Another week has come and gone. This past weeks workout was pretty tough for me, especially since it included pull-ups I still need to assist myself in order to complete more than a few pull-ups. Other than that the rest of the exercises went well and really wore me out. Unfortunately I can't say the same for my interval training this week. As I have mentioned I have actually started in enjoying jogging/running, but this week it has snowed and been in the 20's all week long. I only managed to get 1 session in rather than 3. I wish it would warm up a little and the snow would melt so I could get back out there. I could have done some interval training on the Nordic track, but I hate that thing. Plus our basement (where it is located) is full of stuff getting ready for the move.
It is hard to believe that I am already past the half way point and I am really excited about my results. Although I don't look as good as Arnel did at the half way point, I am seeing huge improvements in my fat loss and muscle gain. I am slowly seeing fat come off my body from all over the place. I can tell that I still have a layer of fat all over my upper body, but it is slowly going away which gets me excited. I now weigh less than I have in at least 7 or 8 years maybe even more. I have officially lost 11 lbs. as of right now since started the iwantsixpackabs program, but at one time in recent years I was as high as 230 lbs..
I have had time to play all of the games enough to give my opinion on. I will start with Guitar Hero 3 since it was the first one that I purchased, then Ace Combat, and last Halo 3.
Guitar Hero 3 was a game that I was looking forward to just because I wanted to get some more songs to play. I really do like the tracklist and there are some awesome songs to play. The one song that I was really looking forward to playing was "One" by Metallica. I have had a blast with all the other tracks also. I was also looking forward to playing online. The only problem is that I don't have any friends that have the game too, so I have only played online with strangers and got by butt kicked, not a whole lot of fun. I really would like to play with people I know I just think it would be that much more fun. I really look at this game as a game that I like to just pick up the guitar play a few songs and then move on. I do like the fact that the 360 version has achievements which add some additional challenges to achieve. One thing that I don't like is the fact that they made some songs unlockable only via coop career mode, since I don't have anyone to play career mode with that kind of sucks. I would really like to get Sabatoge by Beastie Boys, but it is only unlocked with coop career play and I don't like doing and cheats. Overall I am happy with the game and have fun playing it every once in a while for a quick video game playing sessions. I would like to get Rock Band, but I really would like to get the drum kit so part of me wants to wait till I could potentially buy the drum kit rather than just buying the game. Guitar Hero 3 is nice to have around till I get a chance to buy Rock Band.
Shortly after buying GH3 I went out and bought Ace Combat 6 with the flight stick. I have gotten to play this game a decent amount, but not as much as I would have liked to. There are just too many games that came out the following week that I have gotten my attention right now. But with the amount I have played I can say that the game is an absolute blast to play. I love having the flight stick, it just adds to the whole gaming experience and makes me feel like I am really flying a fighter jet. It does take a little getting use to, but once you fly around a little it really feels natural. I have played both the story mode and online. I love both for different reasons. The story mode is a lot of fun to play through and you feel like you are a pilot in a war. It really isn't too hard, but can be frustrating if you mess up and have to start the level all over again if you didn't reach a check point. Online is another story it is hard because sometimes when you spawn there is someone right on your tail and you are blown out of the skies. But with all the chaos there is so much going on it makes it that much more fun. Just to think that there are 16 other planes up in the sky all dog fighting is awesome. I really want to play this game more and eventually beat it, but like I said before COD 4, Assassin's Creed, Super Mario Galaxy, and Uncharted have my attention.
Last but not least Halo 3, I must first start off saying that I didn't plan on purchasing this game, but after a few friends were telling me I needed to pick it I decided to go ahead. Honestly had I not purchased this game I really wouldn't be missing much. I will admit that I got to play through the game on in Coop with a friend and my brother, and that was a blast. I have also played through 2 of the missions by myself and had a decent time, but really it wasn't all that fun. I did play a little bit of the online deathmatch and that was ok, but really not that great compared to other games like GOW, Vegas, or COD 4. I know I haven't played either of the other Halo games, and maybe that would make it somewhat better, but I highly doubt it. I will admit that I am not really into the whole Sci-Fi type stuff that this game has. I really like the realistic shooters; Vegas and COD 4. I wish I could say that this game was worth the purchase, but I really can't, how people could say that this is going to get Game of the Year with all of these other awesome games that came out is beyond me. There are just too many other games that blow it out of the water. Personally I don't get the obsession with Halo and I am glad this was the last of the series.
As you can see I liked some of the features in Halo 3, but it was my least favorite purchase of the games I purchased during this time period. But in reality I couldn't even say which one I like the best out of this group because all of the games are just way too different. Each of them have their strengths and reasons to play them, but none of them are as good as the ones that I am currently playing.
Another week has past and I am feeling really good about last week, I can't believe that I am half way there. I managed to do all the exercises along with all of the interval training. I feel like I ate pretty well and all the workouts went well and kicked my butt. I also accomplished something this past week I didn't think I could do that quickly. I ran/jogged for 4 miles and I felt like I could have easily gone another mile. It amazes me to think that I could barely make it a mile just 8 weeks ago. I love the fact that my endurance is going through the roof and I feel like I am getting a log stronger. The only thing that I really struggle with in the exercises are the pull ups, I just can't do that many at all and then either have to resort to assisted pull ups or an alternative pull up exercise. I really wish that I could manage to do a lot more pull ups maybe someday.
