Family fun day!
AM:
30 min elliptical machine
30 min elliptical stepper
PM:
2 hour 45 min hike through Rock Creek Park with my wife and Bro-in-law! FUN!
Sure it was cold at times and the hills were tough but it was a good time had by all. We headed home and had Chinese food for dinner. Not the best choice for healthy eating, but it has been a long time since we ate Chinese food together. Family fun days rock!
Happy Friday !
Today was a very off day. It all started last night…
I was up late reading a book on my phone until about 20 minutes past midnight. So I think I am read for bed and I close the book app I notice I had received an email notification that a friend posted something on facebook. I figured what the heck it will only take a second to see who else is still up this late and see what they have to say. Turns out it was my neighbor. Her car was broken into. I jumped up quickly and checked on our vehicles through the windows. I turned on the lights in the back yard and looked around into the darkness. There was nothing there. As my mind raced I remembered hearing a door close that sounded like it came from the neighbor’s house on the other side of me. Now I am wondering if I heard the actual break-in. I look out to the front yard and do not see any police cars or any activity for that matter. I am fully awake now so I settle in at the computer and read some of the country crime blogs to pass the time. Yep that was sure to relax me. There does seem to be some crime in our area. All different times of the day, some single person attacks, some groups attacking a single person. Knives were used as were guns. Lovely. It is easy to live in a bubble and not see what all happens around you. It is easy to feel paranoid when you think of the bad out there, and it is also easy to think you are paranoid when looking for safe and legal solutions to protect yourself and loved ones. At the same time no one thinks it is paranoid to have homeowner’s insurance even though nothing has happened in or to your house for 20 years or more. It is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. The message of the day is…BE PREPARED!
OK, so now you know what my night was like. I was up until 2 am and finally fell asleep. I was up at 6:15 am and none too happy. But I needed to get up and get the trash out to the curb. So I muddled through my morning getting to the gym and having a weak workout. Today I should have jogged 5 miles. I only did 2 miles. I then walked at incline for 40 minutes.
I got home and had to meet with a neighbor. A different neighbor called the county over a rat problem. We have a park 3 yards down that have trash cans, there are sewers in the street, and all the yards have some places where nature could hide. But I got to tell you, I have never seen rats in my yard, or any of my neighbor’s yards. The inspector came by and looked at my neighbors yard. There was no feces or evidence of any rats so the county official is planning on putting traps in the sewers. Good Plan. I also had the chance to talk to my neighbor about what happened with the car break-in. Turns out his wife was not at home with the car in the driveway. That was a relief to hear even though I still felt terrible she had to deal with the crap that comes with being violated like that. She is involved and active in sports and was out at a school facility training with her group. He vehicle was the unlucky one chosen as the “gold mine” for the car thieves. It is an old car. And they did not succeed in getting the car or anything of value from the car. There were tools in the back out of site, that were worth a couple hundred bucks. Must have been some kids or knuckleheads that are destined to get caught eventually. With that activity finished I was finally able to take a nap! I slept for about 2 hours. It felt good. I was still not caught up with rest but I was at least better than I was.
Before I knew it I was at the gym for my afternoon workout. I was still feeling off so I did 30 minutes on the elliptical stepper machine and walked a mile on the treadmill at 10% incline at 3.5 MPH. I got the time in and headed home for some baked chicken for dinner. I can’t believe it but I am ready for bed and it is only 10:30! have a good night.
Today was a record setting day! Mark today on the calendar! I ran a mile in 8:17! That is the fasted I have run a mile in 10 years or more!
I had to share that first thing!
AM:
8:17 mile jog
35 min elliptical machine
10 min bike
PM:
weight lifting for 60 minutes
I was able to work out up to 720 pounds on the leg press again today!
Today was a great day. Not to demanding, I did not take a nap at all and I felt awake and normal all day. Dinner was a regular favorite. I cooked ground turkey, added black beans and 2 cans of fire roasted tomatoes, spices and served it over a salad with crumbled tortilla chips and shredded low fat Mexican 4 cheese blend. It rocked!
