Day 51: Kitten photos

I figured I'd let everyone see my new kitty. I know it's not fitness or P90X related, but who cares! A little background story... I offered to accept this cat from a co-worker whose parents were deathly alergic to him. But between the time I offered to take him in, and the day he arrived at my house... my childhood cat (cuddles) passed away at the age of 21. Thus making the arrival of this kitten that much more special to me. Also, I didn't know this when I accepted him, he LOOKS a lot like my old cat, granted about 20 years younger. Enjoy the pics! I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more about him in the future.

Currently he is without name:

Day 50+ Took a few days off - Kitten has arrived

Sorry for anyone who reads my blog on a daily basis, I missed a couple days (Mainly Thursday through Sunday). I was pre-occupied, lazy, and just not motivated to write anything. But now that I'm back I figure I should let you know what happened over the weekend.

1. I took a well deserved 4 days off working out! I'm not upset or proud about this, I just needed some non-workout days. I'm on week 8 of P90X+ and I haven't had any real rest days since the new program started.

2. I went out and purchased some new clothes. I didn't buy any pants, which are the worst fitting clothing items I have, but I did buy some new dress shirts and such.

3.The kitten is here! He came over the weekend. From the picture I posted, I thought he was going to be grey. It turns out he's an orangy/white mix. I didn't see that one coming. He's very cute and friendly.

4. Continuing the kitchen renovations. The cabinets and trim were finished quite a while ago. But we started taking down wallpaper and plan to soon paint the walls/doors, completing the project.

5. Back on the chemicals for another 28-30 days.

I'll try to target some posts around the new kitten in the near future. I've got some photos and stories alraedy, just need to get them online...

Legs and back today.

Day 49+ And we're back

Yesterday's TND was delicious. I had never cooked ribs before, but they were wonderful. Unfortunately, no opportunities to workout yesterday, so we'll just forget about that today and press forward like nothing happened.

At work I have been consuming more coffee than normal, perhaps I should blame Starcraft 2 for being up a little later than normal each night, or perhaps I'm just getting "cravings" regularly, but I have discovered it's not crappy coffee at work (although it still isn't great), it's actually crappy creamer. So I've axed that portion of my coffee and switched over to just plain sweetner (sucralose/splenda). Even though it's not water, I guess you could argue it's not BAD for you... I'm at one or two cups a day. Perhaps I should kick the habit before I go back on creatine - which suggests not consuming many diuretics.

Next week will be kitten week. I hope to still be able to hit the gym, but I think I'll be excited to head home early to check on him and play. I'll play it by ear.

Day 49+ Going to have to skip :-(

I have a lot of housework that needs to get done prior to the arrival of my Tuesday Night Dinner (TND) friends. On a normal basis, I would be going to the gym for about 1hour then heading home to start cooking, today I have at least an hour's worth of organizing/cleaning to do. Which means I will have to put today's CST (chest/shoulder/tri) workout off til another day - or just scrap it all together.

Yesterday's photo of Tobias did not come out very well, so I will try it again here:


I weighed in at 151lbs this morning. Down a few lbs, but I think I've actually lost a bit of muscle mass in the past few days, since I haven't been hitting the weights as rigorously as normal. Hopefully when I get back on the supplements I'll get back up to speed and this funk that I'm in will end.

Day 48+ Legs and Back

It turns out that 30% of Americans have a blog, and 20 years ago nobody did... it's a random factoid. I heard it in the radio as I was coming to work. I haven't verified it but I have no reason to dispute the claim.

My weekends remain lazy. Granted one of the days is a rest-day anyway, I just always feel that my weekend activities and eating don't really conform to the exercise/nutrition P90X suggests. It's not really a bad thing, but I just feel a bit guilty.

This will be my 2nd week off the chemicals. I plan on getting back on them either late this week or early next week. I look forward to it, I think they really do help me get in those extra reps.

**There is a bundle of joy on the way** No I'm not having a child, but I will be adopting a 5mo. old cat from a friend whose parents are deathly allergic to cat-dander. So I'm sure you'll be reading about the mayhem and the mischief my new friend will be getting into. I hope he behaves.

Day 46+ Kenpo Cardio X

Today I get to do one of my favorite workouts - KENPO. I don't know why I like it so much, but it's just fun and easy to do and the next thing you know, it's over and you're all gross and sweaty. The only downside is I never get to do it at home, since I'm always moving around on the weekends. But throw in a couple 3lb weights and you got yourself one fun, yet serious workouts.

I mentioned this before, but the creatine monohydrate and JACK3d have really motivated me to keep up the workload. I'm finding this week has been rather lazy (both at the gym and getting to the gym) which makes me wonder if these chemicals actually HELP in motivating me to workout.

No ab-ripper tonight. I've been doing it pretty much daily during the work week up til today. I think I need to start adding resistance, because I'm no longer getting skinnier (I don't know how much more I can lose), but the abdominal muscles aren't getting any more defined. Perhaps a medicine ball or some additional moves are in order.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Day 44+ and 45+ Half Way - Day of Caring and Platelets

Yesterday was the anual Day of Caring, where companies all over Western NY get volunteers together and go work on community projects throughout the region and help clean things up or accompany kids to the park or train unemployeed people how to act in an interview. Depending what your skill set is, and what you sign up for, it's a great opportunity to reach out to the community. It's also a great way to take a day off work! So yesterday I spent my whole morning cleaning up Gallagher Beach, picking out trash from the rocks and raking up sea weed (interesting side note: what are the rules with sea-weed? If it's from a lake... is it still SEA weed? or is it LAKE weed?) It was physically demanding, it wasn't P90X, but I'm going to consider it as a workout day, only because I would have otherwise been sitting on my butt for 8hrs at work, not getting any exercise.

Immediately following my Day of Caring activities, I went to the red cross to donate platelets - I racked up some big points on the charity scale yesterday. So workout out really wasn't an option anyway. They're offering "A netbook-a-day" for platelet donors. The staff at the clinic already told me "Enter on a Sunday... that way you have the best chances of winning." Hopefully they haven't been telling everyone else that... it would be neat to win something!

Today will be another P90X at the gym day. My schedule is a little messed up since I did the trainer's exercises so perhaps today I'll take it easy and do shoulders/arms. Who knows, I guess I'll do whatever feels good when I arrive at the gym.

My weight has been around 151 recently. This morning I was 152.5lbs, but yesterday I was 150.0lbs. Being off the chemicals, I've noticed that I'm less EXCITED about going to the gym. But that's probably all plaecebo effets, I can't imagine creatine making me want to work out, more than the fact I'm taking creatine so in my mind I SHOULD work out... or maybe it's the Hulk Drink, who knows. Either way, it's a difference.