My stats are looking really good along with my photos. Since I am half way through the 16 week program I decided that this week I would put up comparison stats and photos just to see what everything looks like at the midway point. As you can see I have lost 3% body fat, gained 1.25 inches in my biceps, .5 inches in my forearms, lost 2 inches in my waist, gained 1.5 inches in my chest, lost 9.5 lbs, and my BMI has dropped 1.2 meaning I have gone from moderate health risk to low.
I saw this website via Sean's blog (a college friend). It rates the reading level of your blog, actually I am impressed that I got this level of reading and honestly this is where I would want it to be, LOL!!! This is the site that gives you a rating.
I kind of finished week 7 this past week, unfortunately I missed 1 day of working out and plan on making it up today and trying to get back on schedule for next week. I did decently well considering the holiday and vacation. It felt good to workout while on vacation, it is the first time that I have really worked out while out of town. My stats didn't change a whole lot, but they also didn't go head in the wrong direction. Week 7 was pretty tough, I managed to do 30 reps of everything, but pull ups, I could only do about 5 unassisted pull-ups, then had to do assisted pull ups along with an alternative exercise to pull-ups. The Spartan 300 workout definitely pushes your body and isn't easy, but it also is a good check up to see how much stronger I have gotten since the beginning. I know for a fact that there is no way that I would have been able to do even 100 total reps. The strength that I have gained is unbelievable and also my endurance is better than I can remember since high school. As I mentioned before I am actually enjoying running, which is a complete shocker to me.
Since I did miss 1 day of working out I am going to add it to this week and instead of having Sunday off I will be exercising on Sunday. It will be a full week and tough, but I hate the fact that I missed a day of working out.
Charles Barkley is one of my favorite people to watch on tnt during the basketball season. He is hilarious!! This is a video I saw of Frank (from the upcoming TBS series Frank) doing an impersonation of Charles on Inside the NBA.
As I mentioned last week I was going to redo week 6 workout since during the actual week we went on vacation and I missed several days worth of exercising along with not eating well. This week went a lot better than last week, I managed to get all my exercising done that I needed. Also along with the exercising I also pushed my self to run 3.2 miles. I actually did the jog/run/sprint rotation for 2 miles and then jogged the last 1.2 miles. It feels really good to have accomplished this in what seems such a short period of time. I know I can look back to a post made about a month and a half ago where I described my experiences just jogging 1 mile. (I felt like I was going to die.) I feel really good about my conditioning and strength. My stamina is a lot higher than it was I and I am loving it. The funny thing is I think I actually am enjoying running, it is fun. If you would have asked me 1 month ago I would have said that there is no way I would ever like running.
There were some changes to my stats this week which is awesome and really helps keep me motivated. (I always love seeing changes.) Also I have compared Week 0 photos to this weeks photos and notice a big improvement. The funny thing is I really notice a huge difference in my back. That must be where most of my fat is coming off first.
Now onto Week 7, this is the week of the Spartan 300 workout. I am looking forward to seeing how well I can to the workout, but am a little nervous. It looks to be really tough. I am suppose to do 10 different exercises 30 reps, with a 15 sec. break between each exercise, each for a total of 300. The main exercise that I am worried about is the pull ups, I really don't think I can do 30, but I will do as many as I can and then finish it out with and alternative pull up exercise. Of course the downside to this week is this wonderful holiday we call Thanksgiving which involves a lot of eating, not to mention going out of town. Since I will be at my in-laws house I hope that I can at least continue the exercises and not eat too much.
I understand why the gaming companies release a lot of their games this time of year, just in time for Christmas gifts. But, the problem for me is that there are too many great games that were released in the past few weeks. Not only has it hit me financially, but also I don't have enough time in the day to play all these awesome games. And trust me they are all awesome!! For me it started with Guitar Hero III, then I purchased Ace Combat with the Flight Stick. After blowing some serious dough on those 2 games I was convinced by friends to purchase Halo 3, which I was not planning on buying. Then came the 3 games that I have been waiting for all year, all of which are incredible games, and have my attention right now. Call of Duty 4 (Game of the Year IMO), Super Mario Galaxy, and Assassin's Creed. Trying to find a way to balancing playing each of these games is not easy at all.
Although it is easy to add up how much money was spent over the past several weeks on games, I really don't want to see the figure or even think about it. I have had the chance to play a significant amount of each of the games mentioned above and am going to give my opinion of each of them over the next several days. All I have to say is it is a really awesome time to be a gamer, just wish I had more time in my day to play. This year has to be the best year for gaming ever and the year isn't even over yet.
