John B. Umstead

So, as Monday was absolutely beautiful outside, I decided to head out to Umstead State Park and go walking about with camera in tow.  Shot half of the roll of film on my walk out from the parking area off the Reedy Creek entrance and half on the way back.  I love how you see completely different and awesome looking things just by walking in the opposite direction.  Hence why I saved half of the roll for the walk back.

The following are a few of the ones that I really liked.  Minimal photo editing was needed for these four.

And now, for something completely different...

As I am sure everyone has noticed, I haven't been updating this here blog thing on a very regular basis.  Basically, I find it boring to just post what I did for a workout that day.  It makes for uninteresting reading, and quite frankly, uninteresting is not what I am all about.  So here's the fun part.  This is basically going to be my space for posting whatever I want to.  The basis for the blog will still be focused on the quest for a better, healthier, happier Thomas.  However, there are things aside from defattyizing that aid in my betterment, happiness, and health.

This is now a place for all of those things to live.  Starting with the newly revisited interest in photography and photo editing.  A week or so ago, I decided to actually use my old film SLR and not only that, but try to learn to use it properly and therefore achieve appealing results.  The first roll of film was mostly a bust.  I tried too do too many things that I and/or my camera couldn't do, or at least do well.  Most of the shots were blurred or overexposed, but I did end up with a couple that I really liked (one after monkeying around with it in GIMP).

Decay

Renewal

Week Three Results

Resting Heart Rate: 72 bpm
Height: Still 6'8"
Weight: 311 lbs
Waist (at navel): 49.25"
Hips: 49.5" 
Chest 51" 
Left/Right Thigh (at midpoint): 27"/27.25" 
Left/Right Bicep (at midpoint): 17.5"/17.5"

So some interesting results.  I will state first and foremost that this was not a great week for me as far as the workout goes.  Admittedly, I had to cut out a couple of workouts thanks to my right knee hurting (joint pain, not muscle pain).  So in the interest of not actually hurting myself, I tried to avoid much of anything that put any impact on my knee. As a result, I did more weight training stuff that before and assume I gained a little muscle without losing much or any fat seeing as how I gained this week (+0.5#) while losing inches in my chest and hips (-1.5" total) while gaining in my thighs and arms (+1.25" total).  The knee is feeling better, so I should be ready to go back at it tomorrow.  Today I walked around Umstead State Park for a couple of hours without it hurting at all. 

Not the results I was hoping for, but nothing to discourage me either.  I know that some weeks, things will happen and the results will look weak.  However, it is the long term results that matter.

Week TWO!

Resting Heart Rate: 72 bpm
Height: Still 6'8"
Weight: 310.5 lbs
Waist (at navel): 49.25
Hips: 50"
Chest 52"
Left/Right Thigh (at midpoint): 26.5"/26.75"
Left/Right Bicep (at midpoint): 17.25"/17.5"

A day missed?

OH HELL NO.  However, none of you slackers even said a word.  Luckily, there was no disastrous event that prevented me from working out yesterday.  Just forgot to post about it.  I decided to switch things up a touch and went to play basketball instead of just doing the normal cardio workout.  Played three games of 3-on-3 (half court) and two games of 4-on-4 (full court).  That was about all that I could stand to do without falling over.  My new basketball shoes are great.  No rubbing in weird places and fit nicely.

Strength training was this morning.  P90 Sculpt Circuit 1-2 with some extra air squats thrown in at the end.  Cardio again tomorrow before my boy Joel's wedding and then one more day of strength training before the end of week two which means we get more results in!

Better late than never.

So I forgot to reset my alarm today and due to having to go into work early, I wasn't able to do the p90 workout for today.  I was not pleased, mainly with myself.  However, I made sure to do something while at work to make sure I got some extra activity in.  I know I racked up 150 air squats (5 sets of 30) throughout the day along with using a full bucket of pickles to do arm and shoulder lifts.  Not completely sure on those exercises as I wasn't doing them every time that I did squats.  Also threw in some calf raises and wall push-ups as I am not getting down on the floor of the kitchen to do any other form of push-up.

Not exactly what I was wanting out of a workout today, but it's better than nothing.  Time for bed so I can get up bright and early and do my workout before work tomorrow.

Round Two. FIGHT!

Back to it.  Strength/Resistance training today took me a minute to finally get up and do, but it is done and I am again happy that I did it.  Feel wide awake now and ready for the 11 hours of NOFO that are ahead of me.  Well kind of anyway.  Gotta fight through this week so we can see what my results are when its not after a day of gorging myself on food and beer.

P90 Sculpt circuit 1-2  -- ~29 minutes

One week in.

