The Hardest Part is Letting Go, of Nachos.

Days until con : 93

05/31/2011

Eating well is just as simple as doing it right? And if it weren't for the fact that we're humans and have cravings, it really would be just that easy. You want to lose weight, get ripped, be healthier, paint a picture, stop smoking, not commit murder...then just do it.

Watch your favorite television show? Do it.
Brush your teeth? Do it.
Read new A. Lee Martinez novel? Do. it.

There's a fine line between being able to just pick up and do something, and being on autopilot and doing them because it's a habit. For the most part your day is full of repetition, mindless droning about at work, or school, driving the same roads at the same time and likely eating about the same foods on the same days at the same places. Even when you attempt to try a "new place" you'll likely escape back to a safe dish that is generally good at other places.

Well my habit is to eat nachos at the little mexican place across the street, and not just there. At least once but not limited to two or three times a week I have to have mexican food in my stomach. Most of all, I desire nachos, I want them and I believe they want me just as badly. That warm gooey cheese just laying on top a bed of freshly baked chips like a evil swimsuit model beckoning me to draw near. Most of the time I can shrug with a sly grin and say, "Maybe later babe, I gott a play hard to get", but eventually I fall victim to the siren's song.

I'll dance funky, you dance normal, then we'll switch!

05/30/2011

Days until Con : 94

I've been asked by a few people what I use to track my calorie intake so figured I'd spill the beans. 

www.sparkpeople.com

It's free, has a weight, food, and fitness tracker and has companion apps for both android and apple (ipad and iphone).  I love this site, and it's become second nature now to take a few minutes after I've eaten to input my foods. What I love most is that it keeps up with your water, carb, and protein intake as well as calories, giving you a nudge if if feels your skimping out or getting way too much. I forgot to opt out of the trash emails they send but to be honest they're quite informative.

It has charts! And because of these charts I spend way more time than I probably should pouring through Stiver related data. It's like I'm a health intelligence officer trying to piece together the next great stratagem in order to swing the fat-loss war in my favor. War is hell....war...is...hell.

I've had a very active day today. I hand washed my car, cleaned my room, and shopped at Walmart. Which leads me to an interesting fault I have. I often mistaken extreme country accents with being drunk and today I have no idea if the lady infront of me at WalMart was drunk or just really, really, country. She swayed from side to side like a single technicolored strain of tall grass, never blowing over due (this is theory) to the dark matter that swirls in the depths of gargantuan camo purse bag. It was more bag than purse, I promise.

Having a clean room and clean car is very relaxing, makes me want to sit back and nap.

I'll hop to that.

Happy weigh-in day.

05/29/2011

Days until Con : 95

Today is weigh-in day, and how did I do? I kicked ass, took names, then kicked more ass after I facebooked the names I'd taken in the initial ass kicking and found their friends, and kicked their asses.

The process was draining, but well worth it.

I weighed in today at 219.5 and it felt oh so good to be there. It marks 30 total pounds lost which is a cause for celebration. I was in a bitter weight-loss stalemate for what seemed like such a long time and somehow things just clicked this week. I know I still have many more pounds to go. I'm closing in on the half way mark to my goal and with about three months left I'll be cutting it very close, but I think it's doable. I don't normally like to lose more than 2 or 3 pounds between each week so it's kind of bitter sweet that I lost 4.5 pounds this week and I'll need to figure out if the diet plan I'd come up with last week is somehow dangerous.
I'm happy, thrilled, and excited to announce three new members to the Hot for Con Registry. They've accepted the Hot for Con challenge, and will endeavor to do whatever it takes to be hot for Dragon Con 2011.

Jack Burton is my hero.

Amber Lee
Andrea Wortel
Tiffany Segrest

As a reminder, anyone can join at anytime. It's a challenge and I double triple dog dare you to do it. Just ask yourself, what would Jack Burton do?

Kung Fu Panda and A Lee Martinez

05/28/2011

Days until con : 97

Today I saw Kung Fu Panda 2, and I'm not ashamed to say I enjoyed it thoroughly. Life has a funny way of working out,  because about the only other grown man I know who was extremely excited about KP 2 was A Lee Martinez, whose new book was released today. I'd forgotten until I strolled into the Borders straight after the movie and found it (Chasing the Moon) gracing the bookshelves. It stood out like a beacon of hope, it wrapped its arms around me and whispered sweet nothings all the way to the checkout counter.  A. Lee is my favoriate author, and this book so far has not disappointed.

