So I sez to the guy...

So there was this female fly sitting on a cow pie and a male fly comes over and says "Pardon me, but is this stool taken?"

I'm getting in shape (and I don't mean round)

"If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all."
Joey Adams

"Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness."
Edward Stanley

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."
James Baldwin

"If you are not in the process of becoming the person you want to be, you are automatically engaged in becoming the person you don't want to be. "
I don't remember where I got this from but it's true.

“A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.”
Desiderius Erasmus



I will start working out seriously tomorrow. I've been kind of doing stuff here and there but not really anything comprehensive. I picked up a copy of "Core Performance" by Mark Verstegen. I read it and it made a lot of sense. I'm really not in good shape; I have poor posture and a lot of weak areas. The program outlined in the book helps shore up your weaknesses so you have balanced fitness.

I put on some weight when I was working at nights on the weekends. I went from about 8% body fat to about 15% almost doubling it. Also I went from 150 to 165 lbs. in about 5 months. I've never really had abs but now I definitely don't. Instead I now have a nice little belly. Once I quit working nights I started to slowly lose the weight but my belly is still sticking around. I started eating vegetarian in the beginning of June and as you can tell by the info below I lost some weight:


April 29
Weight: 156.4 lbs.
Body fat: 11.4%
Muscle: 45.1%
BMI: 21.2

Sept 6
Weight: ???
Body fat: 10.8%
Muscle: 45.7%
BMI: 20.9

Sept 21
Weight: 152.8 lbs.
Body fat: 10.5%
Muscle: 45.9%
BMI: 20.7

Now those numbers really aren't that bad but I need to be able to keep up with all my kids and I'm slowing down already. Plus I eventually want to look like this:

Whether or not that is realistic is besides the point. I can dream can't I? Plus we all need goals. There isn't really any motivation to workout if you don't have a goal to visualize to get you through the crappy parts (which is everything). Anyways I plan on following the "Core Performance" workout for around 12 weeks which is as long as it goes. Maybe afterwards I will try the "300" workout which (as evidenced by the photo) works wonders when combined with proper nutrition. I am going to try and check in every Monday with my weight, body fat, muscle percent and BMI(according to my scale). Also I will let you know if I have actually done the workouts I'm supposed to do. I know that those scales aren't perfectly accurate but they give you a good idea of what's going on in your body.

Anyways GOOD LUCK TO ME!

Why did we have to go there?

Want to hear a funny story about my divorce? Yeah, me too. On a similar note I went to Walmart with the family (which we don't usually do) and guess who we ran into? You've got it, my ex! She and her husband told the girls all about "the big surprise" and then she grabbed them both by the throat and kissed them on the head. You heard right: she grabbed them by the throat. I couldn't believe it. Actually I can. You don't live with someone for four years and not learn something about them. Now it wasn't a "I'm going to kill you!" throat grab but that's not an appropriate way to pull your child towards you. What to do, what to do, what to do?

Arrgh! Health Insurance!

Editor's note: I am not anti-Republican. Just anti-stupid.

Yesterday, I believe, I heard about John McCain's brilliant idea for health care reform. He's going to tax anyone who has an employer that cares enough about its employees to pay for some of their health insurance deductible. What ever money the employer pays for your deductible is going to be considered income and therefore taxable. Then they will give a credit for 2500 for a single person or 5000 for a family to apply towards the extra taxes you would have to pay. This is to encourage people to leave the safety of their employer-sponsored plan and forage out into the wide, wonderful world of the unregulated health insurance market. There you will find no leverage, no group discounts, plenty of years wasted on pre-existing conditions and the insurance companies have all the power.

The idea behind this is that this will give everyone the chance to get health insurance subsidized by the government. So for a family you would get 5000 a year to pay for health insurance. The problem is the market is unregulated and they can charge whatever they want. My employer is generous enough to pay all of my insurance premium which is $10,800 a year. Serious. That $5k from the government is not going to be very helpful if you still have to pay $5k a year for the premium. Most people who don't have insurance cant afford an additional $5k a year. Plus this amount is not going to increase over the next 10 years. So when the premium is $15k per year that $5k isn't going to be very helpful if you can't afford to shell out an extra thousand a month. Also there won't be enough money collected from the extra taxes to really pay for this so the money is going to have to come from somewhere.

So this sounds like a great plan if you make a lot of money or have so many houses you can't remember how many you have. Nice.

P.S.
It's not that I don't think that everyone should be able to have health insurance, I just don't think it should be subsidized only by people who have employer-sponsored insurance. There needs to be a fundamental overhaul of the insurance market so they can't gouge you for coverage and deny payment for services.

I can't believe it took me this long...

This is kind of dumb but why does Edna Mode from The Incredibles have such high security? I mean she is just a clothes designer who used to make the costumes for the supers, right? Well I just realized that she knows everything about them, their secret identities, their powers and the extent of their powers. If someone(Syndrome?) really wanted to find out about the supers, they could do worse than to get try and get the info from Edna. Or it might be the last thing they do.

I really like the look on her face here. I don't think you want to cross her.