Easter and other stuff

Today is my favorite "holiday". I used quotes there because it is much more than just a holiday. Easter is the most meaningful day to me as a Christian. Without the resurrection, the virgin birth is just a odd mishap, Jesus was just some really nice guy walking around doing crazy things. To me the resurrection verifies everything else. It is the finally bullet point, which brings the whole story together. It makes me realize what one man had gone through for me, who is undeserving of anyones sacrifice, much less the sacrifice of a perfect being. This is truly a day to be thankful for! 

Now for the less important part of today, the weigh in. 270.4. I gained a little, no big deal. I am looking for a good weight lifting program to start on next week. I think I have found one, but it is a little advanced for me, but I have seen it work for a friend of mine. I think I will just adapt a little to simplify it for me for a week or two and build up to the actual program. In case anyone was wondering, it is Maximum Strength by Eric Cressey. It is basically a program to build strength for real world use, not body building. Also, I took pictures of myself now, and will take one every two weeks or so while lifting to see if there is any "improvements". 

So I have been going to the gym everyday. I love it. I started jogging a little more as well during my time. I can jog about half the time (around 15 mins) I'm on the treadmill now, which is way better than I thought I could do. After a week or two of lifting I will see about upping the time on the treadmill. 

Now I need to start working on my diet more, again. With the lifting and improved cardio, a better diet will definitely help my efforts. Looks like more grilled chicken for me. 

Happy Easter everyone!

The gym, learned a few things...

Well, went to the gym yesterday and today. I learned a few things.

1. I like the treadmill. I get to watch tv, it has a fan built into it, and most importantly it keeps me at a good pace. I know that I would average about the same time walking around the 'hood, but that didn't mean I stayed at a consistent good pace.

2. I have very little upper body strength. Seriously, it is pretty sad.

3. It is intimidating going to the gym to do weights. Cardio on the treadmill is fine, but lifting is a little nerve wracking. I think even more so since I am a guy. I feel so out of my comfort zone lifting weights. Despite my amazing body and incredibly manliness, I have never had a serious routine for lifting. I just don't know what I am doing. Which brings me to my next point....

4. I need to get a weight lifting partner or hire a trainer for a few months, just until I get into a routine of what to do and how to do it properly.

Otherwise, things are going great. I honestly just feel better. I sleep better, I have more energy. Granted those two things are subject to what time I actually goto sleep. I have a good church that I really enjoy, my truck for the moment is running well, the dog seems to be feeling good (still has cancer, but is still very energetic), tomorrow is my nephews b-day, I am almost done building my gun (an AR-15 for those that are interested). Lots of good things going on for me right now. It feels nice.

I think the scale may be broken....

First, sorry for no post last week. Went home to visit mom and dad and goto the Braves game, and start putting my gun parts together. Anyways.......

This weeks weight, 270.0. Yeah, I was surprised too. I usually check my weight 2 or 3 mornings during the week, and thought  it might get down to that today. I am just still surprised at how easy it is going for me, and dreading the times when it stops being so easy. The gym opened this week, so now I have no excuse to not walk/work out. After all, I walk by the gym on my normal route anyways. Now I just need to get a weight lifting routine so I can get jacked (this is sarcasm). 

I can tell that this is becoming a serious habit, when this week I tried to talk myself into a day off or two, and I just couldn't. I had to get out there and go. That's a good feeling. 

It's baseball season!!

For those of you that know me, you know I love baseball, especially the Braves. Well, that alone makes this week awesome.

I weighed 275.6 this morning, probably more accurate than last week. I was told by a few people that I was noticeably slimmer. I wore a shirt yesterday that I haven't worn in a while, and it fit much better than it had before.

Not a whole lot going on right now honestly, at least not that I can think of. Sorry for the short post, if anything comes to mind later, I'll talk about it then.