Nothing special today. My ankles are a bit sore from all the walking yesterday. I actually had to take some Advil this evening.
AM:
32 min jog of 3 miles
30 min elliptical machine at 60% max
PM:
60 min on the elliptical stepper from 50% to 70% max
Foods were good today. Dinner rocked! We had steak and mushrooms over a salad. 
I hope to enjoy the day more tomorrow. I plan on getting up early so I can be at the gym early. Some days work out like that.
Family fun day!
Today was a special day. My wife took off work since she has been doing crazy overtime for the last few weeks and needed a day to recharge. She is doing a charity walk pretty soon that will be 13.1 miles two days in a row. Today she wanted to walk….far. We decided to walk out our front door and walk to the 4 Mile Run Trail and walk that to the Mount Vernon Trail. As we walked we saw many different kinds of birds including geese and we saw fish jumping through the surface of the creek leading into the Potomac River. 
We walked about 10.5 miles today in 3:19 minutes. Not to bad considering we stopped a store to use the bathroom, we stopped to watch the fish and we slow walked at the sailboat marina. It was quite a workout despite not causing me to break a big sweat or have me panting out of breath. My leg muscles were burning!
I still had energy to lift at the gym this afternoon. I weight lifted for 56 minutes doing exercising including bench press, leg press, overhead press, cable flies, triceps push downs, cable curls and straight bar curls. It was good!
Dinner tonight was full of protein. My wife baked some tilapia and I steamed broccoli and made some cous cous with raisins in it. Dinner rocked! 
I had to douse the fish in hot sauce, it is the only way to eat it! Unless of course it is pan grilled. The day was great and it was a pleasure to enjoy the whole weekday with my wife.
On a seperate not a family member got hit with bad news, they got laid off. We hope he will fair better than I have so far. A company would be a fool not to hire him! Best wished on the hunt, and enjoy the time off.
Here is a funny thing sweeping the net, The Cinnamon Challenge! Try and eat a whole table spoon of cinnamon. Oh yeah and video it so we all can enjoy it! Here is an example:
AM:
20:30 min 2 mile jog
40 min elliptical machine
PM:
45 min elliptical machine
Today was a weird one. I took 2 naps today! I was pretty tired since I was up at 5:30 this AM. I made it to the gym early and was home by the time I am sometimes only getting to the gym. I did my thing and decided to play some PS3. It had been a while and I played a free demo of a shooting game. It was fun. I soon found I was tired and laid down for a nap. Daisy joined me as she was already sleeping on the blankets at the foot of the bed. I eased under the sheets and she barely stirred. About an hour went by and I was up and watching some TV. I had some lunch and watched some more TV and felt tired. So I took another nap. That is 2 in one day! WOW that is a record for me. I guess sometimes it is just that way.
No pictures today. Nothing was worthy. Dinner was a tuna salad over lettuce. Nothing special, but it was nutritious.
Sleepy Sunday!
So I slept in a little bit and eventually made it to the gym, alone. Honey Bunny was not feeling great and rested on the couch instead.
AM:
60 min elliptical stepper
PM:
60 min weight lifting
4 sets assisted pull-ups
4 sets squats
4 sets military presses
3 sets dead lifts
8 sets of ez-bar curls
Not to bad of a day. Dinner tonight was tasty. I cooked come chicken breasts, tortellini with Vodka sauce, and spinach. Like I said tasty.
We went to the gym today! The weather outside was frightful, and it was soo delightful, to go to the gym with my wife!
