Quick Workout

My head was pounding earlier from a lack of caffeine during the day (at least I think that’s what it was, my coffee this morning was 75% decaf) so I didn’t go to the gym, but I did get a quick squat/pushup Tabata workout in along with a 45-minute walk around the neighborhood. Tabatas are 4-minute protocols consisting of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest, completed 8 times. They are a really intense form of intervals and while these could have been harder, it’s still better than nothing and I raised my heart rate for a bit and got a sweat going. I’m going to dig deeper into Turbulence Training to get another good 10-15 minute bodyweight circuit going on nights when I can’t (or don’t want to) go to the gym.

Ate pretty well today, though not as many vegetables and I’ve been using pre-packaged frozen meatballs too much as a protein source. I need to start baking some more chicken. I’m also at that terrible point again when I realize I should count my calories for a while to see how much I’m really eating compared to what I think I am. I hate that point so much.

Branch Chain Amino Acids Taste Terrible

No other workouts this week. I became bogged down with stuff, got home later at night than planned a couple of times, and was just hot and lazy yesterday (However I did go for a nice walk the other day). I’m not too upset, I’m supposed to take a week off between switching programs anyway, so at least I got to focus on food and get some rest.

The TNT Diet is going well so far. I’ve upped my vegetable intake via celery, spinach, and broccoli (though still not nearly enough to really be compliant), I’ve cut out basically all starchy carbs (though I did forget corn, I ate 1.5 ears of it last night. Whatever), and I’ve been keeping full with meat, cheese, and nuts. I feel good, though I started to drag a little yesterday. My mom brought home pizza for the family but she made me a steak instead, which was very good. I didn’t feel too left out and I didn’t sneak anything at night, either. Another challenge tonight if we go out to eat, plus lunch at Charter Oak Country Club tomorrow before Jaylynn’s bridal shower.

I stopped taking beta-alanine a couple weeks ago after deciding it wasn’t doing much for me other than making my skin tingle, so I bought some BCAAs, which are far more reputable. A lot of pre-made recovery drinks have BCAAs in them to stop muscle breakdown, so this is a way to improve while being cheaper. I’m having some in the morning, some with a shake during the day, and some right before bed. Unlike creatine, this stuff tastes pretty disgusting. Whatever, all I do is slam the shakes anyway.

Off to work on another Saturday then up to Berlin for the rest of the weekend. I keep telling myself the paycheck will be worth it.

An unexpected night off…

This week could be monumental for bonus money. I’m picking up an ungodly amount of time available the rest of this week because of the need in the area right now, including the couple of hours I did tonight, a couple tomorrow, a couple Friday, a monster Saturday, and about 4 hours Sunday. Unfortunately this might limit what I can do at the gym. I didn’t get home until 8:30 tonight and I was beat. I nearly got myself to change and get going but of course right after I had a shake I bailed.  I did eat healthy today, so as long as I keep that up this week, the amount of money I can make in the next few days will be worth whatever I miss at the gym.

My ABSOLUTE favorite song right now is the leaked “Circulate” off of Young Jeezy’s The Recession. It has a real “Roc Boys” feel with the horns and everything. I can’t hold still when I put this song on. It’s a flat-out hit.

Buffy & eBay

I’m taking a night off from the gym because after two really hard workouts Saturday and yesterday, I’m sore all over and I wouldn’t be able to get much of anything meaningful accomplished other than going through a lot of unnecessary pain. The workouts on this program require a couple of rest days during the week and today is one of them. Back at it tomorrow.

I tried to record Land of the Dead last night but I came home to find it not on the DVR. Even though I’m guaranteed to not like the movie I still need to see it for zombie reasons, but I’ll have to get my undead fix by watching Season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Molly brought home the DVDs she borrowed from a friend at work and we started watching them this weekend. I never watched this when it was on, but it’s a really good show. This season is pretty cartoonish, complete with amateurish monster costumes, ridiculous plots, and predictable characters, but it’s pretty compelling to watch (partially due to the undeniable presence of Sarah Michelle Gellar in her prime).  I throughly enjoy this show.