I kind of finished week 6 of the workout last week. As I mentioned in the last post we were going out of town on Thursday and going on vacation unfortunately I did not workout at all while we were gone. I did get 2 of the workouts in last week, but only 1 day of interval training. Since I did poorly last week and didn't eat the greatest while out of town, I have decided to repeat week 6 this week. The good thing is that my weight still dropped a little despite lack of working out. But also there was a drop in my measurement just a little which isn't good. (Maybe it is the difference in the weight.) Either way I am going to redo week 6 so we will have 2 week 6 post, but I plan on counting this coming week as the real week 6 workout. That just means that during the week of Thanksgiving I will be on the week seven workout and I really need to make sure that I do get all the workouts in. We will be in Wichita and I really think I can make myself do them easier there rather than at a hotel.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat has been the number 1 game that I have been waiting for on a very good list of games. Yes Assassin's Creed is right there next to it, but I would have to give COD 4 the edge due to its re playability. The online game play is awesome!!! I of course went out and bought the game yesterday when it was released. I was also pleasantly surprised when I walked into Best Buy and saw that they were doing a movie combo with the game for the same price of $59.99. The included movie is Behind Enemy Lines which I do not own and have wanted to see.
I don't like to play shooting games in front of the kids, but this one I had to put in right away and see what the final game was like. I was fortunate enough to get in on the online beta and let me tell you the final game is awesome and the beta didn't do this game justice. I have played through the first 3 Levels (the first is more of a training mission) in single story mode and the first level is mind blowing. The graphics are insane and the feeling of being right in the midst of war (at least what I imagine it being like) is well implemented.
I love the game for multiple reasons. I love games like Rainbow Six for the tactical aspects of the game, but every once in a while I like running through and shooting them up. This game delivers on both tactical and running and gunning. The sounds of the game are right up there with the graphics, just simply amazing. I can't wait to continue the single player story mode.
Last night I was up till 2 a.m. playing online. This game just delivers in online play. It is the ranking feature of Rainbow Six and Halo 3, but adds a few elements that make it better in my opinion. As I can't verify, but I do believe that you get experience points based on your skill where as RB6 was based on your team. (Can't comment on Halo 3 as I haven't played a whole lot online.) The kill system is very rewarding in the sense that you get points which I displayed above their heads. 10 for a kill and 2 for an assist, it is just nice to know when you get a kill. The maps are incredible some are huge open areas and some are small inside building type maps. Having both types is just awesome. Personally I think this game blows Halo 3 out of the water, but then again I am a big realistic fan. In my opinion this has got to be the best shooter of the year.
Another aspect to the online play that I love is that with the ranking up you unlock all kinds of guns, gadgets, different ways you can enhance your guns. You can enhance your stamina, health and ability with the weapons. There are just so many ways that you can customize your weapons it is awesome and you do this by creating classes. As you use a particular weapon a lot you unlock new items that can be used with that weapon. There are just a lot of things that you can strive for with the ranking system that will make you want to keep playing.
One thing about the online play is Air strikes, and I got to call in some of my first air strikes last night. With 3 straight kills you can active the UAV which shows the location of the enemies, then with 5 straight kills you can call in an air strike which has jets fly over and drop bombs on a specific location that you choose. If you get to 7 straight kills then a helicopter is called in to a location and starts lighting up your opponents. Yes if the enemy has called an air strike you better start sprinting to a building and get inside. And on that topic a lot of the buildings you can go into and up to the multiple level buildings and also get on the roof. Back to the air strike I got to call in an air strike, both jet and heli, several times and it was awesome. With each of those kills it is added to your kill score and you see the points pop up on screen. But also players have the option to carry and RPG and take out the helicopter which is again awesome.
I didn't cover all aspects of the game, but there are just too many. It is a game that you need to play to truly appreciate it. Without a doubt this is a must buy for anyone who owns a 360. Infinity Ward just delivered with this game and I am excited to own it and get to play through more of it, I can only imagine what is in store.
I am done with week 5. Although I struggled with one workout day I did manage to get all my exercise done this past week. There are just some days, usually one out of the week that I just don't feel like doing the workout. The workouts are tough, they really wear me out and push me further than I have been pushed before. Again the circuit training that I have been doing really makes me feel a little sick at the end, but goes away after 5 or 10 minutes. And trust me when I say, when I feel like that I think to myself, why am I putting myself through this? I guess the old saying is true "No Pain, No Gain". I do feel like I am getting stronger. Yesterday for instance part of the workout is doing push ups with my feet elevated on an exercise ball. (not very easy to balance, but does workout more than just my arms.) On my 3rd and final circuit I was able to do 35 push ups, the first day of this past week, it would have been impossible for me to hit that many in the 3rd round. It is definitely helping me build up my stamina. I can jog 2 miles pretty easily at this point, without the running intervals. And the most important thing is that overall I just feel really good. One of the bad things that happened this week for me was Halloween, unfortunately I have a love for chocolate and probably ate a little too much and I know I didn't eat as well either.
I hope to change the eating this week to at least eat better. Plus coming up this week we are going out of town on Thursday so it might be a little hard to get all the exercises done, but I hope to figure out a way. I might just have to make use of the gym at the hotel for once.
I wish I was creative enough to make a costume like this it would have been awesome. But then again the kids might have been too scared to see me in this, but as a fan of Bioshock this is awesome.
Well I am starting week 5 this week and I am at the point of struggling. It isn't easy that is for sure. Last week was the first week of the circuit training. I do a total of 8 different exercises for 45 seconds straight with a 15 second break in between. I do that for 3 rounds. It is extremely hard and I have found myself getting to the point of wanting to puke and feeling very dizzy. It does go away after about 5 minutes, but it does make the workout extremely difficult to get through.
