Happy Birthday to Me!

Another year has came and went and I'm a year older.

This past year has had a lot of ups, and even more downs. Fortunately, the ups were enough to make this year worth all the downs. There are personal things that I am not ready to discuss publicly yet, but let's say I'm lucky to be alive and leave it at that.

As I was swimming at my Mom & Dad's house yesterday at my party, I was once again struck with the fact that I had indeed gained too much weight. So with that in mind and the image of Hugh Jackman's body from The Wolverine, I'm upping my game. I have entered into a DietBet and will blow it out of the water. To win the bet, I must lose just under 9 pounds in 30 days. My personal goal (long term) is about 50 pounds gone, unless I gave muscle weight, then I am perfectly fine with the trade. First step is weight loss though. I'll be updating my blog and all my fitness apps regularly, and I have even thought more heavily about doing the video blog to track my feeling and progress during the journey.

What do you think?

Keep on Truckin

Almost a week after my big decision to jump into this, I haven't gotten very far. I am down a few pounds, but not enough to consider my plan "working." I would like to jump head first into all the exercise, food and drink changes, but small steps are needed for me. I fear change, and this - as silly as it sounds - is a big life change. It's not just a change until I reach my ideal weight, it's a change for health as well.

With all of the projected changes, I think it's caused a serious panic reaction, so I may be taking it easier than I had hoped, but any progress is progress.

On to the next challenge.

Redemption

So, I've not been exactly regular here. I'll try to fix that. I also have spoke many times about losing weight and being serious about it. Well, now I am, but I'm not going to say how serious I am. It was spurred by  someone saying I looked like a person in a TV show. I was unfamiliar with the show so I looked that person up. He was fat. That was an eye opener. First I wanted to get mad, but then I realized, I am overweight. So, I'm getting to it. I'm cutting calories, and I'm slowly going to get back into biking and weight training. I will be posting updates.

As before I will be taking pictures, but will refrain from posting them until I myself see positive results. I have considered starting a dietbet.com thing like my friend Marcia did, but I'm in this for me, and winning money would be nice, but boosting my energy and self confidence is a better reward. I will share this with you:http://www.myfitnesspal.com/merlinglx - my MyFitnessPal profile page. I did start at 230 and have slowly gotten down to 220, but I need to be more aggressive. I actually wouldn't mind being 220 with a smaller waist and larger chest. Just a thought.

What a Weekend

First off, I want to apologize for any spelling and grammar mistakes in this post. I feel terrible and I am only sitting up long enough to type this, then I'm lying down for about 2 years, give or take a month.

The good news is that I'm now published! My short story, Michael's Education is on Amazon for 1.99 - Click Here. It's not very long, I had to keep this one under 5000 words, so please forgive me. There is another book coming out that picks up where this one left off in a few months (not constrained to 5000 words). Please spend a few bucks and check it out, it would make me happy. I also have made good progress on my novel and will release an update on it soon, still raising money for publishing (since I want it in hard copy form and listed nationally).

Well, sorry to cut this short, but I think I'm dying, so until next time.

So far, so meatless

Small Update here on the diet.

It is working well, I do seem to have more energy, but that could be a placebo. I'm losing inches (dropped one pant size so far) and I'm building a lot more upper body strength. Instead of being Batman, I might have to be Bane (Due to upper body size, not because I'm now evil).

See. Told you it was short.

Update on New Lifestyle, and Other Things

Well, even though it's Saturday, it's not any time for me to slack off. I rode the stationary bike for about 20 minutes, and walked around my property (the whole 2 acres) for another 10. Only reason I didn't ride the entire time was that it was getting too hot in my shop and I couldn't find my fan. I'll find it before I try to tackle my goal of 10 miles in one ride.

I'm still doing well on being borderline vegan, so I'm hoping that I'll be alright during the Easter Feasts to come tomorrow. I did cooked Eggs and Bacon for the family for breakfast, both of which I won't eat (meat and\or diary). I did sneak in almond milk in the eggs instead of regular milk. ;)

With all the exercising and stuff I've been doing, I've not bragged on my carpentry skills:

My side of the bed.

Lyndsay's side of the bed.

I've been doing well at designing and building floating shelves, and so far, nothing has fallen! I'm not sure about my next trial, but I think it will be a coffee table themed after some caped crusader… Before that though, I have about two or three leather projects to knock out. It's amazing what you can get accomplished if you just try.

Dieting and Exercise

Let me tell you first, dieting is a loose term, if you want to stay slim and healthy, apparently you have to change what you eat (at least most of the time) forever. As for exercise, well, we all should be exercising anyway, so no complaints there (I'm lying, I'll complain). To get back into the rhythm of exercising\working out, I've started out with the stationary bike (4-7 miles per session) and pushups, started with 15, trying to increase by 5 every night, until I get to around 50 and then I'll keep it there for a while, because I'll add some weight exercises to the mix. I know this doesn't sound like a familiar James, but I'm not unfamiliar with working out, the food change however is uncharted land and I might be a red shirt crewman. The worst that could happen is I fail, so no harm, no foul, and if I go through with it and I succeed, then hooray for me. In case you're wondering, I'm staying away from meats and dairy products. Definitely vegetarian, and borderline vegan. I never thought I'd be trying it, but with great power comes more vegetables. I said I would post pictures, but not today. I will say in the 3 days I have been doing this, I have lost 4 pounds, which is great. I also have a lot more energy and I sleep better. I also can fly now. Alright, caught me, I was joking - I'm not sleeping that much better. On a side note, I have been making sure to get my recommended amount of water in:

Not being used to so much liquid intake has made me appreciate the fact that the restroom is right next to my office. Really. Hopefully within a week I'll have a photo to show, I'll definitely keep you updated, but I may still be too self-conscious to show my pudgy tummy to you. Check out some of my progress: RunKeeper