275

Yup, 275. Now maybe today was just a good day to weigh in, who knows. Anyways, I am just glad to see that I am still making progress. Every week I wait for it to level out and to not lose anything. I have been thinking about what has helped me the most. Other than everyones encouragement (thank you all for that), I think it has been cutting out calories that I drink. I pretty much only drink 1% milk in the mornings, a diet Dr. Pepper somewhere during the day, and water from there. I used to drink a lot of fruit juices thinking they were good for me. Well, after I had looked at the labels and seeing the amount of sugar and calories in them, I decided to stop drinking them. I attribute the success to that and regular exercise, because the diet has only moderately improved. I just eat a little lighter for lunch/dinner. So as a word of advice to anyone else, watch what you drink and exercise and you will lose weight.

As far as personal/work things. Well, I have decided to be positive. I try to wake up every day and pray for positivity. With testing coming up everyone in the building is a little stressed, even the kids, and even me. To all of my fellow teachers (especially at Gaines!), you do amazing work and lets not forget we are there to impact kids in a positive way, not just for them to pass a test.

I'm still here.

Welp, I have no idea what I weigh right now. This morning it was around 277, but I don't really remember, and I just ate, so now isn't a good time. I'll be sure to post the "official" weight on Sunday as usual.

Just wanted to write and let everyone know I was still around. I spent last week at mom and dad's visiting family. Spent a night with my sister so of course plenty of time with the crazy nephew and the sweetest cutest niece in the world. Seriously, she is adorable. My sister would tell me about people stopping her in stores and such to say how cute she was (which I totally agree with) but we went to lunch at Mellow Mushroom in Chattanooga and sure enough, at least 4 people stopped by our table to tell us how cute she is. All the while the nephew is trying to eat all the pretzels and is falling under the table out of his high chair. The kid is crazy, but absolutely hilarious. I got to see my grandmaw (my last remaining grand parent) who has had a series of doctors appointments lately. She has been diagnosed with cancer and started treatment yesterday. Obviously prayers would be appreciated on her behalf, but just so everyone knows, she is a tough ole' bird and said she wasn't going anywhere till I got married. She might have to wait a while. Anyways, it was great to see her get to play with her great grandchildren.

Obviously, I saw mom and dad. I love my parents, as crazy/off the wall/slow talking as they can be, they are awesome. Dad and I shot some clays in the back yard, good father/son bonding time. Mom and I ate breakfast together one morning, french toast. I like french toast, but no one makes it like mom, her's is the best by far. I had the privilege of getting to see some very good friends and spend a lot of time with them as well. I got to shoot a few times last week, which I love. It's nice to just have some friends come over, throw some clays, put up some targets, and throw some lead down range. The only draw back, my shotgun has been malfunctioning lately, so I had to send it back to the factory to get them to fix it. Just a note, for anyone around Athens that wants to go shoot at the indoor range, let me know, I am always up for that.

Well, now that I got that out of the way, on to current events. I have decided to do my absolute best to not eat out as much (Tuesday is 5$ pizza a Papa Johns, thats $2.50 a meal, can't pass that up. Also Chick fil A for breakfast one day a week and Saturdays. It's my routine, sorry), and now I have an even better goal than losing weight. I want to buy a new gun, so at this point, it's less about weight and more about a new rifle, which will still give me a positive end result at weigh in time and I will be saving money.

Walking has been great this week, not so good last week. I think I might have developed a nice routine now. Get home, eat a nice snack, nap, then walk. I love this daylight lasting till 8ish. Still waiting on the gym to open to start some weights, really looking forward to that.

Ugh, thats enough for now.

I'm so tired.

I can't remember looking forward to a break as much as I am spring break this year. I am just tired every day. There is no such thing as a normal day anymore, something crazy happens all the time. I have done better this week than last week about walking, but still not as good as I should be. I just want to nap every afternoon. I have been having days where I am in a bad mood from the time I wake up to the time I goto sleep, and other days where nothing bothers me. I am looking forward to getting plenty of sleep next week, as well as getting to shoot guns. I honestly plan on shooting 4 or 5 days over the break. It is just something that allows me to concentrate on something totally different for a while. Also, it is fun to push myself to be better at, because I can see a real world connection to a skill that is important, either for self defense or if zombies attack. I will be prepared either way.

In that same vein, I have been thinking about how well I would be able to handle a total collapse of civilization. Would I be able to survive that? It is a fun thing for me to think about, not the collapse, just if I could handle it. Anyways, just some mid week thoughts.