The villains on Season 1 Buffy are hilarious. Between the She-Mantis, Robot Gremlin, demon hyenas, and the collection of ever-present clay-faced vampires, it’s pretty hysterical. I also find it funny and kind of disturbing that before Buffy arrived at Sunnydale High, all these supernatural happenings and dead students were going on unchecked. Every episode a student or teacher is murdered by a ghoul of some sort. After watching enough of these episodes, I cannot help but be grateful that Plymouth North evaded all this mayhem.

I spent the day on eBay yesterday gauging the XBox 360 market. After trying to buy Madden 09 for my poor little GameCube yesterday only to discover that they don’t even make it for the Cube anymore, I’ve come to the realization that my system is obsolete and it’s time to upgrade. That meddlesome girl I’m marrying told me to wait until the wedding before making any major purchases, but she’s not the boss of me. I looked on eBay to find a used or wholesale 360 and determined that $150 is what I’ll have to spend to acquire this beautiful piece of machinery. I decided to place a couple of bids at $100, not thinking I would either one. I went to the gym and came home to find that I had in fact won the first XBox, only to read the fine print and see “for parts or repair.” I wrote the guy asking to get out of the sale and he angrily obliged. The second system came down to the wire as I was less than 1 minute from winning it for $108. Since I never intended to actually buy anything, I’m glad those close calls went the other way. I’ll get one in a couple months, unless I become an eBay loose cannon again.

TGIF

A long day at work. Donna’s last day so I run the yard again. I’m back with the full caseload and I had over 7 hours of evals/treatments today. I did not take a lunch or eat a damn thing all day until I grabbed a protein bar (again) on the way home. Not exactly great nutritional advice.

When I look the tiger in the eye, my diet is atrocious. I eat enough calories and protein to gain muscle, I’ve learned more about post-workout nutrition that I’ve seen some good gains there, but overall I do not eat very healthy when I’m trying to get bigger.  I rationalize almost anything including junk. I eat so few fruits and vegetables and so much of what I have is processed. Sure I’m not eating ring dings and drinking soda all day, but microwaving frozen meatballs for protein every night and drinking coffee and Lo-Carb Monster drinks isn’t much better. Ironically I found it easier to be compliant with a less-enjoyable restrictive low-carb diet than what I’m doing now. I got into a good routine of cottage cheese/spinach/almonds/turkey/ommelette in the fall and I had great success with that. Right now I’m just eating like shit and I haven’t been able to bring myself to buckle down. Mom brought home pizza Wednesday night and Jaylynn suggested The 99 last night when I/we could have chose better options.  I’ve bitched about this before but my insistence on eating these things more than I should is what will keep me from my goals.

Money hasn’t quite been hemhorraging lately (though it’s about to once some of the wedding/apartment stuff needs to be paid for) but it has bleeding slowly from my wallet the past couple of weeks. I keep stopping at the convenience store or coffee shop during these big travel days and paying 5 or 6 bucks repeatedly. I’m not going to go broke over two weeks of little purchases, but I was doing so well with not spending any money on the little stuff during the week. Hopefully being in a set schedule for a while will help plug that hole.  I really hope (there’s that word again) that once Jaylynn and I get married, move in, and don’t have to travel all the time that these little annoyances will go away or at least be cut down.

I’m not going to the gym tonight (not eating being the biggest excuse) but I am going to use this time to organize my work stuff. I am supposed to have 3 workouts left this week, but what I might do is divide up the fourth one and add it to the second and third.

In any case, I’m going to throw on some music and start sorting before I get any lazier.

