift. If anyone gives you a bad time for using a lighter weight or moving a little slow, ignore them. More than likely they will be the one to fail due to poor attitude and lack of intelligence in the first place and so long as you stay focused you can exceed even your own expectations when you come out on the other side.

Ok, enough with the advice column and on to my workout progress thus far.

Prior to heading out on vacation I had come close to hitting my previous goal of 230 (from 264). A little bit of a bummer but hey, I still lost 25 lbs coming in at 239 and hitting a bodyfat percentage of 19.83%. I can’t complain. Of course, like the holidays do, they added back some of that weight. I did pretty good considering all the fun stuff I ate and tallied in at 246.2 just prior to starting this latest round of working out. The more sad thing was having the bodyfat land at 24.31%. Oh well. That’s why I started another round.

So far so good, the results are as follows:

Week 1 -> 246.2 lbs/24.31% BF
Week 2 -> 245.4 lbs/23.46% BF
Week 3 -> 241.4 lbs/21.94% BF

I’m interested to see how this week will turn out, hopefully pretty decent but we’ll see. With a huge jump in week two I may be looking at something more modest this week. 2lbs/week is the goal though so as long as I stick to it, I should see 220 by April4th. It’s been hard to get in all the cardio I want but the drive is at least still there. I’ll actually post up some pictures when I hit the end of this round since it will give a good view of a year worth of changes. If that’s not something to motivate me to get this goal I don’t know what is, lol.

What lies beyond? Probably not much… lol 220 would more than likely put me back in a pair of 34′s with the rate I’ve been changing out fat for muscle so going beyond that may be futile. We’ll see though as I start to creep closer to my goal. Either way, 25 lbs down, 21.4 lbs to go.

I will be posting up the weekly results to keep myself in check. Even if they are bad. *shrug* it’s not like I’m on “The Biggest Loser” and have Jillian or Bob in my face about not hitting a good number in a week… I just want to post losses in the form of wins, no matter how big or small.

Wow, so Andy brought something incredible to my attention… I have gone almost two months without a post.

I guess to some degree I have some decent excuses, but not really. I can’t really blame non-blog activity on being thrown on your butt by H1N1 for a few weeks… If anything my blogging activity should have gone up but instead it was only my gamer score did on Xbox Live, LOL. Alas, I was sick for a few weeks, hammered with some projects at work that destroyed my evenings and when that stuff wasn’t going on I just plain didn’t care. *shrug* I know, it’s bad.

So let’s see here… I added some new pictures of the kiddos and some misc stuff out there. Feel free to check them out. Some pics from Halloween, Travis Jr’s 1st birthday and some pics in between. Nothing too major, but the pictures are pretty much up to date at least.

Events of the last month and a half…. Halloween, Travis, Amanda and Andy’s birthdays, a couple four day weekends and reconnecting with a much missed friend that I lost touch with for almost 15 years. All in all, pretty productive on the personal front and most definitely some definite positives in there. The only real negative in there was getting sick… As I said I’m pretty sure I ended up with H1N1 literally kicking in the day after Halloween and leaving some lasting effects which pretty much destroyed most of November for me. In between days when I was so tired and hurt so bad that I didn’t want to move I found a way to work so I didn’t blow up too much of my PTO. I also managed to squeeze in a few hours a night about twice to three times a week to catch up on projects and work that was lingering so I didn’t get behind. Let’s just say by the time I made it to Thanksgiving weekend I was happy to see a 4 days weekend and repeat the process a week later and alas, here I am.

Only one more week for the most part and I get to journey home for Christmas. I can’t believe I haven’t been there since 2005. The time has flown… somehow in the last 4 years I’ve pretty much managed to completely change my life from the person I was then. Kinda strange. In no particular order I’ve re-married, had another kid, quit drinking, got really physically motivated and started up a cyclical workout plan that has increased my muscle mass quite a bit and dropped 10 points of body fat.

Speaking of the fitness related stuff… That front hasn’t stopped. It’s been lingering there all along despite having dropped blogging about it all the time. I think perhaps when Andy and I start up again in January I might get slightly more religious about putting up some results on a regular basis. Andy, wow… He started up with me 3 months ago and we have brought him leaps and bounds from where he was. He’s even quit smoking! I can’t wait to see him hit round 2 of this in January and see how well he does. As I stated, I’ve made some major progress.. I’ve gained a few inches on my chest, biceps and forearms while dropping ~5-6″ off my waist. Currently I seem to be stuck at about 240… it’s soo hard to drop the weight when you’re at a point you’re just packing on muscle as you’re burning off fat but at least I’m seeing measurement results that keep me motivated while the scale struggles. Regardless, it’s still nice to see that despite gaining some weight back in mass, I’m still down 25+ lbs from where I started so there’s a win.  

Well, I think that sums it up for the most part… I’m going to try to get back to my mischievous posts and updates over the next few weeks. Wish me luck… LOL