Oooo! This is so going in my blog!

Business first:

We had our busiest day ever here at the Sporty by Forty ranch last Thursday with a whopping 15 unique visitors. Why Thursday, I wonder?
I’ve been trying to make sure I put tags in the tag are for my blogs, but I am spotty at best.

One of these days I am going to update all tagless entries.

Now, on to the topic at hand:

One of the drawbacks to people knowing you have a blog about trying to get healthy is, when they see you eating something that is obviously unhealthy they invariably go “so, are you going to put in your blog that you ate all those chips/cookies/etc?” This happened at my niece’s birthday party this past Sunday.

Now, I know when I go to things like this, that it is futile to try and stick to any sort of strict eating rules. You have to plan ahead for this type of thing. I try my best, but, like any other social animal I graze in groups. So, when my mother in law busted out the chips and dip I took a small plate of them, no dip. Not a big fan of dip. I sometimes use applesauce, but that’s not important right now!

Anyway, despite best intentions, I packed a decent amount of chips into my gaping maw. So my brother in law asks the above blogging/chip consumption question. I tell him "yeah, I’ll reference it in some way if I can cram it in where it’s relevant." Then I got to thinking, a lot of people I know read my blog, and you have to wonder when they see me if they are like “Hey, it’s working” or “Well, he is trying, bless him,” or “For crying out loud, would you look at the size of that guy? Did he walk by a bakery and just lose all control?”

Not that it matters, really. I’m pretty much beyond what others may think in the grand scheme anyway, it’s about how I feel and look to myself.

Stuff:
Watching The Biggest Loser last night reminded me that I’d like to get one of those plastic aerobic steps to add to the home arsenal. Back before I saw the use for them, I used to see them out for the trash (some of them brand spanking new!) but ever since I thought to myself, “Self, you ought to grab a set the next time you see ‘em” it’s been absolutely nothing! Not even at the flea market or garage sales. I could have built a goddamned fort out of all the ones I let go to the landfill and now I’m being punished for some reason. I don't want to buy a new set when it it's a historical fact that these frequently line the streets for free. Low-hanging fruit, my friends!

Addedum:

My good friend and pseudo-cousin* Rob co-hosts an informative, funny and frequently profane podcast ostensibly about X-Men comics, but does, on accassion, stray off topic.
http://www.uncannyxcast.com

good stuff, but not for the under 16 set, just to be safe.



*You know, our moms were friends for 11 billion years, the kids called your mom "Aunt So-and-so" and vice-versa.

Week 22: 255.0!

Starting weight: 264.2
Weight last week: 258.5
Current weight: 255.0
Lost this week: 3.5
Total lost to date: 9.2 pounds
Goal for this week: 1 pound (just to pass the 10 pound mark!)

Goal Weight: 180

Weight remaining to lose: 75


THAT’S RIGHT!

It’s not record breaking, it’s not earth shaking, it’s not even the most I have lost in 1 week, but it’s down so there you go. I am happy. By next week I am hoping to be back in the 10 pound club, and after that, well the sky is the limit, isn’t it?

OK, really 75 more pounds or so is the actual limit.

I’m pretty pleased. I’m trying desperately to get used to being up early again and exercising and it’s been tough, but we* shall overcome.


If you’re looking for an MP3 Player for the gym or jogging you could really do a hell of a lot worse than this. We have the 1GB model that we put our son’s music on to play in the car (through the radio! We’re not putting headphones on him so hang up the calls to DYFS) and it’s terrific. It’s probably the best sounding MP3 player I have ever heard, and I have heard plenty. It’s as good if not better then my wife’s old Rio Carbon, which ruled, but was stolen by the day laborers at the car wash. That was a 4GB and it was on a tiny hard drive. The Sansa players are solid state, so even if you run like Phoebe on Friends, no skippage!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/11/sandisks-sansa-clip-upgrades-to-8gb-stays-tiny/

One of these days, when my Dell gives up the ghost, I will try and install a 32 GB Compact Flash card in place of the 20 GB laptop drive that’s in there. I don’t know if that will even work, but I’d love a 32GB solid state MP3 player.



*”we” meaning “me!”

Missed Connections- You: Snazzy NJ-based fitness facility. Me: fat dude.

I didn’t get together with Gym yet. I did, however take a nice almost hour long walk yesterday. By “nice” I mean painful and sweat inducing, so that’s good. I also picked up my hefty lottery winnings from Wed night’s Cash 5 drawing (Eleven dollars, thank you very much!) so that was cool as well.