Best Rapper Alive

With the announcment of Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3 album that should be out by the winter, I’ve been going through a mean HOV phase lately.  Despite what Lil Wayne claims, Jay-Z is the best rapper alive and my all-time favorite. I absolutely cannot wait for BP3, I think it’s going to be a classic. I’ve been listening to the new song “Jockin’ Jay-Z” basically on repeat. I know if it’s being produced almost entirely by Kanye this album is going to be an event.  Here’s a list of all Jay’s studio releases from best to worst:

1) The Blueprint, 2001: This is a masterpiece. This is what happens when one producer (in this case, a young Kanye West) takes over most of an album. This is one of the most cohesive albums ever made and my favorite rap album of all time.

Bangers: “Renegade” “All I Need” “The Ruler’s Back” “Jigga That N***a” “Izzo” “Girls, Girls, Girls” “Song Cry” “Takeover”

Clunkers: “The Blueprint” (though I don’t even mind that song at this point)

2) Reasonable Doubt, 1996: Another great one, though I’m not totally in love with it. It’s called one of the best debuts in rap history and it’s certainly very good, but I wouldn’t put it next to Illmatic or anything. A good 90s smooth gangster album. The album cover fits it perfectly. While I honestly think American Gangster has better songs, this gets bonus points for being the original.

Bangers: “Politics as Usual” “Brooklyn’s Finest” “Can I Live?” “Cashmere Thoughts”

Clunkers: “Ain’t No N***a”

3) American Gangster, 2007: Definitely a banger. It feels like a rejuvenated Reasonable Doubt with a lot of old soul samples by Puffy and a straight gangster theme overall (obviously made to go along with the AG movie). Despite it’s greatness I do get a little tired of it now and then because I played it out last winter.

Bangers: “Roc Boys (And The Winner Is…)” “Blue Magic” “Say Hello” “Success” “Ignorant Shit” “No Hook”

Clunkers: none, though “Sweet” is the only filler song and anybody but Bilal would have been a better hook singer on “Fallin’”

4) The Black Album, 2003: While it was his retirement album, it became the birth of the grown, modern Jay-Z. He raps on this album like he raps today, which is drastically different than early- or mid-period Shawn.  I get sick of this album at times for the same reasons as AG, but overall it’s a great one.

Bangers: “Encore” “December 4th” “What More Can I Say?” “Public Service Announcment” “99 Problems”

Clunkers: “Lucifer” That song sucks.

5) The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, 2000: Okay, here’s when it gets sticky. I hated this one when it came out. I hated the do-rag and the bragging and the pop songs like “I Just Wanna Love U.” Right before the Jay-Z/NaS fued I was completely on God Son’s side. I burned this CD in 2002 and never really listened to it until I got to grad school, and I ended up really liking it. It heavily features Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek, and for Beanie that’s a good thing. It has some great beats and there’s really only one pop song on it.

Bangers: “Dynasty Intro” “Parking Lot Pimpin’” “1-900-Hustler” “Stick 2 The Script” “Get Your Mind Right” “You, Me, Him, & Her” “This Can’t Be Life”

Clunkers: “The R.O.C.” “Holla” “Squeeze 1st” and almost anything involving Memphis Bleek

6) Volume 2: Hard Knock Life, 1998: The first Jay-Z album I bought way back when I first started listening to rap. I think it’s his biggest-selling album to date (5 milli at the time)This one has some really good songs and a little bit I don’t really care for. This is probably the end of the fast-rapping Jay era.

Bangers: “Jigga What, Jigga Who?” “Hard Knock Life” “If I Should Do” “Money Ain’t A Thang” “Coming of Age, Part 2″ “Can I Get A…”

Clunkers: “Paper Chase”

7) The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse, 2002: This is a difficult one to rate because it could have been much better. It’s not comparable to the originial Blueprint at all in style or cohesiveness. Where as the orginial is tight and compact with a common theme, this one is a double album with a lot of filler and a million different styles of music.  At 24 songs, there are at least 12-15 good- to very-good ones that would have made a great single album.  All in all, it’s a little too Neptunes-heavy for me.