We both got on treadmills and did our thing. I jogged a mile then walked at 10% incline at 3.5 mph for a bit. I would have quit then and moved onto the elliptical machines but my wife decided she was going to job some. So it was on. We took turns alternating walking 5 minutes then jogging 5 minutes. She was walking faster than I was walking, especially since I over did it leg pressing 720 pounds yesterday and boy were my leg muscles not happy today. She was closing in on my distance as she walked and I would pull ahead again as I jogged since I was faster there. In the end I kept a 2/10 of a mile lead over her but she could have totally beaten me if she wanted. She jogs faster than me and walks faster than me. I was just lucky today.
My PM workout was 45 minutes on the elliptical machine. I kept it set at 50% of the max the machine could go. My legs protested greatly but I made it.
Foods today were good. I was reasonably close to my target calories and dinner was the best of the day. I made a chicken soup using chicken legs, lentils, harvest grains, carrots, celery, onion, and some instant mashed potatoes. The potatoes thicken it slightly and give it a nice earthy flavor. Here is what it looked like.
The soup was great today since we had the ice storm last night and muc
Happy Friday!
Today was a great day for many reasons. First off I had a great morning workout. I spent an hour on the treadmill as two 30 minute periods with a couple minute bathroom break at the 30 minute mark. Who knew all the bouncing would cause such a need to drop a biscuit!
So I did 5.37 miles in the hour on the treadmill. That is not fast, but it is awesome that I could do it since I have not been doing longer runs over 3 miles. I had to do some grocery shopping after the gym, the shower and eat some breakfast. Since I was up early I was way ahead of my day today. I decided to head to a museum to get some culture. I arrived in Fairfax and heading into the NRA Firearms Museum. What a place. They rotate different collections through their displays. Before you go thinking big deal they are guns, let me tell you, they are so much more than that. They are windows into our US history. Snapshots in time from different wars and conflicts America was involved in from colonial times up to the present. Besides history they are works of art. Some of the details on the pistols and rifles were so ornate. There were some inlaid with gold and silver. There were pearl and ivory hand grips with fine etchings in them, there were hand engraved masterpieces worthy of any museum. The museum also covered the entertainment industry. Famous movie and TV show guns were there on exhibit. My favorite was the Tom Sellect (Magnum P.I.) display pieces. Tom received a 3 pistol matched set from Colt in a beautiful case. He has it on loan to the Museum.
Here are some of my other favorites, unfortunately me cell phone did not capture the detailing on the pistols as seen in person. In many of the shots the guns do not have the awe inspiring presence that they do in person.
It was a pleasure to revisit this treasure.
I headed home, had some lunch and then watched some TV. Before I knew it I was heading the gym for some weight lifting. There was something about today. During my bench pressing I lifted 235 lbs. That is the most I have pressed since losing the 90 lbs. That was cool. I was having a strong day today because while doing leg presses I lifted 720 lbs! That ties the most I have ever done in my life. I usually don’t do more than 540 lbs, but 720 was impressive.
My day ended with a chicken thigh based nacho chip platter for dinner. It hit the spot. Before I knew it it was time for bed, good night!
What a great day! I was up early and could not fall back asleep. I tried to but never really go there. I had set the alarm and it startled me when it went off, but I was not really asleep. So I was up early and my day started better because of it!
I started with a fast mile on the treadmill:
AM:
8:35 min mile jog
35 min elliptical machine
30 min weight lifting
PM:
30 min elliptical machine
30 min elliptical stepper
I did well today eating. My total calories for the day were 2,153 calories. That rocks. I made a point of tracking my food as I ate it and I made better choices because of it. Even dinner was amazing and simple too. I made a tuna salad with celery, pepper and tomatoes in it. I added the tuna to a whole wheat tortilla and added some lettuce. This was a high protein meal that kept the calories low for me. WOOHOO!
Tomorrow I have some errands to run, but I think I will treat myself to a trip to the NRA Firearms Museum and maybe a trip to the range for some target shooting if time allows. It has been years since I have been to the museum. Last time I was there was with my wife. We almost stopped last weekend after the RV show but I was tired and ready to get home. Boys and their toys….