I walked up at the waterfront today* because it was kind of nice out. There I saw a woman who looked remarkably like actress Lalla Ward, but with wavier hair. Not like she looks now, but like she looked in 1982. She was walking a cocker spaniel and I though to myself, “Yes, I can totally see Lalla Ward having that kind of dog.”

Now I know it wasn’t the ex-Mrs. Tom Baker (this woman was in her 20’s for one reason) but if it was I’m pretty sure I’d go back Monday morning with my Who DVDs like some sort of stalker/nerd hybrid.

By the way, I started a Facebook page and have no bloody idea what I am doing. Is it me or is it very cluttered?




*Yeesh! That sounds like I was trolling for dockworkers or something…

Reconciliation

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and to all our ships at sea, I have a confession to make.*

I need to make reconciliation, and it needs to be done, here, in a public forum.

I have been separated from Jim for many months now, and it’s high time we get back together.

Oh, crap, I’m sorry. Did I spell that as “Jim?”

Silly me, I don’t know where my head’s at! That’s supposed to be “Gym.” You know, spelled G-Y-M! ** (last name is "Nasium." Yes, I went there.)

Dear Gym,

I miss those early morning walks, Gym. You remember, where I’d come by and we’d watch the news together or listen to some Old Time Radio shows while walking…

I miss the way my heart would race when we were together!

I remember how good you made me feel!

Remember how much I would sweat when we were together, Gym?

…erm…uh…Hold the phone there, folks…

Ok, I may have overdone it and hit the Creepy Allegory Zone with that last one. Sorry about that, kids. Heh.

Anyway, I miss you, Gym.

I’m coming to see you tomorrow! I’ll wear those ratty shorts and the tiki shirt that I know you like!

(cue music, cut to me running across a meadow and then stopping half way because I’m winded…)


*OK, two confessions, actually. The second one is I couldn’t remember how to spell “reconciliation.”
** not to be confused with “Jym,” long time drummer for the Mr. T Experience. We’ve never been linked romantically, but the man is one hell of a drummer!

Diabetus!

So Janet saw the pic of me playing and thought it was a picture of Wilford Brimley.

Wilford sodding Brimley!

The sad thing? I can kinda see it.

Week 21: 258.5!

Starting weight: 264.2
Weight last week: 257.2
Current weight: 258.5
Lost this week: 0 (UP 1.7! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD)
Total lost to date: 5.7 pounds
Goal for this week: not shoot self in face :) (I'm JOKING!!!!!)

Goal Weight: 180

Weight remaining to lose: 78.9


OK, look. Let me get this out of the way first:
Go vote. I’d like to say “I don’t care who you vote for,” but I’d be lying ;)

Anyway, as promised, here’s the picture from the video:
(There’s supposed to be 2 of them, but I botched something in the saving…)
WTF!?!?!?!?!


Christ Almighty, I look like a water buffalo with a guitar!

They say the camera adds 10 pounds, and in my defense there was probably around 6 cameras pointed at me, but still!

And here’s me, about a year ago looking, as promised, positively svelte in comparison. Screw that, in comparison, I am a goddamn supermodel! I was about 245 pounds here.




I mean, really, what the hell am I doing to myself?

The Finger

Sorry for the gap, kids, but I had tons to stuff to deal with since Wednesday. For example:

Thurday night was the Grover Kent mini-set. It went well, but I felt like I played for like, three days as opposed to 10 minutes.
They also fixed my heat and I was unable to tun it off until Friday afternoon!
Additionally, my son got a double ear infection! Poor little dude wasn’t even pulling on his ears. We got him some anti-biotics and he’s a lot better today.

I saw a video of our set and man alive, if I ever needed any visual evidence that I am too fat, I got it. I’m going to try and capture a few frames and post it so the world can marvel at what the blazes happened to me. 12 months prior we played a show and I look positively svelte! I’ll post that too.

We bought one of those F’Real milk shakes to try and get Owen to eat something for his antibiotic last night. My wife told me to throw it out after he wouldn’t have any, and I was like “I kind of want this…”

Mind you, they have about 50 grams of fat in them. Yeah, you heard me, fifty grams of fat. Jeez, that’s like eating lard or something, only in Vanilla shake form. How the hell can they sell these things? It makes me so jealous of people with peppy metabolisms. I ended up having two sips and chucking the rest.

My arthritis is driving me around the bend today. I just took some more advil to see if that’ll help but it‘s fricking miserable. I can’t close my right hand into a fist completely as my middle finger is swollen and stiff. Nor can I straighten my F-U finger out completely. It sucks. At least I am not getting it in my fretboard hand, as of yet anyway.
I did have a nice power nap today then I changed the air filter in my car. Pretty good lunch hour