Bangers: “Some People Hate” “Diamond is Forever” “Meet The Parents” “Blueprint 2″ “2 Many Hoes” “The Bounce” “The Watcher, Part 2″ “A Dream” “I Did It My Way” “Show You How” “Excuse Me Miss”

Clunkers: “Fuck All Night” “Poppin’ Tags” and a bunch of other mediocre filler tracks

8 ) Kingdom Come, 2006: Ah, the much-maligned comeback album. I think despite a major league bad songs and some middle-of-the-road stuff, there is enough on here to enjoy. People said Jay-Z was too detached from his fanbase and started rapping too rich. I actually prefer him that way and I think his rhyming is as good as ever. The problem was hype and bad beat selection. I can’t quite figure out how it turned out the way it did, but I still like it overall.

Bangers: “The Prelude” “Kingdom Come” “Show Me What You Got” “Do U Wanna Ride?” “30 Something” and I can’t decide if “Beach Chair” is great or terrible, but for now I’ll say it’s great

Clunkers: “Lost One” “Anything” “Hollywood”

9) In My Lifetime, Volume 1, 1997: I’ll be honest, this is down on the list only because I don’t know it that well. I’ve only listened to it a few times and while I don’t really like it, I haven’t really sat down with it to give it a fair chance. It feels very weird to me that this followed Reasonable Doubt. I like a lot of the songs on it, though, so maybe I’ll like it more over time.

Bangers: “Intro-A Million and One Questions-Rhyme No More” “Sunshine” “The City is Mine” “Imaginary Player”

Clunkers: “Face Off” “Real N****as” “You Must Love Me”

10) Volume 3: The Life and Times of S. Carter, 1999: This album stinks. Other than a couple good songs, it’s basically terrible and I never listen to it more than once and a while. That’s about all I have to say about it.

Bangers: “Hova Song” “Dope Man” “Watch Me” and I suppose “Big Pimpin’” even though I never really liked it

Clunkers: “Do It Again” “Things That U Do” “S. Carter”

So excluding that R. Kelly bullshit, his live album that I haven’t heard in years, any of the remix albums, and his Streets Is Watching soundtrack that I’ve never heard, that’s all of Jay’s albums from top to bottom. I clearly put way too much thought into this, but Mom brought home pizza and I skipped the gym (I’ll get workouts done Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) so I figured I’d put some time in for this.

NEW COMPUTER AHHHHHH!!

LI bought a Macbook yesterday (actually I bet correct myself before I get slapped…I bought Jaylynn’s and my new Macbook yesterday) and I love love love it!!!

Since my laptop died in March I’ve been contemplating what I would replace it with, but never quite thought I’d actually join Apple’s unholy army of self-satisfied hipsters. The sirensong was too strong.

I feel like this computer has already raised my standing in society up a couple of notches. I’ve already started using their buzz phrases like “everything is where you think it should be!” and, “Macs are so intuitive!” I need to go back to drinking Peet’s Coffee, buying fair trade, wearing a fedora to the park, listening to Sigor Ros while wearing a Ramones shirt, and never working out again (basically doing everything according to this website) to complete the lifestyle I’m going for here.

I’m not a big computer guy. I can get around on both PCs and Macs and solve some simple problems just through basic logic, but when it comes to RAM and Hz and graphics cards, I don’t know nor care enough to make decisions based on that. I just think Macs are better-looking and generally smoother. iPods and iTunes are asthetically the coolest things ever created, and they are really just an extension of Macs. I bought your basic white 13.3″ inch Macbook because I couldn’t quite rationalize going as far as the Macbook Pro (nothing about me is pro). I think this will do just fine for Jaylynn’s and my basic needs of internet, email, and iTunes. I’m definitely going to use some of the cooler features such as the camera and iMovie for potential video blogging (if you think I’m not going to flex my biceps in front of this thing, you’re out of your mind). Garage Band is really cool if I were still interested in podcasting (which I’m not). iWork is a really cool Office-like set of programs for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations that actually looks a lot better (and was a lot cheaper) than buying Office (one of the features of Pages is a template for a screenplay, which means I should probably write a screenplay). I also got a free HP printer/copier/scanner, which we needed anyway.

