melog-20110131.log

starting week number five. i've practically have a month behind me now. this has kept me very busy. i hardly have time to post any more.

nevertheless-- so far, so good. I still don't have my daily routine down just like I want it, but I'm hanging in there.

I've feeling a bit better every time I workout, and my wife admits that she sees a difference in the way I look. I haven't gone down any pants sizes or anything . . . but my close are starting to fall on me a bit better.

but, the reason for exercising and eating better isn't for reaching a specific goal in size or weight-- for the pursuit of healthy living is the goal, not a pants size or a particular body shape. those things will come on their own in time.

so then, losing weight is not the goal. healthy living is. and to practice healthy living-- it must be done every day. so then, there is no goal, but the routine itself.

much like saying, home is not the destination, rather, the journey itself is home.

i think my diligence has spurred my wife to action. she went to the gym this morning and prepared some healthy meals for herself. i'm proud of her and i'm glad to have a hand in inspiring hope in her.

now, slowly, I've gotta get my kids to do better-- in time. they are kids, after all.

speaking of kids-- my son sprained his wrist and my daughter got a really nasty sinus infection-- all at the same time on the same day. I had to visit two doctors (one of each child-- one being and injury and the other an infection). I spent hours at the pharmacy. I was pooped by the end of the day.

but, if i hadn't been trying to live healthier, i don't think i would have kept up as well as I did. So, here's to healthy living.

hopefully, i can keep this up. i know it's very easy to go back to old habits. so, that's sort of why i'm documenting this-- keeping myself honest, i suppose.

and any readers out there are welcome to help me with that, too.

melog-20110126.log

My day started off well enough. I woke up in time to get the kids off to school. They seemed to be dealing with a lot of congestion, sneezing, and runny noses. I gave them some over the counter meds and a breathing treatment from their nebulizer and sent them off to catch the bus.

I did my upper body workout. I can see myself improving. I know, I'm still out of shape, but I can tell I'm making improvements.

That made me feel really good; I thought I was enjoying the great beginning of what would a great day.

I had spent last night transferring a Linux install from a usb thumb drive to my lap top hard drive using a program called Terabyte Unlimited. Cool program.

By the way . . . if you value your computer at all to any degree at all, make sure you have an anti-virus program (that is up to date, and not expired) and have a backup plan.

I was really enjoying my success.

Then I tried to use my laptop to install a 64-bit version of Linux to my usb thumb drive to replace the version that I just installed to my laptop.

The install DVD started "examining" the disks for some reason.

It took forever, so, I cancelled it.

And, I also seemed to cancel all the data on my laptop, too.

Lucky for me, I could just apply the disk image again.

But, something came up at work that forced me to have to do put that off until later.

I ran across several other obsticals throughout the day, but I seemed to meet them all. The day was tough, but I was coming out ahead.

I'm getting ready to come home, and then I get a call from my wife that my son fell and hurt his wrist. And, my daughter has a fever.

Both of them will be seeing the doctor in the morning.

Knowing that I'll have to spend a good deal of time and money (along with watching the kids endure great discomfort) has seemed to take some of the wind out of my sail.

Oh well . . .

melog-20110123.log

Well, this is the beginning of week four. I've decided to move my rest day from Sunday to Saturday. So, that means that Saturday is the day I don't exercise, and I don't worry about counting calories or eating healthy.

I notice that the longer I eat healthy, the harder it is to over eat when I allow myself to eat with reckless abandon on my free day.

So far, so good. Forty-eight weeks to go for this year.

My wife noticed that our daughter was choosing to play rather than go use the bathroom. My wife cautioned her that is she didn't go use the rest room, her "boo boo" would get bigger.

With grave concern in her voice, my five year old daughter replied, "Is it going to explode?!"

Kids say (and ask) the darnedest things.

melog-20110121.log

I'm three weeks into the year now. More or less, I've eaten better and exercised more. As a result, I haven't had much time to post anything.

I haven't been perfect with everything, though. Sometimes, I miss a workout or make a poor choice with eating. But, most days, I've done well.