Last week wasn't the greatest week for my workout either I missed a day of working out and a day of aerobic exercise. Otherwise things went well minus what I mentioned above. I must say that the fact I am blogging about the exercises is really helping me stay motivated. I hope that this week will be a better week for me and I plan on really focusing this week and getting all the exercises done. The only downside this week is going to be Halloween, sometimes it is just to hard resist that wonderful chocolate candy. There were slight changes from last week in my stats so it is awesome to see that.
This is my first ollie video. It is from days 2 & 3 of learning how to ollie. I added in slow-mo after each ollie to see where I can improve. I really hope to be able to ollie more consistently and higher by the end of the 1st month. I feel like I have gotten a lot better since the first day, I am getting a lot more comfortable with the rolling ollie, but still have some work to do.
Another week down and I feel good. I am starting to see a small amount of change in the photos which is always good. My weight is down, and I am headed in the right direction. I definitely fell stronger than before and can feel a difference when I go to exercise. I did really well eating this week, minus yesterday when I had a "bad" meal hamburger and fries. But every once in a while I think you need to eat something like that to keep yourself sane.
It has been fun doing different exercises each week and I am looking forward to the new ones this week. I did miss a day of jogging/running, but did skateboard on those days. It is a lot more tiring than I thought it would be. (Skateboarding) Last weeks workout was a little easier than previous weeks, but still hard since there was an extra superset. (4 instead of 3) On to week 4.
I have been extremely frustrated the past few days because I could actually ollie (not very high), but my board would always turn to the right causing me to land crooked which wouldn't be good for obvious reasons. Me being the technical person that I am I broke down everything that my body is doing and do a lot of research to figure out what is wrong, did just that. I discovered that the placement of my feet were off by just millimeters. I needed to use the balls of my feet to go straight up and down which in turn keeps the board in a straight line allowing me to land them much cleaner.
This is a huge relief for me cause now I can start focusing on getting more height along with ollieing at different speeds. I am even more excited about progressing even more. Hope to take some video soon.
As you know I have a new skateboard and I have been riding it the past couple of days minus yesterday because it was raining all day long. It has been a blast and I am having a lot of fun along with a lot of frustration. I am finally over the waveboard feeling when I am riding the board so that makes me feel good. I feel comfortable cruising around on it carving and such.
Right now I am attempting to learn the ollie, the basis for just about every trick on a skateboard. I can ollie decently high standing still, but when I start rolling it is another story. I even struggle when I am standing still with turning slightly in the air. I haven't quite figured out the reason for this turn just yet, but feel I am getting close. I have landed a few rolling ollies successfully and rode away, they weren't very high, but got to start somewhere right. I have read that it can take a long time to learn, but I don't like hearing that. One thing I do like is the challenge to get good at it, it is something that I can continue to practice and I know I will eventually get the hang of it, but I wish I could just pick it up fast.
I might start video taping myself so that I can watch and see what I am doing wrong or right. I will post them online once I start so that you can get a laugh out of it at least, but it will help me to see myself doing them. It will also be nice to be able to look back and see how I have progressed over time. Hopefully I will get better, LOL!!
I didn't realize how tiring it is to just skate around and attempting to ollie. It has also been a great workout for me too, but I am having a blast doing it, unlike some exercises. Although I don't like to look at it like exercise I do realize that it is very good for me and I am really working up a sweat.
My new skateboard arrived yesterday. I got it put together when it arrived and got a chance to take it outside and skate around on it. It is very, very nice. It is going to be a long road ahead for me to learn tricks, but I greatly look forward to it. One of the hardest things for me to do it get the waveboard feeling out of my head. They are two completely different riding styles, with the waveboard I can turn on a dime, but with the skateboard it is very different. I am very excited about it, only downside is that it is raining today. Enjoy!
While I am not a big political person and don't pay attention to politics at all, I saw this on tv and decided to take the quiz to see which candidate best matched me. Just fun to see how my opinions match up with the candidates. It was only 11 questions.
This last week was pretty hard, but I didn't mind doing any of the exercises. They were tough that is for sure. I get to the last superset and am dying, to the point of feeling faint, but it does go away after a minute or two. The hardest part for me by far is the pull ups, At this point I can only do about 3 without assistance. I do feel like I am getting stronger, because the pushups aren't as hard as they were the 1st week, so I do feel progress there. On interval days when I go for a jog/run I can see a lot of progress in terms of stamina. I can just about jog/run 1.6 miles, when I first started I was dead at a mile and that was just with a steady jog. Where as now I actually jog for 4 minutes, then run, for a minute then back to a jog for 2 minutes, then run for 1 etc... It really feels good to be working out and I can feel myself getting into better shape. It is only after week 2 and I feel a lot better than 2 weeks ago.
Looking forward to starting Week 3 today.
Unfortunately I lost my tape measure so I had to use a string and measure the string, this actually may be more accurate, but it could have thrown off some measurements from before, not sure.
I just saw this base jumping video on digg.com. These guys are wearing winged suits that allow them to fly, not fall, fly. They fly close to the mountain walls with complete control. Man would this be a rush, would love to get the opportunity to do this sometime!!