Molly potentially got the better end of the deal with her free iPod Touch. She set that up yesterday and it’s just about as badass as we had hoped. The internet looks amazing on it and the touchscreen is so cool.

I had to work in Falmouth for 4 and a half hours last night to make some extra money to cut down on the cost of this thing, but I’m lucky to have the luxery of doing that.

All in all, yesterday was great. The sun is a little brighter, music sounds a little better, and the clouds are a little fluffier. One more step up the social ladder.

In other news, I finished The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, which is a book basically anyone will love. Told from the perspective of a dog, it’s both a sad, funny, and heartwarming book reminiscient of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Check out the premise and reviews on Amazon. Now I’m moving on to the book version of I Am Legend and then Guns, Germs, and Steel plus a couple of dysphagia textbooks I should have bought in grad school but can now expense them. (See, when you own a Mac, you must always be learning!)

Peace.

Tuesday = Back..sort of

I did get to the gym last night after a long (though good) day of work to do back, but it didn’t really go the way I planned it. I hopped on the pullup bar and did a set of 7 reps and while I was resting and writing in my notebook, some other guy put a couple of handles on the bar and started doing hanging leg raises. He asked me if I was on it but with his headphones on apparently misunderstood me when I was said it was in use. I didn’t feel like arguing with the guy lest I look like an ass, so I scrapped pullups and did Hammer Strength rows before doing some other stuff. The workout was as follows:

low iso rows:

• 225 x 10 x 2
• 245 x 8 x 1
• 255 x 6 x 1
• 265 x 5 x 1

T-bar rows: (I LOVE these)

• 135 x 12 x 1 (warm-up)
• 185 x 12 x 1 (warm-up)
• 225 x 10 x 1
• 275 x 6 x 2

So other than the set of pullups at the beginning and a couple sets of close-grip chinups at the end, that’s really all I did. I wasn’t feeling great either, and the guy who took my pullup bar just through me off. I still did a few good heavy sets and my back is sore today, so some progress was made. I have to say though, I wish I could get more than 7 pullups at this point. That’s 3 weeks and I’m still stuck on that.

I’m not going to the gym tonight. I worked 11 hours today and I’m exhausted, not getting home till almost 8. I don’t have to go to Falmouth tomorrow (though I will pick up a few hours of bonus on Saturday. BTW I won the Genesis summer raffle for June, a $100 gas card!) so I’ll be able to do something at the gym tomorrow night. That leaves me with potentially Saturday afternoon as the time to get in my fourth workout of the week.

I really have to stop doing these 10- and 11-hour days soon. The new therapist is starting to get a little more settled but the workload is still pretty big, plus the paperwork is still overwhelming.

Anyway, that’s about it for tonight. I’m going to read and go to bed.

…

…

Two days off in a row and it wasn’t planned this way. Last night I came home, Mom had bought me a calzone which I devoured and then skipped legs. Tonight I came home, made a cup of coffee and got mentally prepared to do shoulders and arms, only to look at the clock and see 8:15, balk, and eat dinner instead. Technically all is not lost because I have tomorrow and Saturday to do the two workouts I have left this week, but I am down on myself. I have great intensity at the start of the week but I’ve just been fizzling out lately. Today was really long as I spent 5 hours in Falmouth and 5 hours in Bourne and I was too lazy to pack my gym stuff in advance, but it’s still no excuse. FAIL.

Wednesday

I went for a walk this morning with a 20-pound backpack for 30 minutes this morning, and after work I skipped leg day. My left knee has been hurting me when I walk down the stairs which happens every now and then, so I’m not sure why that is. I could have gone and done something else but I decided to blow it off and add music to my iPod. These are the reasons I’ll never meet 100% of my fitness goals.