I've learned that, for example, if I get a chicken sandwich, rather than a double cheese burger, I can cut out several hundred calories. The same goes with holding the fries or making a substitution with another side.

But, I try to only eat fast foods on Saturdays. All other days, I'm making sandwiches, cooking at home, or eating Kashi granola bars, or drinking a whey protein shake.

I notice that I get full much sooner, now. When I do eat out on a Saturday-- I can only make one good trip to the bar at the Chinese buffet rather than three. If I do get a hamburger on the weekend, I can't finish all my fries-- especially if I went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries. They give you a massive amount of fries. I could usually eat them all. Now, I have to throw most of them away if I order them on my "cheat" day.

I have to go home soon and work out. I overslept and didn't get the chance to exercise before work.

I tell you what-- it's hectic. And the first two weeks had me really whipped out! But, today, I have to say, I feel pretty good. I don't feel as "tight" and I don't feel quite so sluggish. I feel a bit lighter on my feet and little things like getting up from the floor after working on a computer low to the ground, or just getting out of a low sitting chair is much easier.

I picked up my daughter and held her up in my arms for over 30 minutes and didn't really get fatigued.

Little things like that make a big difference.

Tomorrow, I think I'll take my mom out to this really awesome catfish place we love to eat at from time to time for her birthday. Then, I'll end the evening with some of that fine Belgium Chocolate cake I ran across a few weeks ago.

Then, I walk the "straight and narrow" again for the next six days-- watching my calories and eating as healthily as I can.

Then, I'll look up one day and be my ideal weight and in perfect health. That's when I'll go jogging one day and get smashed by a car!

melog-20110113.log

been busy past few days. had to do some late night maintenance and still get up early to exercise and get the kids off to the bus for school.

i've done well for week two of my exercising. week one went well. week two has been successful in that i've mainly stuck with my diet changes and i've exercised.

i didn't do my cardio today, however. my work schedule had me zonked out. i had to catch up on some sleep.

but, i can do cardio and lower body tomorrow to make up for today, I guess.

so much drama. i can't go into it right now. and, i gotta do some late night work soon.

but, i will mention that i'm running my laptop off of a bootable usb stick right now. cool. i installed it not long ago. i might make an image of this and restore it to my HD.

cool.

melog-20110108.log

my wife is having a party tonight. her birthday was earlier this week. i slaved over the past 24 hours cleaning the house up and running errands to help her prepare for the party.

it's a girl's night out kind of party, though, so i'm not attending. she made arrangements for someone to watch the kids so i can have that time to myself rather than baby sitting.

i really appreciate that notion. and i'll certainly take her up on that.

workout and diet wise-- things have gone well for week number one. i'm proud of myself. as i told my friend-- 51 weeks to go.

today is

I forgot was i was saying . . . my daughter started crying. my kids were horse playing and they had a bump with each other-- though i think it was less of an accident on my son's fault.

my wife is putting on her outfit. she had her hair done again the other day. her hair dresser is gay. that doesn't matter, except that many people feel like gay men are the best at feminine style.

so, he did her hair again-- and again did a great job.

he recommended an outfit for her-- a really nice white shirt with pink bottom and matching pink hoodie. simple-- but she looks great.

well, i'm making preparations to get outta her. can't leave if i'm sitting her blogging-- huh?

melog-20110107.log

tough week, but i've met some of my personal goals for the week.

i've worked out every day this week, and i've gone to bed early and got up early every day so far.

i did my upper body monday and friday-- waking up at 04:30. i did my lower body and cardio on tuesday and thursday. lower body on wednesday. i wake up by 05:30 on the other days.

i've been eating well and i have moments where i feel really great again.

but in the evenings, i get really sleepy and a little grouchy. 22:00 is starting to feel like 02:00 in the morning without any sleep yet. i guess that's good, because that means i'll go to sleep and get a good night's rest, but that's an alien feeling to me-- and to my family. because they're used to me being up. i go to bed, and they keep waking me up as i drift off, asking me questions and stuff. i feel like i'm being rude, but i just drift off to sleep. i don't know if i even answer them sometimes. i try, but i can't open my mouth-- sleep is taking hold.