Last night at about midnight I place my order for a new skateboard. As some know I am addicted to board sports and enjoy any sport that uses a board. I have a waveboard which is an absolute blast to carve on it gives me that feeling of being on a snowboard only on concrete. (The only disappointment is the speed at which I go through wheels, and I have used some of the hardest wheels available.) What is lacking on the waveboard is the ability to do tricks. I know that their are plenty of people out there that can do tricks on a waveboard, but it just isn't the same.
I use to skate when I in the 5th and 6th grade loved doing it, but never had a very good board. This was back before they had to lips on them. I had a trashed Santa Cruz board that I found in a parking lot and trust me there was a reason it was left there, but as a 5th grader it didn't matter much to me. My brother and I built some of the sketchiest ramps you would ever see and loved jumping off of them with our skateboards and bikes. I really loved skateboarding back then and look forward to skating again with the "new" stuff.
I decided to give skateboarding another whirl for 2 reasons, 1 I love board sports, 2 I bought the game skate. I love and have played tons of Tony Hawk games, but not a single one of his games ever made me want to get out and skate. The game skate has done that for me, I guess the realism of the game really inspires me and makes me want to learn to skate. I guarantee I am not the only one who bought the game who has had this same thought go thought their head, "I would like to do that." I have decided to act on those feelings and thoughts. What really attracts me to it is the fact that I can skate year round (minus a few extremely cold days), I don't need to go to the mountain, the lake, ocean or have a boat. Will skateboarding beat out my love for snowboarding, I highly doubt it only time will tell. Snowboarding is the best by far, without a doubt, but I have room to include skateboarding.
I did tons of research about different equipment and different parts to find out what the best stuff was. I did pick what I thought was going to be the best equipment for me without breaking the bank. There were some bearings that were $120, blew my mind. (I didn't get those, lol) I did however get a very nice setup in my opinion for $160.
What I got:
Deck: Zero Thomas Life & Death Deck (I like the graphic and zero brand.)
Trucks: Tensor Response 5.0 (read really good things about tensor trucks.)
Wheels: Spitfire Black BigHead Black 52mm (read good things about spitfire and love the logo.)
Bearings: Bones Swiss 608 6 ball bearings (read Bones are the best and thought the 6 balls was cool compared to the typical 7)
Grip: Jessup Griptape (read that this and Black Magic were the best, but saw more favoring of Jessup.)
Hardware: Zero hardware (went with it because of board.)
Risers: Zero 1/8 inch riser (just in case I decide to put them on.)
I purchased the whole setup using the board builder on www.blackholeboards.com I have recieved an email saying it shipped today, which is incredibly impressive I guess we will see how long it takes to get here. It was an easy and fun shopping experience.
Oh and I bought Fallen skate shoes which I already got last week. They are awesome and really comfortable and I can't wait to skate with them.
I was doing great last week till we went to Wichita on Thursday, both eating and exercise. Fortunately I kept up with the exercises and completed Week 1 exercises, but missed one day of aerobic exercise. (Which doesn't make me happy.) Where I completely failed was eating, I at nothing but a whole lot of junk this weekend, a whole lot of pizza and some fried Chinese, along with an a couple of cookies. Needless to say this past weekend can't happen often because it is only going to work against me in the long run.
I can only hope for a better week this week as I start Week 2 exercises today.
While I don't expect changes from week to week I am still going to post my stats and photos:
Just a quick little update about how the old body feels. I am extremely sore, all over. I have worked out before by lifting free weights working out upper and lower body, but I don't ever remember me being this sore after the first days workout. Don't get me wrong, I have been sore before from getting back into working out, but never all over at once. Usually when I lifted before my biceps, triceps and chest would be sore, but this is different. My entire core is very sore along with my arm muscles, chest, back, and leg muscles minus my calves. While I don't like being sore, I do know that the soreness means my muscles have been worked over and are broken down and repairing themselves and I am excited about that. I have been so sore that I thought I would put up a quick post to tell that my workout yesterday is without a doubt working.
Thought I would also post my stats that I am recording each week to track the progress. (Although I am not sure how accurate they really are posting my Body Fat % & BMI based off the calculators he provides on the website.) Waist is taken from around belly button not where I wear my pants.
As I mentioned in a previous post I was going to start exercising to better my health. While jogging and walking are great and all, I want to really optimize my getting into better shape. I think that adding a workout and eating healther are the 2 keys to help speed up the process and really find that healthier lifestyle.
We have a bench, dumbbells and bar bells down stairs, but I have done all those before and I tend to get a little bored with the exercises. After seeing the movie 300 I had a seen their workout routine on youtube. I decided to look further into it and see if it wasn't something that I could implement into my own workout. One thing I liked about what the 300 trainer said was that he changed their exercises one day to the next because the body tends to get use to the one way of doing things and you can hit a plateau not to mention in my case the boredom.
Clicking through all the 300 workout related videos I came across a very appealing video that this trainer had put together of himself. He made a deal saying that he was going to get a six pack in 16 weeks. He had the before and after shots along with video of his routine that he went through and also had a web address to visit to "find out more". First off I know he was a trainer before, but from the before photo to the after photo there was a "huge" difference. Do I believe I can get that same six pack after 16 weeks by following his eating and exercise routine? Probably not, but I do know that it will get me in better shape and help me get leaner which is what I am after.
