My Gym Is In!

It took a while, but I got my Home Gym put together! It's fantastic! Tonight I did bench presses, squats, leg extensions, leg curls, cable cross-overs, bicep curls and butterflys. Plus my usual 60 crunches and 20 leg lifts. Whew!

Getting Back Into Shape!

I've decided to get back in shape!

5 years ago I decided to lose weight and get trim, because several medical problems seemed to stem from my being overweight. An Ear, Nose & throat doctor want to do surgery on my throat to cure my sleep apnia (snoring that gets dangerous). I asked if there was another way. He said, "well, you could lose weight, but that would take longer." Hmmm... cut the inside of my throat or lose weight... Decisions, decisions! I couldn't believe a doctor would suggest surgery over weight loss! My blood pressure was high, and my stress levels were through the roof. Seemed to me like exercise and a better diet would fix MANY problems.

So, I started having a chicken salad from the local Wendy's every day for lunch, instead of one of their burgers (I'd also throw out their salad dressing and use my own fat-free dressing).

After work, I would go home, change, and then ride my mountain bike from my apartment to a great trail, 7 miles round trip (about 45 min of intense riding), and come back for some ab works and dumbbells.

I did the bike ride EVERY day for a month, and got a bit tired, so I cut back to 3 times a week.

After 2 months I had gone from 235 lbs to 205. One more month and I was at 195. People at work commented on how good I looked. I felt FANTASTIC. I could handle stress SO much better. I didn't even need to have a glass of wine after work to "chill out" anymore. The sleep apnia went away since my throat tissue was naturally smaller. My blood pressure went down. My energy level went UP!

I kept doing the 3 days a week cardio and light weights for 8 months, and maintained a good lifestyle.

And then I got in a car accident. :( Some jerk on the freeway didn't notice that the hundred cars in front of him had come to a complete stop, and plowed into the back of my car. I was bracing myself against my steering wheel and something tore in my back under my shoulder blade. I couldn't ride my mountain bike for a year, and my fitness plan went off the rails. I should have found a replacement for the biking, but most cardio workouts bore me to tears, and the pain was a good excuse not to try.

My shoulder still hurts after working it out a lot, but I think now that's more because it is WEAK than because it is injured. My Doctor and my chiropractor both said I needed to gain strength in my back so my shoulder can tighten up. It's strong enough now to mountain bike again, which is great.

So, I am determined to start again. I'm back up to about 218 lbs and the stress is back, but I've done this before, so I will just do it again!

This time, I have a different set of tools. I have the mountain bike when the weather is good (I live is San Diego, so it's often great), a fun arms/legs stationary bike called an Airdyne that I've had for years:

and I just got this Marcy Diamond Elite Smith Machine:

I ordered it from Costco.com and it arrived yesterday. I'm going to set it up tomorrow. I want to do more of my fitness training around the house after work, instead of long mountain biking treks because it keeps me close to my 5 year old son, Jack, and that father-son time is important to me.

I have the gift of being able to gain muscle mass relatively quickly, though I am often sore for longer periods of time than most people, especially in my pecs. I do find that if I have a protein shake after the workout it greatly reduces the soreness and I can get back in the gym in 48 hours.

I plan to do 40 min of cardio 3 times a week, and add a weight training routine to those same 3 days, probably after the cardio. I don't know a lot about free weights or the proper form, so I need to get the right instruction.

So, that's my story so far, and my plan. I signed up for Fitday.com to track my calorie progress and EvenFit.com to track my exercise progress, as visual tools are a great motivator for me.

So, what spurred me into action? These photos of John Stone. Check out those before and after pictures. Just inspiring!

My SOE Podcast Interview is Up!

Have a listen!

My old friend and co-worker Alan Crosby interviewed me about my biggest project, Station Launcher.

Disneyland!

Disneyland March 2007

Kerry and I had made a deal with Jack that he'd get to go to Disneyland for his birthday as a reward for good behavior. He held up his end of the bargain, but because of some conflicts, I couldn't make it happen for his birthday. We made it up to him 2 weeks later, though! The video clip shows a talking / moving trashcan interacting with Jack and actually singing him Happy Birthday. How crazy is that? I know the video is a tad long, but hang in there, the best part is at the end. =)

SeaWorld!

SeaWorld

I took the family to SeaWorld today. It's about a 30 min drive from our house, which is super nice. We got season passes for the price of a day's admission, which was even better. Jack was SO looking forward to riding the Atlantis ride, since Mom wouldn't go on it with him last time they came. Jack and I got to ride it 4 times since there was no line. I managed to take some videos and pics, and hide my camera in my jacket whenever we were about to get soaked. :)



After Atlantis, Jack and I climbed around this cool obstacle course structure. Quite the workout keeping up with him through there. :)

Weekend At Boomers

Boomers

I took Jack to Boomer's last weekend, one of his favorite places in the world. We did Mini-golf, rode the Go-Karts, the Ferris Wheel (Jack's first time on one ever) and Jack rode the spinning swings all by himself (something about a weight limit kept me off :) Jack and I both managed a hole-in-one on the mini-golf. Jack's favorite part was the Ferris Wheel.

VanguardPlayers.com is LIVE!

Live, day and date with the launch of the Game, www.VanguardPlayers.com is up! Here's my character's profile, and his Auto-blog. Auto-blogs add entries automatically from in-game when you do something significant, like level 5, 10, 15, or when you are the first player on the server (or in the game) to discover an item or an NPC. You can also send your own blog images up from in-game with the /blog command.

This Guy Has Guts

Wesley Autrey stands with his two daughters at the subway stop in New York where he saved the life of a teenager who fell onto the tracks in front of an oncoming train on Tuesday.
(Newsday/Nick Brooks/Associated Press)

Jack Learns to Ski!

Have a look at the video of Jack's ski lessons! It's a little long, but funny, and worth it for the Jack & Daddy chairlift clip near the end.

Also, I have uploaded a video of the gondola ride at Squaw Valley. Enjoy!

Lake Tahoe - First Two Days

From Lake Tahoe 06

Here are some pics from our first 2 days at Lake tahoe. The fist one is my favorite. The bottom half of the water in the shot looks like a Photoshop filter has been applied, but it was just the wind on the water interacting with the digital CCD. Neat effect.

This was Jack's first time seeing snow. He took his first skiing class today as well. The instructor said he did great, except for the turning and stopping parts. :)