Resting Heart Rate: 76 bpm
Height: Still 6'8"
Weight: 318 lbs
Waist (at navel): 50"
Hips: 50"
Chest 52"
Left/Right Thigh (at midpoint): 28"/28"
Left/Right Bicep (at midpoint): 17.5/17.75"

So I only netted a loss of 2.5 pounds, but I have a distinct feeling that the day off from my diet that was the Super Bowl is partially responsible.  Another reason to move my day off from the diet to Tuesdays as I planned.  However, I did see a marked improvement in that I lost inches.  Two inches from the waist in a week is pretty boss in my opinion.

Secondarily, I am moving my rest day from working out to Mondays.  Did some cardio today and will start my six days with strength training tomorrow.  This is basically to give myself more time to do the cardio workouts which are about 15 minutes longer on the days that I have to be into work later.  Basically I am trying to make sure that I can get the full workouts in every day.  I ran out of time a couple of days last week that that kind of got on my nerves.  Anyway, seven days down and I feel markedly better than I did 8 days ago.

Day of rest.

So today was the day that I had nothing to do in accordance with this blog.  I didn't work out.  I didn't follow my diet.  And I didn't care.  However, I care now.  I have eaten, drank, and lounged enough to be ready to get back to things tomorrow.  I do think that it's not a bad idea to move my day off from the diet to the day after my weigh-in day.  Nothing like skewing numbers to make myself seem like I am making more progress.

With that in mind, I ate way too much while watching the Super Bowl tonight.  I think I will be okay in the end, however.  We shall see tomorrow.

Last day of week one.

Woke up this morning with very little soreness.  Shoulders and back are all that are tight.  However, my right knee, which i have always had small issues with, was not feeling quite right.  Still got my workout in, but at a much lower pace and made sure to avoid too much impact on the knee.  As a result, I also decided to go walk around the apartment complex.  Kept a good, not quite jogging pace.  Now the knee seems to be better as I assume I kind of worked whatever kink I had out.  Still worked up a good sweat and got my heart rate up for a good while.  Tomorrow is my rest day, so I can use that to make sure the knee isn't doing anything other than feeling weird. 

One week down.  Monday we see where I have gotten myself in said week.


P90 Sweat Cardio 1-2    ~30 minutes
Medium paced walking (no clue how far it was)

ONETWOTHEEFOUR FIFFFF

Day five and I woke up feeling mostly recovered.  Calves are still a little tight, but I mostly attribute that to working out and then going to work, where I am on my feet for hours at a time, so they don't get a ton of rest time.  Either way, felt great and was able to sleep in a bit (til 9:30, woo!).  I am really looking forward to Monday to see what results I have for week one.  I know that I feel better all around so far, so that's enough for right now.  However, hard numbers will be nicer. 

I have come to realize that I am going to NEED my day off from any workout, including playing basketball.  So I think that I am going to have to adjust my workout schedule to accommodate a day for playing ball.  Not a big deal, though.  Still gonna keep working out 6 days a week for at least 30 minutes. 

Speaking of which, workout for today is done. No breaks or pauses aside from finishing my sets before the people in the magic picture box finished theirs.  Time for FOOOOOD. 

Workout:
P90 Sculpt circuit 1-2 - resistance training - 30 minutes

Day Four

Feeling good today.  Calves are still a little tight, but that's nothing a good stretch couldn't handle before I got into my workout.  The Power Yoga portion of cardio is still the toughest part for me.  I guess that goes back to that whole upper body strength thing.  I am getting better, though.  Made it farther in before I started to have to ease off.  Time for work.  Gonna get my breakfast there.  We are mostly out of eggs here anyway.

Workout:
P90 Sweat cardio 1-2 - 35 minutes

... I got better.

So today is a much better day than yesterday.  Feet and knees are mostly happy again, however that soreness shifted up a bit and now it's my calves and quads that are tight.  I much prefer muscle soreness over joint soreness, however.  My hip flexors also are a lot happier than after the last time I did "Sweat 1-2" during my trial phase before actually starting the program.  I think I did a much better job of controlling my movements and going at a more reasonable pace.

I am definitely seeing this as a challenge so far, as opposed to a routine, then again, I am three days in.  However, despite not being in the mood to do it today, I stepped up and took care of business for day three.

Workout:
P90 Sculpt 1-2 - 30 minutes (took a couple fewer breaks this time)

Day Two

Woke up today and yes, i did go a little hard for Day 1.  Lesson learned.  I am sore, but it's mostly my feet and knees, which I attribute to the basketball yesterday.  I'm not used to running that much.  That said, I am vigilant and still got my ass out of bed and did my workout for today.  Also made sure to do it before eating breakfast so that I burn fat stores instead of my body going for what is in my stomach for energy.  Now it's time for breakfast and then work.  I did skip the Ab workout for now as I am running out of time to get to eat and get to work.  Might do that when I get home from work tonight.

Workout:
P90 Sweat 1-2 - Cardiovascular - ~32 minutes