Posted 11:02 AM by Tim
Well, its been a week since the whole diet and exercise thing started. I'm not the best when it comes to dieting. I've got a long history of just eating whatever I want and damning the consequences. That's why I'm dieting now, coincidentally. Anyway, after the first week, it looks like I'm down about 6 pounds. That's just slightly more than the last time I dieted, so at least I'm consistent. I figure that if I just go on a diet every few weeks and lose five pounds each time, I'll be down to my target weight in no time :)

On a realistic note, I haven't been quite as faithful with both the diet and the exercise as I had hoped. Real life just keeps getting in the way. I mean, its difficult to refuse to take lunch with someone if they're buying. I suppose its not so bad though. As long as I just keep the rest of my meals down to minimums, it'll be good.

I do feel good about the exercise situation so far. I'm a little concerned about a couple of the moves I've been doing. They don't necessarily hurt when I'm doing them, but they do hurt afterwards. I know that an amount of pain is normal, but there's also an amount of pain, or, types of pain that just aren't right. I'm gonna review my options and the instructions for the exercises and see if I'm missing something I'm supposed to be doing.

There are a few other exercises I'd like to be doing, but I'm just not feeling up to all of it yet. I suppose that's the point though. Time to start pushing myself beyond my limits. That's the only way for me to start reaching past those limits, right?

Now for some other news. I've been playing a fair bit of Fable. Kinda cool game. Lotta fun killing villagers and stealing from everyone. Yay me!

Also been playing a fair bit of DDR. I went to see the tournament (well a bit of it) on the weekend. I was blown out of the water by the speed that several of these individuals could move their feet. Compared to me, they're just rediculously fast. I suppose there really isn't any comparison. I have been improving though. I've finally managed to pass a few of the really fast songs. I figure that just by practicing Max300 I'm bound to improve. Max300 Light isn't too stressful in the endurance department, but its definately the fastest stepping song I've got. Enoiugh practice should push me to the point where my feet get faster. I'm just waiting for something else to "click" in my head and for everything to improve that one little notch further towards being good.

In the last, smallest note, I have been considering finally finishing off the edits on the NaNo novels. I think they really could be something if I just focused a little bit on them. There's a story in there, and it just needs some work to make it really shine. We'll see what we see, right?

Posted 3:45 PM by Tim
Yesterday I was doing some DDR, trying just to get a little cardio into my life. Towards the end I was feeling pretty tired, and I thought, hell, I'll spin the wheel and see if I can hit Max300. Then, maybe, just maybe, I can pass it. So, I put it on Roulette, and hit the button right away. It doesn't stop the wheel though, I figure my pad just isn't responsive enough for the A button. I watch it spin for a little bit, trying to figure out where the Max300 is on the wheel and where I'll need to hit it to stop on the spot.

I hit the stopper at the right place, and the wheel slows down and clicks onto Max300, then just past it, then rotates back one space onto Max300 again. That's pretty cool. First try. Usually I can't hit it at all (I've hit Max300 just one other time out of about 50 tries) - I did not pass it then. The music starts up, and this time, I've seen some of the steps before, so I've got an idea of what to expect. It's going, and I'm stepping and doing ok for the first bit, then it gets to where I haven't seen before. Gah. Crazyness in there, but I'm keeping up alright. I know that it only takes about 10 misses to tank the game, and I'm trying to keep that from happening. Surprisingly, I manage to survive it long enough to pass the song. Now I've got it, and I'm gonna practice it a ton :) I am so happy.

On a bad note, my wife threw her hip out at aerobics. She did some move or other and it stressed the joint a little too much. She'll be alright, but for now she's kinda hobbly.

As for me, I think I'm almost adjusted to the new food levels. Not quite so hungry at lunchtime now. If I'm around food I'm still hungry for it, but if I'm not around it, I don't. Its a reasonble arrangement. I've got to re-read the instructions I had for my ab workout. I've got a bit of pain in my ribs from the exercises for the back, but I'm not sure if that's me doing things wrong, or me just being fatter than the exercises expect. Hopefully I'm doing them right. I hate doing an exercise wrong and just hurting myself.

Posted 11:06 AM by Tim
I'm still feeling a little sore in the arms today, but its not as bad as it was yesterday. More weights to look forward to today.

