Starting the Year Off With a Bang

So today is January 31st.  It's been one hell of a busy month and one hell of a productive one as well.
Whole 30 - I completed the whole 30 yesterday, answered the questionnaire and weighed myself and took my measurements.  I lost 17 pounds, 2.25 inches around my waist, 3 inches around my chest, .75 inches around my neck and 5.4% body-fat.  I feel great and will follow the re-introduction period as designed in their book and I will see who some of the foods I cut out make me feel.

By accomplishing the Whole 30 plus being a good boy today, I will manage to cross the following items off of my 101 in 1001 list.  I am so confident that I will have a good day today that I'm going to consider them complete now.

• Go one month without added sugar
• Pack lunch to work every day for a month
• Go one month without eating gas/station or takeout food

In order to support my Whole 30, I also completed the following items.  I am now completed 16 of my 101 items.  

• Drink 2 liters of water every day for a month
• Floss every day for 2 months
• Complete a 30 day challenge of some sort
• Take a multivitamin every day for a month
• Set a daily routine and stick to it for a month

Just for the record, the 30 day easy squat challenge was easy.  However it was very difficult on the days I worked late or went hiking.  I did get it done but focusing in on Squats for a month is a little tiring and towards the end my knees felt the pain a bit.  I think these 30 day challenges are interesting but it has a tendency to overexert one set of muscles.  My abs felt it and so did my back but most of the work is legs and my knees took a beating.  I'm going to try the Angry Birds Workout by Nerd Fitness next month to see how far I can get.  I am also going to keep most of my diet Whole 30 compliant while I do the reintroduction and decide what is right for me after.

Where I'm falling Behind

I am still on track but I didn't read any single page this month for my reading goals.  I did go hiking but am slightly behind on the mileage, mainly due to the fact that it is winter and long days are tough in the cold and bad weather ruins plans.  

Swearing - I've had a very difficult time stopping to swear, mainly because I think I can only concentrate at so much at one time and with January being so stressful I think it was a bad time to start.  

My 401(k) took a beating this month so consequently my net worth and retirement savings goals are off track.  I'm sure it'll rebound soon enough to put me on track... hopefully.

I'm thinking February will not be so productive but I'll give it a shot.  

Eisenhower & Pierce 1/29/2016

I took a vacation day today.  I need it.  The next 2 weeks are going to be very hectic.  I'll be on remote locations every day and will be driving about 1,800 miles.  The last few weeks have been busy and sort of stressful with the new diet and some other things that have gone on.  Root Canal, Crown, Broken Snowblower, Snow when they call for Rain etc.  Planning has been bad and nearly anything that could have gone wrong has.  My car did pass inspection though with no fixes required so there's a positive.

The weather forecast looked good so I decided to go above treeline.  I always hesitate when solo hiking so I picked an area I figured other people would be and I saw 12 people all day long.  I hiked Eisenhower and Pierce via the Crawford Path from the Mt. Clinton Road Parking area.

Being on this new diet, the food was a bit tricky.  I was sort of lacking energy all day.  Not sure how to rectify that.  I think I needed more fruit and I really miss bread.

After about 3 miles I crested the ridge and came upon my first view of the day which also showed my destination, the bulbous hump in the middle of the photo is Mt. Eisenhower.

After another mile and a half I was at the summit of Eisenhower with a spectacular view of the cloudy Mt. Washington.

I took this Panorama on my phone.  Forgot my gloves were in the way.

I hiked back the way I came and hiked the .1 miles to Mt. Pierce.  On the way on the uphill out of the col I started to cramp up in my Quads.  I'm not sure why.  I drank a half liter of water, swung my legs around a bit, ate some almonds and pushed on.  About a half mile later I was feeling better.  My hips hurt a bit but that went away too.  Not sure what the issue is there.

On the way down I sat down and ate some more food.  It was in the mid 20's but I could have taken a nap if it wasn't for the butt-sliders making all kinds of noise on the trail.

All in all it was a great day.  The trail was well consolidated start to finish.  There was slight drifting in the col between the peaks but there were no issues.  All water crossings were doable and were mere trickles at best.9.4 miles down 140.6 to go to get my yearly goal.

Rachel Carson 1/17/2016

So we've been a busy family and needed to get out of the house.  We bought Max some new snowshoes for Christmas so we figured we should get out and use them.  We had a great time, the weather was in the high 20's and Max got used to his new feet really quickly.  He didn't like the poles though so I ended up carrying them nearly the entire way.

The hike is only a mile or so and level so great for little ones learning a new craft.

Over Half Way There

Well, today is January 19, 2016.  I'm 19 days into the Whole 30 program.  I've been feeling different for over a week now.  My ring is looser, my neck looks like... a neck.  Today I put freshly washed jeans on and they fit... loosely.  I have 11 days to go to complete the 30 days.  At that point I will weigh myself.  I didn't take any before pictures but I did take a whole bunch of measurements the day before I started this.