I know, because I immediately went to waffle house and read 7 chapters (after I quickly finished Retromancer).

Sober and Shaking

05/26/2011

Days until Con : 99

So today I went to Taco Mac with some friends, I had two beers, and when I left I got pulled over for an out of service tail light. Oh, and they thought I was drunk.

The truth is I have a bum lower back and a get extremely nervous around cops. You know why? Because you're always breaking the law, even right now, sitting there at your computer reading these words you're breaking some kind of insanely stupid law.

But I passed, finally.

By the end of it I had to juggle knives, spin plates and count to 1000 in arabic all while performing scenes from the sound of music. They didn't believe the breathalyzer, and I had to go through a few before they finally let me go whilst eying me suspiciously. Like I was going to con their grandmothers out of some ancient heirloom.

So that was my work out, and my nerves likely broke down any calories I might have accumulated throughout the days.. I'm sufficiently too terrified to leave the house, because they followed me back almost the whole way back home.

I can't tell if they're protecting the community with unwavering passion and focus, or just being dicks.

Jobs and other nonsense.

Days until Con : 100

05/25/2011

Didn't sleep last night, and about to fall over writing this post today. I've been stressed pretty hardcore about my work/life situation and I think I've finally come to a decision.  I had been teetering on the edge with whether to leave my career and move into something else or suck it up and stay.

I use to think I hated my job, but in reality I think it's just boredom. All and all I have it pretty sweet and I have it in a time when a lot of people out there flat out don't.  I weighed out my options heavily, and I weighed them for awhile and I kept it all to myself.

I'm grateful to have insightful, wise, and brilliant friends who could give extremely useful advice, and in a round about way they helped with my decision making more than they'll ever know. But I did have to make these decisions for myself or else I'd just worry myself sick getting into a situation I was uncomfortable with.

I kept asking myself, what hell do I want out of my life? What is fulfilling? I think I'm still searching for those but at least for now I can breath a little easier and get on with things.

Alas, I've decided to stay right where I'm at and accomplish my dreams and goals, one ridiculous project at a time ( like Hot for Con)

I have Con to get hot for, I have a band to start, a new rule system to help write, novels to conceptualize, and a house to hunt for. This is my life adventure, and it wouldn't hurt to smile every so often while doing so. 

So my life is the adventure I was looking for, I was just taking it way too seriously. 

Feel the burn. Because it's freakin hot.

05/24/2011

Days until Con : 101

Things have been a lot busier than the normal amount of busy and for that reason I was not able to post yesterday, but I ate damn good and had a fairly hardcore workout so consider it a great day.

I cannot stand the heat, and there's a lot of it now.  That's all there is to say about heat, it's hot and the sunburns it provides me are terrible.

In other news. I attempted to film a hot for con video but ran out of steam because the Green Screen I attempted to construct completely tore apart. Yes, I said green screen, because I wanted to do something fancy and outrageous. Like fly through space and proclaim myself a superhero, the likes of which you've never seen. And thanks to my mother's athletic and ambitious cat, Bad Catticus, those plans will have to be postponed until a later date.

The chocolate room is apparently a bad place to fly through space.

Socially Over Eating.

Days until Con: 103

05/22/2011

The grandparents are gone and I've conquered something that I think everyone who is overweight has problems with, socially over eating. Individually I think most people have the ability to eat reasonably but for some reason when you add a group of people together suddenly there's this rush to provide and devour as much food as possible.

My last girlfriend's father would take us out to eat every Sunday, and though it wasn't something insisted upon, there was always an appetizer, an entree, and dessert ordered. This is an example of socially over eating because it was always way more food then necessary. But it was fun to indulge while in the company of others and to celebrate the union of family. When my friends all get together and we eat out at a restaurant or bar it's like suddenly everyone has to get the worst possible food complete with appetizers and beer. I think there's something psychologically, and possibly it's just Americans, that we have to celebrate occasions with large amounts of food. If your'e only eating out like this once every other week it's not a problem, but odds are high you eat out a lot more than that.

