Going Grain-Free on April 1st

Yes, on April Fool's Day, I will start a one-month experiment by eliminating grains from my diet completely. For the entire month of April, no grains of any kind will enter my body. No bread, no cereal, no popcorn, no rice, and alas, no pizza (this will be hard!). I will still have free meals, but it won't have any grains in the ingredients. Examples of free meals: buffalo wings, cream sauces, sausage maybe. I'll one have one free meal a week, so I'll think of them as they come up.

Along with the grains, I will making a few other adaptations to my current diet. Here are the guidelines I will be following:

• I will not worry about front loading or back loading, but will try not to eat 2 hours before bed.
• I will not worry about macro-nutrient percentages, but will ensure I'm getting at least 150g of protein daily.
• I will not plan the frequency or balance of meals, instead just eating according to work breaks and hunger.
• I will try intermittent fasting.
• Only 1 free meal a calendar week.
• I will only worry about weekly total of calories, not daily.

That's enough rules for now. I may adjust them as needed.

Next post on April 1st!

Happy 2009!

First post of 2009. A new blog, reflecting my depart from Waffle House. Good riddance, I say! So I'm trying to find something to do everyday of this new year, inspired by sametime715. Not sure what. Photos, no. Blog, well, I should blog frequently but I don't think I can keep it up everyday. It needs to be something easy as something I can record digitally. Maybe something fitness related. Something like journaling. Hmm. Oh well, I'll decide on something today. I will try to blog everyday, even if it's just a few lines.

So right now I'm unemployed. I will find a job before the end of this month! I plan on getting something to pay the bills until I figure out exactly what I want to do for a career. If I even want a career! Is a job that I work at for 5, 10, 20 years really better than several jobs? On that note, I will, every Sunday, do a weekly self-examination of my life. Just what I look at will be determined in an organic manner, starting with what I want to look at, and letting it evolve naturally. I will definitely be writing about this.

So far, my resolutions for 2009 are:

Eat better. Use fitday to get a general daily diet down.

Workout consistently.

Practice drums everyday.

Yeah, that's about all. I'm not that big on resolutions. But what I do like about the new year is the unshakeable feeling of hope and possibilities for the upcoming year. It's pretty cool!

Taking a cue from Marc, I will now list the significant events of 2009, in no particular order:

Graduated college! FSU, B.S. Geography (Environmental Studies).
Got my first salary job. Waffle House management, I resigned.
Got Mimi. Am now a cat person.
Got my iMac. Am now a Mac person!
Started my path to becoming a drummer! Using RockBand to lay the foundation.
Got my first new car. 2008 Saturn Astra XR. It rocks!
Marc and I moved to a downstairs apartment. The only way to go in a complex!
Started working out at Gold's Gym. The best gym in the world, in my opinion.
Made it 3 years clean and sober.
Got credit cards. Not such a good thing, maybe.

That's all I can think of. All in all, a pretty good year!

Stick it out

So yesterday at the gym I started questioning my job again.  I am concerned that I am so frequently questioning whether to quit or not, like that should be a flag or something.  And yet, I always come back to sticking with it.  When I ask myself what kind of job I want, the only answers I have are the filing/sorting job I had at Baptist Hospital or Not Working.  The filing job is a dead end low paying job.  The not working one is achievable, if I put in my 20 or so years at my current job.  The economy is rough right now, and many employers are not looking to do a lot of hiring, meaning my job prospects if I quit would be limited.  My job is unpleasant at times, is demanding most of the time, and leaves me with little free time.  But it is something I can do pretty well, at least above average.  They tell me the first year ins the hardest, and I'm only about halfway through it.  So I have to stick with it, and I have to make the decision to commit to it.  If I start hating and despising it on a regular basis like the army then I will start looking for another job.  I'm not there now, and the way my job is now will definitely not stay the same; it will definitely change.  So just focus on the next right thing, don't dwell on the negatives, and suck it up and move on.  Everything will be okay.

Weights are going well.  I am trying to workout as much as I can, taking the weekends off.  I can feel and see improvement. 

We have Rock Band 2 now, with the drum trainer.  Hard, but good. I'll practice more today.

Going to vote early today.  Obama!

All for now.

Called In

Got my first middle of the night call in to work last night.  Went to bed thinking I was pretty safe from getting a call, and of course got one.  It wasn't too bad, only had to help them through the rush, which lasted about an hour.  So all told, only lost about 2 hours sleep.  Could be way worse.  I kept a good attitude about the whole thing, and although I'm sleepy I'll be alright for today.  Looking forward to playing Rock Band 2 tonite!

Off on a Monday

Yesterday was the first day of my "weekend", my two days off after working my usual six-day week. I ran errands, bought a new programmable coffee maker, ate at Chick-Fil-A (their new dipping sauce is terrible!), watched The Shield, and took a nap.

About 4:00 pm, Ingrid called and bitched to me about Manny not understanding that she needs to get off early on Monday's, something that I had previously authorized . The other girl had called out, so she couldn't leave unless someone else was there. I listened to her, told her I was on her side, but when I am off Manny is in charge, and she really needs to talk to him about it. She said she would call him and also call the 3rd shift person to see if they could come in early. I think she just needed to let me know about it (hopefully). No calls since, which means it was more than likely handled in some positive way. It concerned me a little at the time, but I am learning not to let it stress me out or worry about it more than is needed. I am off, Manny is in charge. I need to let him handle it. I'm learning.

Did Legs yesterday. Did my 4 sets of squats, felt good with that. Will up the weight next week. Went to 15 lbs on my walking lunges; could totally feel it! Am slowly increasing weight on all leg exercises. I'm not sore today, so I think my legs are getting used to a frequent schedule. Leg soreness sucks! Did 30 min cardio, treadmill walk level 7 on hill repeats. Moderately hard, felt good. Had Adam's lasagna for dinner. Not a great nutrition day, but it's my day off. Gonna try to do Yoga today.

Practiced drums for about an hour. Consistency is the key to improvement. Moved up a level on hard. Failed at one song, sucked on Indestructible chorus, but still felt strong overall. The best thing about these video games that it objectively shows improvement. The better I get, the more I move up the levels, the higher percentage I get on the song, the more points I get. All awesome metrics. I'll practice more today.

What the title means

These are the 3 main areas of concentration in my life right now, in order of priority, time spent, effort, intensity, etc.

Waffles: I am a brand spankin' new manager at a 24-hour restaurant that sells waffles.

Weights: I am weightlifting 5-6 times a week, with the focus on bodybuilding. At Gold's Gym, by far the best gym in town.

Drums: I am playing Rock Band on a near-daily basis, attempting to learn how to play the drums using a video game and plastic electric drum pads. (Don't laugh; I truly believe that one day there will be a large group of real drummers who got started playing with Rock Band and Guitar Hero.)

So there you have it. Stay tuned.

What I Want

hmm