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