i figured out some things at work and i've been getting there on time this week. i stay a little late, but not much because i need to go to bed early.

anyhow, this week took a lot of effort on my part and i feel like i rose to the occasion overall.

i'm so glad today is friday. i'm soooooo looking forward to this weekend.

well, i gotta get my kids up and ready to catch the bus . . .

that's the other part of my week i haven't mentioned-- my wife started school again for this semester. so, she's taking classes, working late-- leaving me as the house husband often times.

so, i get off work, tend to the kids, prepare for the next day, get them and myself in bed. get them up and off to school, and now i'm squeezing in a workout routine and more sleep. my days burn really fast, it seems.

but, hard work deserves hard play. and i think i'll be doing that tomorrow!

melog-20110104.log.0

a bit grumpy this evening. took my daughter to the doctor. he's a pediatrician, but his office isn't equipped to do x-rays. but he had her do some activities to asses whether she might have a broken bone.

he determined that she didn't have that, though she may have some pulled muscle or something. he figured it would go away on it's own, but told me to call him if the pain continued. he'd refer me at that point to a specialist.

that money i spent on that would have served better as tissue paper for my ass.

my nephew went out with a friend, but neglected to buy another air mattress. he's hanging out on the couch again watching tv. he'd better not get too comfortable.

i guess i need to run to wal-mart.

my wife is working late tonight, so i had to get the kids in the bed. they were uncooperative.

i'm tired. i'm sore from working out. i have a headache.

and, a friend at work asked me to exercise, er, i mean, remove a trojan from her PC. i can barely get the damn thing into safe mode.

and work was difficult in that i had a lot of reading to do to prepare for trying to make apache, php, perl, and mysql all work together *without* using lampp, xampp, or some webstack utility 'casue we need to update them all separately.

somebody help me . . .

melog-20110104.log

I woke up about 04:30 this morning, again. But, I snoozed until about 05:11. Today was the day I would do cardio-- I keep that short, so I didn't really need to get up as early as yesterday. Yesterday, I did my upper body work-out, where I just get a weight bench and lift weights with all my upper body muscle groups. That takes more time and preparation, so getting up at 04:30 is necessary.

I made it to bed last night around 22:40. Not bad for a night owl like me.

My wife has also started exercising. This may be the first time we both started working out together. Usually, I'll work out and she won't. Then she'll start around the time I quit. I lose while she gains, I gain while she loses.

This time, I think we're going to work on this together. That might make the difference we need for consistency. We'll see.

I've got the kids off to school. After school, I'll be taking my daughter to the clinic to see what's happening with her back / tail bone. She romps and plays like nothing is wrong, but keeps complaining about it. Kids can be resilient sometimes. Gauging how serious their suffering is can be difficult.

My nephew's air mattress went flat again. He crashed on the couch. Bad idea.

Nobody sleeps on momma's couch.

Long story . . .

My son swears he didn't put the hole in the mattress this time started crying when I asked him questions about it. I guess he didn't do anything directly to cause it like the time before. I think he might have contributed to it, though. I've caught him and his sister bouncing on it over the holidays.

But, it went flat through the night as if something spontaneous caused it to fail. Not sure what's up. Slow leak, I guess.

Anyway, my wife hates for anyone to sleep on her couch-- that's her place to sleep on alone when she feels like it.

So, my nephew has put a bit of wear and tear on his welcome-- at least, as far as my wife is concerned.

I only care because I know the history and psychology behind the significance of the couch and my wife.

She doesn't want me to get our nephew a new air mattress. But, knowing what I know-- I had better stop by Wal-Mart tonight before bedtime and get him one. Gotta keep the peace, take advantage of game theory, and all that jazz.

Well, gotta eat some cereal and start getting ready for work. That's my next goal of the year-- to do a better job at work. That starts with showing up on time, ready to work.

melog-20110103.log.3

I've got nothing easy on my to-do list at work.

Like I heard Obama say once, "If it was already easy, it would have already been done".

So, I guess I need to just roll up my sleeves and keep at it.

My daughter fell on her bottom a few days ago, goofing off on the arm of the couch.