Things are going alright for me right now. Got a potential job offer, but I don't think I can take it. I like working where I am now, and I don't want to give up a full time job that pays alright for a short term contract job that pays really well. While it'd be nice to have the money in the short term, I know that the overall taxes and other sundry expenses would be enough to counteract any advantage in the long run.

Our current financial status is pretty bad. My diet is going to help us out a little bit, since it seems like eating will soon have to be moved to a low priority item. I may have to start scavenging for food. We'll get Bren's weekly paycheck tomorrow, but its going to be enough to just cover some expenses. Things will hopefully get better soon. You can see why the idea of quick money is so enticing.

Posted 10:43 AM by Tim
Well, I'm a little sore today. After a full day of looking around for workout hints, tips and exercises, I've found enough information that directly applies to me and my goals. One of the first things I found out is that the last time I did all the exercising, I just wasn't pushing myself enough to get the kinds of changes that I wanted.

I think, that at the most, I was working with around 40 to 50 reps total for my weights. And that was in the areas that I felt strongest. This, is apparently nowhere near enough. The minimum suggested total reps is 60. That's 5 sets of 12. The suggestion I found was 5 or 6 sets of 12 to 15. So, anywhere from 60 to 90 reps total. Yeah, my arms are sore today.

I figured that given my total lack of real muscle, I woudl start over with the 5lb weights - the smallest weights I own. Something in the back of my mind says that I should be working with something huge, like a 20lb-er, but another something (the bit that remembers the injury I suffered before because of bad form and overstressing) says that using a weight that large would be a massive problem.

Another thing that I read said that there are three main things to do for weight training. Build for strength, build for tone and build for endurance. For strength, the idea was high weight, low reps, long pauses between sets. Endurance was low weight, high reps, little to no pause between sets. The tone one was a nice intermediate, middle weights, middle reps and some pause between sets. My impression was that it would be good to mix up which one you were working on. Do four or five weeks of tone exercise, then some strength exercise for a couple weeks, then some endurance exercise for a couple weeks. Mix it up, cycle the order now and then. I think I can do that.

I've also decided that I'm going to try the diet thing again. The plan is less food, as well as better foods. My wife swears by removing starches from the diet, such as bread. I'm going to go with that too, hopefully it'll work out. I really should remove cola from the diet too, as the caffeine and sugars probably won't help me in the long run. I can't see how I could get rid of cola altogether though, so I'll probably just keep trying to limit my total intake. That should be helpful at least.

If anyone's interested, here's the whole plan:

Cardio (DDR or something) 6 days a week. The goal being to burn about 500 calories. That's about an hour of DDR on Basic with fast songs, or something like 45 to 60 minutes of just about anything else (walking, running, etc).

Weights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I've got a workout plan from the internet which I can do with the equipment I've got already. It's focused on free weights, abs and basic exercise (push ups, squats, etc). I am going to have to find somewhere to do pull ups, but I have no idea where something like that might be.

Then there's the abs. I'm planning on doing an ab workout every day. That's 6 or 7 days a week. I might take Sundays just for myself. The ab thing I'm gonna hate, but I know that if I do it, it'll help me out so much.

I'm also planning on doing some yoga with my wife. I need the stretching to keep my muscles from siezing up, and she's gonna be a lot more forgiving than an instructor would be.

All in all, it's a busy schedule. I'll be taking measurements and weighing in on Mondays, same as always. This is looking to be a lot harder than last time, but I think that's a good thing. At least right now anyway.

Posted 10:54 AM by Tim
Health and fitness. Again. Not too long ago I did three months of reasonably regular exercise to try to lose some weight and get fit. That sort-of worked. I lost 5 pounds, felt better about myself for a little while, then got depressed about the whole thing.

Since then, I haven't exercised at all really. Sure, I get outside now and then for a little walk, or I go skating with the family. That's not really exercise though. If it doesn't change your heartrate, or make you sweat, it doesn't count. I haven't even managed to get any DDR in lately, even though I was quite enjoying it. Other items have come up, and I've been just too busy to get the game on in the early part of the evening.

Anyway, the desire to be more physicall fit is still strong. I want to look better, I want to be fit. I was supposed to join the YMCA recently, but cash flow has been a serious issue for me. Lack of money means some heavy issues for the family. So, for now, if I'm gonna get fit, I've got to stick with what I've got.

