I'm BACK!

"No Heels! I'll come to your house if your heels hit the deck!" -Tony Horton- Legs and Back

I'm back from Spain. Some of you might be wondering "So what's the damage?", "How much did you gain?", etc. etc. Well as the scale tells me this morning, I weigh 152lbs, which is actually 1lb less than I weighed before leaving for Spain. In all honesty, I know it's muscle mass... but knowing I didn't come back 165lbs or something atrocious, is quite appealing.

I'm sort of back on my schedule, Sunday I didn't have a pullup bar so I Kenpo'd instead... probably not the smartest substitution ever... but I think this week is going to be a bit discombobulated. Today I am doing Arms/Shoulder and I will be doing it at the gym, we'll see how that goes. I shouldn't have had any problem waking up at 5:00am today, the Jet lag should be working in my favor, but I was just generally tired from working 12 straight days.

Highlights from Spain (in bullet form):
* Plaza Mayor
* Pinto Punto
* Madrid Palace
* Iberian Jamon
* Tortilla (Spanish omelet)
* Tapas
* Paella
* European Coffee

I look forward to being back on the P90X band-wagon. But I need to be warned... Starcraft 2 looms out in the horizon, I hear it is a goals & productivity murderer and will stop at nothing to prevent my completion of P90X.

Day ???: Picture Update

Watch me slowly get fat eating out every night and neglecting exercise! WOOT WOOT! It's not that bad (at least not yet, one more week to go).

Day ???: Jamon (not PETA / vegetarian safe)

I don't know what P90X day I am on, I guess I could look at my calendar and figure it out... but when I create a new post the calendar goes away. It's my 4th day in Spain! I'm having a good time, but I need to get a lot done. Every night is an adventure, the plant personnel take the liberty to escort me around Madrid or Pinto and have fun showing me different sights/foods. I'm glad they come with me, because without them I would have no idea what I am ordering - OR - I would end up ordering things I understand like "hambourgesa" or "papas fritas" which is clearly hamburgers/fries.

Some of the more interesting things I've eaten are: Tortillas (not Mexican tortillas, but Spanish ones, made from eggs and potatoes.) If you can eat two tortilla's you should try out for an eating competition - they are about the size of an apple pie. We split one as an appetizer 4 ways and I was almost too full to have the entree.


I've had JAMON (they say Ham-on... I say Jamon, sometimes Jamin') twice now. I guess dried ham is a delicacy in Spain. It's quite peculiar. They are in very thin slices (think bacon), but uncooked. Heavily salted and dried for many months (think beef jerky). The combination is very unique and quite delicious. But the true delicacy is Iberian ham (I don't know if I am spelling it correctly). It's a type of black-pig that is fed only acorns. And the pork meat is very dark red. I guess a typical leg costs about 300euros ~$500 USD. I was lucky enough to be a part of a plant celebration (one of the managers is having a child, and so it's tradition to buy this food and share it with your co-workers). But I was more than just lucky to eat it... he gave me the opportunity to cut it! And some of the other operators were very excited that I was able to take part in this Spanish celebration. (see picture below)

I am having a great time! But all this heavy eating is going to set me back big time!

Spain Day 1: Landed

"Look at the teeth, WHYY? She's studying to be a dentist. Look at those teeth, unbelievable, off the charts, like chicklets going across...beautiful!"
-Tony Horton- PlyoX

Flights from the US to Europe are a bit strange... you leave late at night and arrive early in the morning... the only problem is, you'd expect your traditional 8-10hrs of sleep. Except, due to the time change (and because you're bouncing around on an airplane), you only get about 30mins of sleep, if you're lucky. I wasn't so lucky:

Due to the volcanic ash cloud (from Mt. howthehelldoyoupronounceit), we had to fly an alternative route, which took us up and above Great Britain. However, our plane did not have enough fuel to make the trip without stopping. So we had to do the plane version of a Chinese fire-drill in Glasgow, Scotland. Once topped off, we were back on our way. Except the plane arrived about 3 or so hours late. Oh well, all I planned on doing today anyway was orientation/safety meeting stuff.

My rental car is a Skoda. Confused? So am I. What the heck is a Scoda? I'm a car junky and I don't even know what the heck one is. Turns out it's a Czech car company, which instantly made me think of the great old Mr. Plow Simpson's episode where Homer is buying a car and the salesman says "She'll go 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene!" I have a feeling if I said that, people might actually take it seriously.

But things look good so far. I'll scout out a place to eat dinner. It's already 6:00pm, turns out the plant personnel leave around 7:00pm, so that'll likely be when I head out too!

I think I might do ab-ripper in the hotel room. Its only 15 mins and I know it by heart. That way I can keep my mid-section in shape for beach-season. ;-)

Day 56: Week 8

**UPDATE 5/10/2010 (forgot quote of the day**
"Sounds like a bird in here." -Tony Horton- Legs&Back

If you ask me sounds more like Dreya faking an orgasm.

Before I talk about the up-in-coming week #8, I need to talk about week #7. A friend and I were talking about working out and getting results and how seeing results reinforces working out, and working out generates results, rinse and repeat into infinity. Which got me thinking. In a world heavily geared towards "Negative Feedback" (a process by which an action causes a reaction that prevents the first action, example: When the temperature of your room starts falling below the thermostat setting, the furnace kicks on - furnace activation prevents the action of the falling temp. When you get a headache, you take an Advil. When you get hungry, to eat a sandwich... etc etc.)...sorry about the tangent... In a world heavily geared towards negative-feedback, we see this prime example of a positive feedback. So it makes you think...

Q. why doesn't everyone workout and get into the positive feedback loop (workout, get results, results prompt more working out, getting even better results...)?
A. Insert week #7

Let me explain. Although positive feedback loops are great... there is one intrinsic problem. Once you hit a bump in the road, so to speak, you can throw the cycle off it's harmony. And most of us WILL hit a road bump, even myself (a Hum-V with a suspension designed to just soak in the harsh roads)... I got sick. And unfortunately for me, I got sick right before a big Spain trip, which I have to admit will be more like a Detroit sized pot-hole than a little bump. But that's okay. I understand what's happening. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and I know what I need to do when I return. And for any of the readers that have managed to get this far into my post, if you ever find yourself off of the positive feedback cycle, you'll need to do the same as me. GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, TIE UP YOUR SNEAKERS, HIT THE GYM, HIT THE PAVEMENT, AND GET BACK TO WORKING OUT!

Okay - everyone still with me?

Week #7: I had my brother up from NH this weekend. Not fabulous for the diet, but I had a great time. Here are some of the bad things I ate: The Keg restaurant, wine, Buffalo wings (can't have someone come to Buffalo and not have Buffalo wings), wine, Cake (he brought as a gift), wine, lots and lots of coffee, and on ya, did I mention wine?

Week #8. Today I leave for Spain! Adios amigos! As you can probably imagine, the frequency of posts will likely drop to an abysmal level (perhaps once or twice a week). I apologize. It's not my intent to leave everyone hanging while I put back on 15lbs because I'll be eating out 100% of the time and exercising 0% of the time. No, it's because I'll be working 12hr days, with a time change, with a language barrier, and wandering the streets of Madrid. So hopefully everyone can accept that. But as I said above, full steam ahead when I get home!