New Site Layout

Things aren't dramatically different, but I've sectioned off my Hot for Con statistics into a page I've named The Path to Con.

As for my nightly progress reports, I'll still be doing them complete with pictures. But I will not be weighing in anymore, instead I'll be depending on my weekly Sunday weigh ins which you can find in the Path for Con section. I'm also considering the idea of not posting my food consumption since I've recently been using sparkpeople.com which is so much nicer and more accurate then manually keying it in here on my blog.

If you like knowing what I've been eating every day, then please let me know and I"ll keep it in the progress report. But otherwise I'll just keep my progress reports strictly as blog entries.

Also, I'm carving time to start up my writing. This time for real. I've found that when I'm writing my blog nightly, I still want to write just another 30 or 45 minutes more. This is a prime time to get back on track with writing some things. Space Mage was a fun concept, but I'm not sure I'll be going to it. I'm still thinking of something episodic, but I'm not sold on space.  I'd like to go for something much weirder.

Web changes.

Going through some site changes, please be patient with me today.

It's a good day.

05/21/2011

Hot for Con Challenge

Days until Con : 104

Current Weight (recorded every morning) : 225.5 

Current BMI : 33.30

Work Out: Strength Training

Foods devoured today:

PopSecret Popcorn: 100 calories

Thin bagel slices, turkey and bacon sandwich : 400 calories

Shrimp Quesadilla : 700 calories

General Snacks : 150 Calories

Total : 1350 calories

Grandparentpalloza is happening over here, so there's not much I can report on. Only that its been extremely nice having them over. My diet has been solid, and lower back is healing up well enough to start working out again. Things are looking up.

Things will return to their regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

RetCon for 05/20

Hot for Con Challenge

Days until Con : 105

Current Weight (recorded every morning) : 226 

Current BMI : 33.37

Work Out: Light jogging, Strength Training

Foods devoured today:

Breakfast Drink: 150 calories

Thin bagel slices, turkey and bacon sandwich : 400 calories

very small portion of ribs and garlic toast : 300 calories

General Snacks : 100 Calories

Fruits!

Total : 950 calories

Getting Serious With it, Or Giggy, One of the Two.

Hot for Con Challenge: 

05/19/2011

Days until Con : 106

Current Weight (recorded every morning) : 227.0 (boo...)

Current BMI : 33.52

Work Out: Final Day of Recovery.

Foods devoured today:

Breakfast Drink: 150 calories

Southwest Chicken Wrap : 600 calories

Lean Pocket : 260 calories

General Snacks : 300 Calories

one yuengling lights : 90 

Fruits!

Total : 1400 calories

The lack of exercise is killing me. I want to go out there kick ass with some hardcore working so bad, but my right leg/lower back pain is just too great a challenge to overcome. But there's hope. After three days of recovery, I'm getting to a point that I can get a little more mobile and this time around I'm looking into some lower-back stretches along with strength conditioning that may help things out. 

Also, I met up a friend today whose going to the gym and is literally in the best shape of his life after a handful of months. I think I'm ready to do the gym thing, and not the wimpy little thing that my work provides, but an actual gym with lots different exercise equipmentzzz. I think I'll call him up for a secret Hot for Con meeting, where I devise a new plan to surge forth and blow away this challenge.

My new diet plan is a winner, though tonight I was blindsided by hanging out at Taco Mac (where I still ate reasonably) and coming home to a visiting grandmother who just so happened to save me some snacks. As you know, when it comes to Grandparents and snack foods, you must eat or suffer greatly under the weight of their vocal doom. It will resolve to eat well over the weekend though I imagine there will be much in the way of restaurants and snacks. This week's weigh in might be somewhat disappointing, but there is much to learn and bounce back from.

I love my Grandparents.

05/18/2011

Hot for Con Challenge: 

Days until Con : 107

Current Weight (recorded every morning) : 226.0 (yes...again.)

Current BMI : 33.37

Work Out: Recovery.