Honestly I was very skeptical about going to his website, because there is always money involved and some gimmick. I decided to check it out anyways. (mensworkoutguide.com) I read through the site and he said that he was setting this up and you could join to get the workouts that he used, but again stated that there was no catch. I went ahead and joined to check it out. So far I see no gimmicks, no spam, but just a lot of good information to help people get in better shape. The only thing he wants is for us to invite our friends. Obviously there are ads on the pages, but what site doesn't have ads now a days. I got to the routine page and didn't find the 16 week program that I saw on youtube, looked further into it and it is at a different site, but maintained by the same guy. I guess after looking into it further you should start on the 16 week program to get the six pack and then go to the 12 week program to get that Brad Pitt Fight Club body. (iwantsixpackabs.com)
This has got to be the best workout/ exercise website that I have come across in a long time. He provides videos of him demonstrating all the workouts with explanations of them all, how many to do and how often a week. He does it 3X a week MWF kind of thing with Cardio on the off days. I just love how I can see how to do the exercise along with an explanation. He does everything in SuperSets which is faster working out, but extremely tiring, not much rest, helps build that endurance. One thing that really drew me to trying it out was that every week it a different workout, not the same old routine week in and week out. He also uses a 300 style approach to working out, doesn't use a whole lot of weights which cuts down on cost big time. He uses resistance bands, exercise ball and pull up bar mostly. Meaning you don't have to pay for that expensive gym membership can do them all at home.
There is also a very active user group at Google groups. I have been very impressed reading through the material today and am excited to start this routine and see what happens. I already did day 1 of week one and am blown away at how hard it was. I couldn't complete the last Superset, because I was absolutely dead and couldn't hold myself up. (Shows how out of shape I am!) I know I am going to be extremely sore tomorrow. I am going to take photos on a weekly basis to track the change in my body and I have also set up a spreadsheet to track my body size changes. As humiliating as it may be I am going to post the photos on the blog to show the changes. (plus not that many people read it anyways, right) I will post them once I get them taken today. It will also be a way to hold myself accountable, which I definitely need.
Here is the first video that I saw that got me interested, if you get bored with exercise and want to see the before and after they are at the end at about the 2:20 mark. I only hope I can do that whole routine by week 7, OUCH!
Just wanted to put up a quick post to let everyone know that I have added a search box powered by google as you can see on the right. I was looking around the other day for a way to integrate a search into my blogger blog and came across something called blogger draft. It seems to be a way for bloggers to test out new features that will soon be added to blogger. Anyways it is built into the layout portion of the blogger dashboard and is a module or widget that you just add to the page. I think it is awesome, I love the way that it displays your search directly in the page without taking you to another page. Very, very slick! I can't describe it well enough, but just type in a search about a post that I have made such as xbox 360. It will bring up all the post that I talked about the 360 right in the center of my main blog page. Just check it out very impressive.
As I have talked about before I purchased the game Bioshock and am absolutely loving it. I feel like I get completely immersed in the world of Rapture and feel like I am a part of the story unlike a lot of games that are out there. The funny thing is that I get so into the game that I lose track of time while playing, but I also feel like I have to take a break from playing it because it can be mentally draining for me because I feel that involved with the game. It is one of those games that feels like a movie, but you are getting to play the main part in the movie. I am well into the game and look forward to picking it up again, but skate has my attention right now.
Today as I was cleaning the house I had my iphone with me and was listening to music while I cleaned. Bioshock's main theme came on and it really just drew me in. If anyone knows my music taste I am not one who likes to listen to orchestra/ classical style music, it just isn't my thing. I know for a fact the reason it drew me in is because it started bringing up all those feelings I had while playing the game. My mind went back to what I was doing in the game when that particular music was playing in game. I loved listening to it so much that I went into my albums and found the Bioshock Score that I had downloaded a while back when I found it was free from 2K games. I hadn't listened to it much since I downloaded it, but that was before I was so immersed into the game. Whether or not you can love this score without playing the game I cannot answer, but if you have played the game at all and enjoyed it, you will truly appreciate this free download. Regardless of your involvement with the game, it is definitely worth checking out plus it is free you can't beat that.
I am in a lot of pain right now! I decided to go on a little jog just a little bit ago, Kristee made a deal with me that if I started to exercise daily for 2 months I could buy a skateboard. (I know it is a little bit of bribery, but it does add some motivation.) Some may say, "Aren't you getting a little old for a skateboard." You can never be too old to skateboard. I have a waveboard and love all board sports so I thought I might add to my board sport addiction. (More on that in another post.)
I am not only motivated by getting a skateboard, but also the fact that I want to get back in good shape. I am planning on playing on a church basketball team this winter and really need to get in better shape. Sounds like most of the guys will be younger so I without a doubt need to get in shape just to hang with them. I also know it is what is good for my health.
