My workouts have been crap this last week. Oh sure, there are excuses to be had in the big bag of 'comforting thoughts about failing'.
Had a very bad cold and was off a day from work. My daughter's been really busy. Hate my job and commuting's really bad with slick roads and greasy snow. Lots of code work done on the site (do you like?). Helping others out - my father's involved with a travel site (www.luxury-travel-info.com) and there's lots of neat things going on. There's end-of-year stuff for work, home, etc. Re-caulked the bathtub and doing bathroom renovations, decorating, kid's Christmas party, getting ready for the baby...
You know, I told this whole list to my body and it didn't care. It got a little fatter and a little less muscled.
I tried again, but it's stubborn and won't pay attention.
So I guess it's a good thing I have been REALLY good with the diet. Now the workouts have to get back into gear!
Plus side: Some time ago, my daughter said I look like this "Greg Wiggles" doll (damn! yech!). That was a joke gift from my sister-in-law because SHE said it looks like me and everyone who sees it can find a resemblance.
They get a big kick out of it - my first name's Greg. And sure enough the stupid doll says "Hi! My name is Greg!" which sends them all into peals of laughter. I don't find it that funny.
However, now my daughter believes I look like a photograph called "Solitude" by a photographer who's name escapes me (Naomi...something...EDIT: Naomi Stanley, it's the other picture in a set with "By the window" which is apparently famous) which gave me a chuckle; that's always been a private goal which I know isn't all that achievable but hell if I'm not gonna BELIEVE it can happen!
See - we have this black-and-white photo of a buff young guy lying face down on a bed near anwindow. That's the "Solitude" photo and is my mental image.
So when I mentioned my daughter's belief to my wife she said "yeah, everyone thinks that's you".
DAMN! THAT feels good! And sure enough - everyone says 'it's not you?'
So THAT positive energy is going into the tank to help me finish off the contest!! NEVER QUIT!
Topic ---> | Advice for College Kids: don't be a programmer |
Here's the truth: programming sucks.
It didn't use to. It used to be that if you worked really, really hard you could develop a career where you could concentrate, where you could deliver good work without excessive politics, where you actually would find a couple of hours a day that you did not hate your job.
This is all gone.
There are no longer any craftsmen of code.
Programmers do noisy factory work because of people like this assembling software factories and talking about how great it is for the company, but you'll notice they don't mention what the assembly-line-workers think of it:
I love code. I love programming. I love designing software and making a difference.
"Agile" takes that away. You lose the ability to focus, to get that burst of inspiration and speed that makes quality and code. Instead you replace it with a monotonous drone.
Any motivation is destroyed in your craftsmen as they realize all they can do is become a code robot.
I clued in pretty fast. What's really a drag is that I don't have a career any more. I have a job.
And it SUCKS.
I would NEVER choose to be a programmer now and bitterly wish I had picked a differentcareer.
(I am pulling some insane midnight hours trying to get the time to ensure this board comes up to the quality it needs. For that, I apologize - life is hard lately but obstacles exist to be overcome!)
So - the contest!! Goal one was to drop only 1 pound yet cut off 2 inches of blub from my gut. DONE! It has been damned hard but I have to say that Jungle Warfare DID help - the Non Hormonal stack does work.
I have been 3:1 carb cycling as best as I am able, plus hitting 1200-1400 daily cals, doing the Volume routines, getting walks in at lunch/morning/evening and using some thermos: Rampage (cheap! but effective) and Sesamin.
I've kept to the half-Horsepower / half-FIERCE mix I have here and it's helped some with the lifts. Overall I'm (very) weak but look better than ever and surprisingly I feel very good.
So I am now 175 lbs, 9.8% body fat. I am now mulling over the final target.
Hallowe'en's over. My garden shed is built, the pool is gone and we have grass out back now. Garage is empty enough that we can even park the car in it :)
So yeah the basement sucks. There's kid stuff in heaps and the one wall is half ripped apart. The flooding really nailed the wallboard, and we've ripped off any wet spots plus the insulation - but can't fix it/replace it until we get the outside all done. Which means bringing in a bobcat, smashing up my deck, excavating...and then after it's confirmed to NOT leak, rebuilding the inside wall. Not gonna happen before winter!
So if I took it all off now...no insulation over the winter (brr).
Instead, make it manageable and also get the gym usable again. Well - it is! I have got one week of volume under my belt (yeah!)
Man I have not been able to lift in months now...and it shows. I am still relatively lean but the muscle has just fled.
So I can either be bummed out that I'm much smaller - or excited that I am going to change it and hopefully get the magic of muscle memory back on my side!
I have had one of the busiest months of my life! My home had water in the basement - which really isn't great having broken wallboard, water to mop, plaster/dirt, etc. strewn through your home gym. I've had to smash out my above-ground pool and run it to the dump.
I've run 5 cubic yards of dirt into the backyard, run many wheelbarrows of sand out, smashed the wrap-around deck that wrapped a non-existant pool.
LOTS of driving to the dump and loading metal, wood, etc. prying of nails, swinging sledgehammers, etc.
Tough to get that time as a dad.
Plus, my job's been demanding investigations into technologies and I've been doing small coding bits on the side, meaning I'm up until 2 am.
TIRED is an understatement. Yet I've been able to keep quality food going down even though I've frequently succumbed to bad eating excuses and when I do they are DOOZIES :( Like yesterday I scarfed 10 donuts. *hangs head in shame*
But here's where YEARS of living well pay off - my physique looks half decent! See, your body chugs along doing what it already knows, like a freight train. It doesn't stop on a dime if things change, sure it starts to slow down but it keeps on going.
People get frustrated when they adopt a healthy lifestyle sometimes - they don't realize the train had been going pell-mell to 'early death' city and they've slowed it down. They expected to see radical transformation in a few weeks. Well, it all depends on how fast you had the train going...
In my case, I had it crusing towards 'good body'-ville. So I got to 'coast' for a while - this is the flip side of that I guess.
My arms are really @#$@ SORE and the tendons are strained from so much wood prying, stone heaving, etc. and sadly there is more to go. Just me you see - my wife is now 2/3rds the way toward the next baby coming. So, you know there is more to life than just training.
On the other hand, I currently REALLY have a reason not to be hitting the gym, but I do NOT have a reason to be slacking on diet. And it's changing today. In fact, it already did :)
malek256 05 March 2007 Take your cals needed to gain mass. Knock off 1000. That's a 'quick answer' you can use without taking your body fat percentage malek256 05 March 2007 Tk, shame on you.
What does bodyweight have to do with fat loss cals? TkNeo 04 March 2007 My weight is 165 right now. What should be my fatloss cals ? Serpent 04 March 2007 you're just scared TkNeo 04 March 2007 Nobody believe serpent. !! He has dissapearing issues !! OMGWTFLOLPANTSBBQ !!
(I am pulling some insane midnight hours trying to get the time to ensure this board comes up to the quality it needs. For that, I apologize - life is hard lately but obstacles exist to be overcome!)