To date this month, I have flossed, drank 2 liters of water, stuck to my routine, not eaten out (except for company events), have had zero added sugar and am well on my way to completing a number of goals for myself.  I'm even 19 days into the 30 day easy squat challenge.  Yes, I went with a fairly easy challenge but some days are rather difficult.

At the end of the 30 days, I'll post an update on the changes I saw in myself and my measured results as well.

Here's the lowdown on what I've eaten for the most part.

Weekends... Breakfast I eat an omelette of some sort.  mostly just eggs and salsa, or eggs and bacon or whatever kind of meat I can find that in my head feels like it will go with eggs.  If it's bland.  I add some Frank's Red Hot to it.  If still hungry after, I eat a banana or whatever fruit I have left over from the week.

Weekdays... Breakfast I eat 2 - 3 hardboiled egg whites two small home-made chicken sausage patties and a serving of sweet potato home fries.... every day.  It gets a little bland some days.  I add frank's Red Hot to it and I also have a serving of blueberries/raspberries.

Lunch - Every day I have a salad.  Usually some Romaine, Baby Spinach, Tomato, Avocado, Balsamic Vinegar, Cucumber and whatever protein I have left over.  Today it was chicken sausage, yesterday it was chicken.

Dinner - Varies day to day.  You have to have some variety somewhere.  It's usually Meat and a vegetable.  I've had Ribs, Pork Tenderloin, Chicken, Sausage.  Some days I substitute the veggie for a salad.

Snacks are basically fruit and some nuts.  I try to limit fruit to two servings a day.  I also drink some seltzer water every other day or so.  I like the black cherry flavor the best.

I think when this is all over, I may do it again for another month depending on the results at the end.  I plan to add much more working out in month two.  Baby steps.

Starting Strong I Hope

So, My wife convinced me that I should do the "Whole 30" with her.  It's a diet where you basically cut out all grains, all added sugar, all alcohol, all dairy, and all legumes for 30 days.  You then slowly introduce those foods back in to see how they individually affect you and you make decisions based on how you feel, on how much if ever you should have them again

You basically eat a meat protein and veggies all the time.  I add nuts except peanuts and a little bit of fruit.  I am on day 12 and now that I am over the hump I feel safe writing about it without going off on a rant about how much it sucks to not have that drink at the end of a long day or that baklava that my wife made literally the day before we started this thing.

The upside of the diet so far is that I don't have to worry about food because I know I have to plan ahead to get the food prepared.  If I don't prepare, I won't be able to eat and for me, that's bad... very... very... bad.  The other upside is that it will help me accomplish a handfull of 101 in 1001 day goals like:

4. Drink 2 liters of water every day for a month (I have to drink water or I'll be hungry all the time.  I'm drinking 2 liters of day and so far it's been very easy)

5. Go one month without added sugar, sugary drinks, candy, etc (It's a part of the diet and something I wanted to do anyway...yay)

6. Pack lunch to work every day for a month (If I don't pack lunch I'll be forced to scavenge and find compliant food which is generally fairly difficult in a short amount of time without cooking.)

8. Go a month without getting gas station/takeout food at all (this food is non compliant period).  I did get a few Dunkin Donuts Coffee's Black.  The way I see it, that's fine for the purposes of this goal.

10. Take a multivitamin every day for a month (I've added this to my lunchbag I carry every day to work and it's fairly easy too)

13. Set a daily routine and stick to it for a month (This basically set itself once I started planning means ahead and all that jazz)

16. Complete a 30 day challenge of some sort (The diet is 30 days so that sort of counts right?  Also, I'm doing a 30 day easy squat challenge which can be found here to make sure I hit this one.  It's a twofer)

23. Get to my goal weight (this will take more time than just the diet but I'm hoping for a good jumpstart)

25. Get Body/Fat % to within Fitness Range (Same as above)

Basically, I'm sort of banking on completing 7 more goals this month alone.  Not bad considering I need to do 3 a month to finish and I'm already at 8 now just barely a month in.

Lottery Jackpot 1.5 Billion

So, it's a goal to buy a lottery ticket for a big jackpot.  How about the biggest jackpot ever.  I bought a lottery ticket for the 950M Powerball last week and nobody won.  I'll be buying another ticket tomorrow for the estimated 1.5Billion jackpot.  I cannot believe how large this thing is getting.  I just hope whoever wins it doesn't blow it all and end up poor... unless they want to donate to my retirement.

So the other thing I have done recently is to create a workable budget.  I created it in December for the family and we've been sticking to it fairly well.  We've had some things come up that have gone against budget but there are contingencies in the budget for it.  It just sucks that they occurred so early in the process.  I had to get a root canal and a crown.  P.S.  I'm a very shitty patient when it comes to surgeries no matter how minor.

Now that I swore in the previous paragraph, I should probably tell you that the no swearing for a week item is on hold.  I tried.. Hard.. I swear I did, but just couldn't keep at least one a day from slipping.  I'll wait until I'm a little less stressed out to give it another goal. The furthest I got was one entire day.

In my next post, I'll explain just exactly why this month has been so stressful.