About once a year I get in the mood to start exercising and I do well for about 3 months or so, but then I get out of routine for one reason or another and go back to being "lazy" about exercise. I really set out each time to make it a "life change", but have yet to really stick to exercising for more than 4 months. I do get into a good routine, but then the smallest change in schedule screws the whole thing up. I am looking once more to making this change and hopefully sticking to it. Maybe posting about my progress every once in a while will help keep me motivated.
As for the jog today, I set out to jog 1 mile and actually made it. Was it easy? NO, I was at about the 3/4 mark when I really started feeling it like no other. My legs felt like they were going to cramp up and give out. My chest felt like it was going to explode, heart and lungs. I couldn't take a deep breathe and felt faint, dizzy and that feeling of I am going to puke. Sounds pleasant doesn't it. I was a mile from home and really started questioning whether or not I was going to be able to make it home. On top of jogging a mile I was also pushing the kids in our double jogging stroller. I know I would have struggled without it, but I know it makes it harder to jog with. I am just know starting to feel a little better and realize how good it was for me to do it. But I must say that while I am out there jogging and it starts getting tough, I start having this mental battle of "You are and idiot why in the world are you doing this, this is the first and last time we are doing this again. Once more Josh you are a moron!" That is what goes on in my head when things start getting tough and I have to push through it all.
In reality I am not sure if I should have pushed myself as far as I did, but then again maybe I needed to, just not sure. In retrospect I am glad I did and would have been disappointed had I not made the mile. The reason for that is the fact that Kristee has been jogging for the past 3 months or so and can jog a mile each time. Me being the extremely competitive person that I am wanted to prove to myself that I too could jog a full mile. Boy was I paying for it, but I know that as I do it more I will be able to go even further and a little more ease.
I plan on starting to lift weights again and hope that I can get back into a good routine of exercising everyday. I will feel better about myself and more importantly be in better shape for doing all those sports that I love so much. I am going to try to use this as a motivational tool and will post updates of my progress and road to better health and getting in shape.
I am officially addicted to making movies in skate. I will post a write up about the game after I have some more time with it. But I love being able to make videos and upload them to the web and then download them.
This is my first skate video that I made from the video game skate for the xbox 360. The game allows you to make videos edit and upload them to the web. Found a way to embed it, but am not sure how well it will look.
This is an early post/ review about Mint.com new public beta service and it is free. Some may know, but they won the Techcrunch Top 40 $50,000 for web apps just in the last few days. I have only been using the services for 2 days and wanted to give my initial impressions.
They announced at the Techcrunch event that they were going from private beta to public beta. I will first start off and say that I could definitely tell that they were experiencing early growing pains. I am sure that after winning the award and then being put on digg they were hammered with all kinds of new people signing up to give it a try, I was one of them. I have never been happy with Quicken and had recently jumped ship and was using Cha-Ching (a mac only checkbook keeping app). Honestly I can say that I wasn't completely satisfied with Cha-Ching either although I wanted it to be that app that just worked for me. It just came up a little short in what I could do with managing my finances. (Main thing is that transferring money between 2 accounts had too many steps.)
After seeing this on my Techcrunchrss feed I decided that I would check it out. With all kinds of apps going to web based apps I was comfortable trying it out. I actually like the fact that there are certain apps that are available online and I can access all my "stuff" from any computer or device that has access to the Internet. Having said all that, I think that one obstacle that Mint is going to have to face and overcome is getting people to feel safe about giving their financial information to a web based company. Honestly for some reason (maybe I am too trusting) I am not concerned about their security I feel that my information is safe with them and I am willing to take that risk. (if you want to call it that)
Mint does require a few things in order to use their service. As I mentioned before it is free, but does require you to have online access to your banking and credit cards. In order to use it you must login to all your accounts through Mint.com to add your accounts, requiring you to give them your user id and password. From there it goes out and establishes a secure connection, check your user id and password, download transactions and find savings. Since it was hammered with many people trying to get their information on the service the past 2 days has been slow going in terms of adding accounts. As of today I now have all, but 1 credit card (it is a smaller credit card, so it doesn't matter that much) added to my account with Mint. Since there are thousands of credit cards out there they will have to work out the kinks with some companies. It was slow and a little frustrating to get all my accounts added, but I was excited about using the services so it was worth the wait for me. I know with any company going public with an online web app is going to experience some growing pains.
Once all the accounts are added it shows you the balances on all you credit cards, banking accounts and saving accounts. They analyze the transactions and tell you where you are spending most of your money, the most frequently used merchant. (We need to stop going to Costco, LOL) While some of this may be a little frighting to see everything in one place in such detail telling you exactly how well or how bad you are doing financially, it is nice to know. I have kept track of my credit cards, banking and savings accounts in Quicken and Cha-Ching, but neither worked as well as Mint does in showing you just where you are at financially. The other big benefit is not having to manually enter new transactions and reconciling everything every month. Everything is automatically updated 1 a day, I am very excited about this. The other benefit is that if I need to know the balance of a credit card or what I have in my bank account I can go to one place and find out this information for all my accounts.
Apparently they make their money by having relationships with different financial institutions. They analyze different thing that you spend money on and your credit card interest rates and show you offers that will help you save money. As of right now nothing that they have suggested for me has been beneficial, but maybe at some point they will show me an offer that could really help me out. If you are frustrated with your current means of managing your finances and want to try something that is easy and automatic, you really need to give this a try. It is very awesome and I look forward to using it, since this is an early impression I will update as time passes and give more impressions after using it for a more lengthy period.