Foods devoured today:

Breakfast Drink: 150 calories

Shrimp Massaman Curry : 600 calories

Low Calorie bacon on thin bread with cheese : 450 calories

General Snacks : 200 Calories

Pop Secret Popcorn : 100 Calories

Cheese crackers : 190 Calories

Total : 1690 calories

My Grandparents are in town and staying with my mother and I. It is so nice to see them, I always forget how much I enjoy their company until they're right in front of me. I love them, and a part me wishes they'd move in next door so I could paint with my grandfather and soak in the sagely advice of my grandmother. 

LA Noire N Sushi Day

05/17/2011

Hot for Con Challenge: 

Days until Con : 108

Current Weight (recorded every morning) : 226.0 

Current BMI : 33.37

Work Out: Lots of walking.

Foods devoured today:

Breakfast Drink: 150 calories

Shrimp Massaman Curry : 600 calories

Seafood Soup and Salmon Roll : 450 calories

Tiny bag of SunChips : 100

Total : 1300 calories

I love over the top gritty crime drama, and I love sushi. Today, I got both and I couldn't be happier. I also got to walk around a track with wonderful person and got to talk about anything and everything like a gossipy little girl. It was a great day, and I owe it all to Video Games, Sushi, and rockin Ex's. 

By the way, LA Noire is seriously one the best games ever made, though it will not be for everyone. Most of the game is spent investigating murders or whatever the Case may be. Hardly ever are you in a gun fight, and when you do it just makes it that much more intense. It flips the video game mainstream a bit, and instead of non-stop action/gore and aliens, you're interrogating an actress or snooping around someone's underwear drawer for evidence of foul play.  Absolutely beautiful game.

Now if only they'd reboot Icewindale using 4th ed rules.

We Built This City on Wok n Rolls

05/16/2011

Hot for Con Challenge: 

Days until Con : 109

Current Weight (recorded every morning) : 226.0 

Current BMI : 33.37

Work Out: Hiked Stone Mountain

Foods devoured today:

Yogurt : 100 Calories

Lean Pocket : 260 Calories

Lamb Gyro : 700 calories

Breakfast Drink: 150 calories

Slim fast snack : 100 calories

Low Fat Cheese Crackers : 200 calories

Total : 1510 calories

I got in late again, damn late nights. But this has been a non-standard week which has really messed up my sleep and diet rotation. Beau is back (which is a week long celebration), my tabletop role playing group is coming up with a new rules system (which is a fucking science project apparently) and oh yeah, there's general life to live. I'm not bitching, to be honest I welcome the onslaught of things to fill my time with. Keeps me from being stagnant. 

Drink Only Water Jutsu

05/15/2011

Hot for Con Challenge: 

Days until Con : 110

Current Weight (recorded every morning) : 225.5 

Current BMI : 33.30

Work Out: Light strength training, and light aerobics.

Foods devoured today:

Yogurt : 100 Calories

Lean Pocket : 260 Calories

Half order of Chicken nachos : 800 calories

Handfull of nuts: 100 calories

Total : 1260 calories

There's something about ninjas that just pull me in like a tractor beam. I cannot look away, and if it weren't for some light aerobics and lifting weights then the last 4 hours would be completely wasted in my Hot for Con effort. Stupid ninjas and their badass-ery.

DnD Spells Dietary Disaster

05/14/2011

Hot for Con Challenge: 

Days until Con : 111

Current Weight (recorded every morning) : 224.0 

Current BMI : 33.08

Work Out: Another Recovery Day...

Foods devoured today:

Special K Cereal : 280 Calories

Chicken Fajitas : 700 Calories

Medium three cheese papa johns pizza : 1680 calories

DnD snacks: 500 calories

Total: 3160 calories (omg...)

I did not eat well today, not by a long shot. It may be my first day while within Hot for Con that I completely did not pay attention to what I ate until it was all over with. I felt it to. It's like smoking (which I admit I've had a few cigarettes), where after you've been doing so well for awhile and then you break you feel totally ashamed. It was DnD day, where my friends and I attempt to the kill the crap out of things with math, and these days are typically filled with average to kind of bad food. Today however I completely missed the boat, by first going to mexican restaurant and getting not so awesome for you foods, forgetting that it was DnD day, and then pizza was ordered. l completely forgot for an entire day that I was suppose to be getting into the best shape/health of my life, and instead I pigged out and sat around rolling dice. That's two days in a row of no exercise, and three days in a week time of no exercise and now adding junk into my system.