Now, she's complaining of back problems.

I know kids are people, but they sure are expensive people. Now, I've got to take her to the doctor.

Don't get me wrong-- you do what you have to do to take care of them.

But, again-- don't get me wrong-- the doctor WILL send you a bill, regardless of how cute, darling, and precious your children might be.

melog-20110103.log.1

so far so good. i've stuck to my food regimen so far today. personally, today has be a triumph.

office wise, well-- i got to work early. i've done some good planning, but my planning has only uncovered more problems that i need to plan to fix.

oh well. at least i exercised and ate well today. and surprisingly, i haven't gotten tired yet!

we'll see how things go . . .

melog-20110103.log.0

Oh, I also wanted to mention really quickly--

The sky was so beautiful this morning! The stars were out. Something about the winter time-- the night time and early morning sky seems so clear and crisp during the winter. The stars were so bright!

Just had to mention that. I looked up for a bit before and after working out. By the time my kids catch the bus at 06:37, most of the stars are retreating into the light of the dawning sun.

OK, gotta take my shower now and get to work . . .

melog-20110103.log

Aw-right! I did it!

I woke up at 04:30 today! I put on my workout cloths, gargled with some Listerine, took my allergy medicine, and tried to wake up my wife (who also wanted to get up early).

Well, she turned over-- but I went kept on truckin'.

I put some started boiling some eggs so I can have something to eat after my workout. Downed some water and set up my weight bench.

I had some minor setbacks, but the most important thing is that I finished my workout and was only behind schedule by a small amount.

My wife did eventually get up and had time to do her workout, too.

My son woke up earlier that I expected. He interrupted me some, and wanted to eat my eggs. I had to make some more.

But, I got my son and daughter ready for the school bus while my wife worked out. She will be too busy to work out any other time in the day. So, I need to stay on it so that she can have the opportunity she needs to get in better shape, too.

I'm working on eating a bowl of Kashi cereal right now. My meals for the day are already planned out.

Now, I need to shower and get ready for work. That's my next goal-- to get to work early and show myself to be more productive.

Wish me luck!

melog-20110102.log

Well, I'm going to try a few resolutions this year. Like I said in my last log entry, this can either be a new beginning, or a count down of 365 days of more monotony.

I'll take a stab at making this a new beginning.

Here's what I'll try to improve this year:

Physical Health

Finances (was already working on this)

Reading More (was already working on this)

Be able to have a short, meaningful conversation in German with my friend in Germany

Correcting my poor sleep habits (BWAH-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)

Improve work performance

Be a better husband and father

I believe I have a condition called delayed phase shift syndrome. I honestly believe it-- no joke. I am going to try a combat this.

So, I'm almost ready to go to bed for the night-- which is totally un-like me. I usually don't even start getting ready for bed until around midnight.

I plan to get up at 04:30 and start my exercise routine that I was doing a few years back. I lost about 30 pounds doing that. If I hadn't stopped, I'd kept it off and would be able to kick most people's ass by now.

Oh well . . .

I'd better sign off now. I've got my lunch made and ready to go. I've got my morning planned out, got the cloths for my kids laid out for school . . .

Now, all I have to do is actually get up in the morning.

I hope I don't keep hitting the snooze button.

Wish me luck.

Gute Nacht.

melog-20110101.log

well, it's a new year.

I liked 2010 better. Visually, it was easier on the eyes somehow.

Around our house, my nephew coined this year as "twen'y leben". Maybe it will catch on.

we had a really, stormy new years eve-- on over into about 02:00 new years morning. I'm just glad we didn't get washed away or blown away by tornadoes.

I feel a bit stupid sometimes when I find myself thinking up new year's resolutions. I've only kept one for any extended period in my life-- and that was to try and read more. I read a book a month two years ago. I've tried to continue the process. I haven't kept that same pace, but I do read more than I used to. I've gone from zero reading to at least squeezing in a few books a year.

But, I haven't been doing it all that long.

So, is new years a new beginning, or a signal that you're about to see 365 days of more monotony?

I think that's all up to each of us. And I guess that's what new year's resolutions are all about.