At first I thought this was going to be just a guy doing stunts on a bicycle. You know about my recent love for motorcycles. These are all being done on a motorcycle, which makes it that much more awesome. He is doing bicycle style stunts/ tricks on a motorcycle, but as you will see the fact that it is a motorcycle it allows him to do some really amazing tricks and go places you would never dream of going on a bicycle. Really one of the best videos I have seen in awhile.
I was fortunate enough to be able to get in on the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer beta. I actually got my token this past weekend, but since I was out of town I did not get to download it and play it till yesterday. I was so excited to play it because if you have seen any of the videos at all you would know how awesome it looks.
First off let me say that I am glad to see that they have gone into modern combat, personally I was getting a little tired of the WW2 games. They have all been way over done and I just don't care for the weapons. I really like newer type weapons for some reason.
As for the Beta, let me say that it looks amazing. I cannot get over the graphics of the online play. Everything you see just looks incredible, it is hard to believe it is a beta at this point. The beta has really gotten me really excited about the game. I played for about 6 hours last night, now if that doesn't tell you how good it is I don't know what would. I didn't want to put the control down, but realizing that it was 2am I thought it was time to go to bed.
What kept me playing was the overall game play. Some of you know that I am a huge fan of Rainbow 6: Vegas. I love the tactical shooters more than the run and gun type game play that you encounter in Gears of War multiplayer. I love to work as a team and try to plan a route to accomplish whatever the goal might be. One thing that I love about RB6 is the cover system I love how you can press against the wall and pop and shoot, although not realistic I still love it. I knew going in that COD4 would not have a cover system due to realism plus many of the walls can be shot through and you don't want to get hit through the wall. One thing that COD4 does have is the ability to lay on the ground, something that I really wished RB6 had.(very nice getting low and sniping from across the field.) I also like the fact that it is harder to snipe in COD4, so you actually have to practice it to get good at it.
The game play would be a combination of tactical shooter and run and gun, all though I think you are much more successful when you take a more tactical approach. I can pretty much guarantee that if you run out into the open field or and open area you are going to get sniped. (I am speaking from experience.) As in RB6 there is a ranking system which adds to the game play I love being about to rank up. Plus you get new equipment with each rank up just as in RB6. There is also this ability, which I haven't gotten yet, to call in air strikes. When this happens you are notified of an incoming enemy air strike via your radio. It is best to get inside a nearby building that could withstand the air strike. If you get caught out in the open and the helicopter or jets pin point your location you are a goner. (The placement of the strike is determined by the person who called it.) And yes you can take out the helicopters and planes with a rocket launcher if equipped. So far and I hope it stays like this, there are no vehicles like in COD3. I hate it when game makers put vehicles in FP shooters, it is ridiculous and I just can't stand it. I like it when everyone is on foot and using a combination of guns, grenades and other weapons. Honestly from the maps that I have played, there are only 3 so far, there would be any room for vehicles.
The maps all vary and I have grown to love all of them. At first there was one that I didn't like, but as with most maps in games you get familiar with them and you get comfortable with where everything is at. One called Vacant is inside an old office/ warehouse so it is more close quarters combat like in RB6, I love it. You can and will have some shootouts outside the building which is awesome. The next one is called Crash, it is based around a helicopter crash that occurred in the middle of a village that appears to be middle eastern. This one is a combination of indoor combat with outdoor combat, it is what I would invision our armed forces facing when they sweep smaller towns. Players can be anywhere, out in the open, on top of buildings, hiding behind cars, or sniping from inside a building to the open courtyard. The one that finally grew on my is called Overgrown. It is the largest map and has a lot of open field combat, (a lot of sniping) but also has plenty of building to enter into to try to get an advantage. As I have said before I love playing all the maps and love the fact that all three are played just slightly different.
Game modes that are available are Team Deathmatch (12 players), Free for All (every man for himself) (12 players), Team Objective (12 players), and Team Tactical (6 players). I have only played Team Deathmatch and Team Tactical. Team Deathmatch is your typical deathmatch style play. Team tactical as you can see is small team oriented play. One round you play small team deathmatch and the next is search and destroy. One team defends the 2 areas and the other tries to plant a bomb in one of the areas. Both are extremely fun and I cannot wait to explore the other game modes. One thing that they nailed are respawns. You never respawn in the exact same place so it eliminates the spawn camping that happens in RB6. What is awesome is that you will eventually spawn where your opponents originally spawned. It makes it really fair and one team doesn't always have a position advantage over the other.
As you can see I am really impressed with this game and look forward to it's release. As of right now none of my RB6 friends got in on the beta so I really look forward to being able to play it with my friends. It has been a blast to play so far and I really think that this game is going to be a must buy. It is the perfect combination of tactical shooter and run and gun. I am extremely excited about what Infinity Ward has done with this game. Game play is awesome, graphics are absolutely amazing, and they have added things to the online play that just add to the already impressive play. If you get a chance to get in on the beta in the future I would make sure you try it out, definitely worth it.
Posts Feed