What do I have? I've got a couple of 5lb weights and one 10lb. I've got a bike, rollerblades and regular skates. And shoes of course. I've got a yoga mat, and loving wife with a fair idea of how yoga works. Instruction videos for everything from yoga to cardio to pregnancy exercises. I've got my copy of DDR (and know a few places I can go to play around others if I want), and I've got just a little bit of desire and drive. I think I'm pretty set if I can just figure out what I'm doing and get started.

I've always been of the belief that after you've done something, you should take a little time to review what it was that you did, and figure out what could have gone better, or what shouldn't have been done. I've given my last exercise venture a little thinking, and here's what I came up with.

1. Three months was a good length of time. Long enough to show real commitment, but not an impossibly long time.
2. My goals weren't really that realistic in the long run. 30 pounds is a lot, and the other goals were far too subjective to really be measurable. They were motivating for the first bit, but eventually became hurdles to improvment.
3. Because all my exercising was done in private (other than DDR), there wasn't really a lot of opportunity to get encouragement and reinforcement from others. These things would have really helped me to stick to the plan.
4. A more rigid diet would have been very helpful.
5. Though I had regular exercise, it was rarely intensive enough to really show any benifit. I need to be harder on myself and push myself more to strive for my goals.

So, I know what I liked, and what I didn't like about last time. This time - I want to do better. The situation is a little different than last time though. I am a little lighter. My wife is doing a lot of exercises herself. I'm a lot busier than I was in the summer. I've got a friend who's looking to do the same as I am.

I think I'm in a good position to get started. Normally, I'd like to wait until the beginning of the month to get started with something like this. I know that if I wait, I'll just put it off, so I'm going to get started immediately. I'm not going to count days anymore, but I am going to stick to about 3 months. After which, I'll take another look at myself and see if things are going better. If I don't count this month's time, it'd be New Year's for the review again. That seems like the perfect time to see how I'm doing.

I figure that there are 15 weeks until the new year. If I could lose 2 pounds a week, I'd have lost 30 pounds. Last time, I had that as my goal. I'm thinking it's a little unreasonable, so I'm going to pick a lower number. I'm going to pick 20 pounds. I weighed myself this morning and I weighed just about 205 on my scale (which is apparently under by 10 pounds). So, by my scale, I'd like to weigh just 185. That looks like a good starting number. I'd also like to be more fit and toned. Maybe have some real muscle definition. This is all subjective, so I'm not going to include it as a real goal, but I am going to keep it in mind for my own motivation.

I've taken a good look at myself, and what about me needs work. I've got good legs, the lower legs especially. Just keep doing what I'm doing there, but a little extra work on the upper legs would be good. I've got a gut. I'd like to say "a bit of a gut" there, but let's be honest, there's enough there that I'd have to be two or three people to have a "bit." The chest and arms aren't too bad, but they're a far cry from where I'd like them. My back's not great either, but its not completely bad.

All told, I'm pretty good on the extremities, and squishy in the middle. I've always hated abdominal exercise, and it's pretty obvious that I haven't done anything to change that area. I'm gonna have to learn to love them though, or find a way to remind myself that all the pain of abdominals is going to be worth it in the long run.

So, I'm going to throw myself into a more active routine. I'm gonna squeeze 30 to 60 minutes of time out of my days and really get motivated on this. I'm gonna strive to do better with my weights, and choose to eat less. I'll pull DDR out tonight and really give it a thrashing. I've got all the equipment I need. I've got a timeline (as loose as it is), and I've got a plan and a goal. I just need to get started. Now is the time.

Posted 1:07 PM by Tim
I've been doing some painting lately. Minis, of course. got to keep on the task and get them painted. I did 13 in the last week. That's not a lot, of course, but these were for the Penal Legion. Yes, new army, so lots of enthusiasm. No money though, so I'm keeping the purchases down to a reasonable level.

I'm bringing them by the store out near work to try and get some feedback and commentary on them.

... a short two hours later ...

Seems that the store guys liked the stuff I brought in. And they gave me a few good ideas for things I can do in tourney. I'm gonna have to give it a little thought, and see where that takes me.

Posted 3:00 PM by Tim
Yeah, so with nothing to do at work I'm blogging. I've read everything I usually read by this point in the day, except for Keenspot. Not sure why I haven't read that yet.

Anyway, I've been thinking a little bit lately, about this and that, and where my life is going. After all, you've got to have some direction in life, or else you're just cruising along not paying attention. That'll get you to work, but you won't remember quite how you got there.

Anyway, I've been trying to play some DDR lately, but it doesn't always work out. I found the machine that's here in KW. It's not too bad, but the place it's in was dead when I was by there. I wish I had a load of extra cash. I'd buy myself a machine if I could. On the "may actually happen" side of life, I am thinking about trying to get out there now and then and get the real arcade experience in now and then.

I've also been trying to get some of my many miniatures painted. They just need doing. I read this one guy's method for doing large forces of minis. Start with one colour, the base, and get everything based. Then, rather than completely finishing a squad or something (which will take lots of time and colours), start with your next most visible colour. Do not bother adding things like details at this point in time. Do reasonable numbers at a time like this. Like 5 or 10 an evening. If you can do this, you'll soon have the whole force done in 2 colours. Then get the third most present colour. Do the whole force in that too. That, and probably Boltgun Metal or something, will give you a force that is painted enough for play, and which looks consistent. Over time, you can take a squad, and add detail or other colours.

This seems like the best method given the number of miniatures that I own that need painting. I think the count is somewhere close to 300.

See, if you want to play in one of the stores, you have to have painted models. That is, you have to have models that have 3 colours on them, and are based. It really helps if you have ones that look good too.

I've been sort of collecting from all over the place too lately. I'm going to pare the armies down a bit, back to a few core units. Keep the Dark Eldar, and the Witch Hunters. I'm gonna build up a new force over time though. A Penal Legion for Imperial Guard. I've always had a thing for loading my side of the table with troops, and there isn't a bettter way to do that that with Imperial Guard. Sure, Tyranids give them a good run for the money, but the guard are just so good at it. So I'm thinking of a penal legion. Take Catachans and paint them in prison orange, and Cadians, painted in blues, for the prison guards. After that, it all starts to fall into place.

Sure, the Penal Legion will probably sacrifice playability for thematic reasons. Like dropping tanks entirely. Who would give a prisoner access to a tank? And we'll be losing out on all the superheavy weapons. After all, you don't want to give them too much power, right? I had to get some Orange paint today to finish off a few of the minis I've been working on. Got to get them done up soon, so I can start with the big painting project mentioned above.

In non-gaming news, I'm still not happy with my body shape. I know, I just got done a pretty poorly executed three month long program. But, I'm not happy with myself, and I want it to change. I realize that the only way this is going to happen is with some serious changes. I'm going to have to exercise, even if I don't want to. And I'm going to have to eat differently. Not just less, but differently. I can't eat the way I do and lose weight. Gah, I just don't know if I've got enough commitment in me to do this. I know I want it, but I'm not sure I've got the willpower to do it. Maybe if I could do something where I really saw a change? I suppose the only way to start is to try.

Posted 1:25 PM by Tim
I've been trying to play as much DDR as I'm able to lately. I'm shooting for a minimum of 1 hour 4 or 5 days a week.

What I've been doing is playing at the Light level. This is, for the home version, the easiest level of play. I usually set the game to this level, and just start playing. Every so often, if I feel I'm doing really well, I'll put a song up on the Standard level just to see how much more difficult they are. Trust me, going from a full combo on a 2 minute song, to losing the same song in about 20 seconds is really harsh.

I've been steadily improving though. Songs that used to be E for me are moving up into the A and B range. That's on Light. I've been pressing myself to try Standard too. So, last night, I set the system to Standard to play, and decided that other than a few "for fun" songs, I'd keep the whole thing on standard. Try out the whole list of songs and really see how I'm doing. I'm happy to report that I'm not doing too bad.

Something clicked in my head last night and suddenly, I understand how to do the three-steps. They're not impossible any more. That's good, because Standard is full of them. And the jumps are getting both faster and more complicated.

I'm doing well on anything 5 feet and less, but 6 footers are giving me an issue. 7 foot Standards are right out. I'm barely passing if I get through it at all. 8 and 9 are total flops. I might get 40 seconds into a song if I'm lucky.

There are a few songs that I feel I should be playing more often. Songs that use a lot of the quick steps and silly jumps. Those will give me enough practice.

My goal here, is to get good enough to go into an arcade setting, play and not only not suck, but to look reasonably good. It is a big change though. Going from a soft pad (which moves as I play) in bare feet, to a hard pad in shoes. Still, it's not so significant an issue that I can't figure out how to get past the differences and still play.

I'm thinking of hitting the arcade tomorrow on my day off if I can find the time.