Day 4

Well, its finally starting to set in with me, I am missing some foods I normally like to eat. However, Its all good because I know I can stick to this plan for a while and maybe splurge in a few weeks; like october or something. Here's what I had to eat today:

1. Graham Crackers and water
2. 2 bagels
3. carrot odwalla bar
4. 1 bannana
5. 1 apple
6. a peanut butter sandwich
7. lots of water

I had my final meal (I don't want to call it dinner) with some bandmates, and man it was tough. They were all having pizza and pasta, and noodles and stuff that looked soooooo good! But hey, I didn't give in! I seem to be on a different track right now. I just need to think in the short term. I weighed myself today

Current: 278
last week: 290

So Ive improved! Ill keep you all posted! here I go again . . . . .

Day 3

Today I had:

1. A Bannana
2. 3 graham cracker sheets
3. 2 Odwalla Protein Bars
4. spinich and leaf salad w/carrots, mushrooms, nuts, and bleu cheese dressing
5. 1 Chicken Breast
6. 3 Glasses of OJ
7. 2 Liters of water

My excersize was:

750 meters of swimming

Day 2

Well, its been 24 hours since my shift. Here's what I had to eat today:

1. 2 Apples, 2 Bananna
2. Nutri-grain bar, Kellogs protein bar
3. 1 piece grilled chicken breast, spinich salad w/bleu cheese dressing (carrots and mushrooms too)
4. 3 Graham Cracker Sheets
5. 2 Liters of Water
6. 2 glasses of OJ

Well I think I have done pretty good with this choice. Im trying to eat frequent small meals to keep my metabolism up, that usually does the trick. Im going to the store right now to get some more nutri-grain bars and ill have one for my 4th meal. I eventually want to get up to 6 small meals a day.

Excersize for today:

Swam 25 Laps in the 25 meter pool total: 750 meters

Im going to stick to just swimming until the monk competition is over, then ill start lifting weights. Today the pool was nice to me. For some reason I had an energy boost that really allowed me to do a lot of laps. I remember a couple of weeks ago when I started out swimming again, I had trouble doing 15 laps. Hopefully Ill be up to 30 laps by the end of the week. I wish I could repeat today for the rest of my life in terms of my food and excersize choices. But I realize that Ill probably have days where Ill splurge and what the heck! Regardless, I think Im on the right track. 6-pack here I come!

CD's of the week

Im going to try to put up the CD's I am listening to for the week as a part of my blog. Here's for the week of August 22-28

1. Dave Douglas, Mountain Passages - I love the orchestration and story behind this record. Dave's dad was a mountain runner and as a tribute to this man's passion, he wrote this music. The festival took place at somewhere between 9 and 12 thousand feet and thus the record was born. I can only hope to have such a great vibe for a record of mine someday

2. Pat Metheny Group, Off Ramp - I like the sound of this record, very definitive of PM at the time. I am always amazed at how pat evolved over the years and records like this one really help me to see the big picture in the tale of a great guitarist.

3. Kenny Wheeler, What Now? This record has such a great sound, and the chemistry between all the players is scary! Chris Potter tears it up and so does Dave Holland. John Taylor has some great moments, but Kenny Wheeler's flugel is so lush, it makes me want to keep this in the player forever!

4. John Adams, Naive and Sentimental Music - I haven't gotten into this record as much as the others yet, but as it is with all large orchestral works, it takes time to absorb. John Adams is a master at his craft, so awesome. Where does he come up with these ideas?

First entry

This is my first time doing the blog thing, but I decided it was a good time to do so. I have just started my senior year at USC and am working toward finishing my jazz guitar degree. Lots of exciting things have been happening, this summer I went on tour with my guitar quartet and in september I will go to Washington DC for the Thelonious Monk International Guitar Competition. Things couldn't be going any better!

However, I have been trying to work on something that many of us Americans face- losing weight! For eons (well actually I haven't lived that long) I have gone back and forth between my love for food and my hate for man boobs. Well, I guess I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't come easy, but I have also come to the conculsion that the struggle is worth it.

Here's the things I love that are involved in my struggle to shed the pounds:

I love swimming, and I have been a novice swimmer for two years. I have been in the pool off and on since then, and recently (this week) I got back into the pool for the first time in 4 months. Swimming is great for us guitarists cause it makes our shoulders feel nice and strong. Hopefully Ill be in the pool even more this week, we'll see about that- - -

I love food. But do I actually LOVE food? I don't know about that. The only thing I love about it is that it solves my bordem for a short time and helps me feel like my stomach is getting a massage. I like how it tastes, and the feeling is not just a mouth thing- its an all over pleasure.

I love the ladies. But for some reason, I have not really been able to, well you know, enjoy them as much as I have wanted to. Being a senior in college inspires me to find the love of my dreams, but the reality is, I have never been on an official "date" of sorts. It all goes back to high school, I never went to any of my dances or anything. Then when I got to college, I really didn't know how to socialize. Now im starting to figure things out a bit, and I have wanted to meet some people. The thing is though, I want to be a more attractive piece of real estate. This is a major reason why I want to get rid of the laundry on my washboard stomach.

I love to practice and be a perfectionist in school. And because of that, sometimes I haven't the time to work out. Hopefully Ill be able to waive all this and really take charge by excersizing every day.

I love my dad and the things we used to do. He had a stroke 8 years ago and is still recovering. I picked up a lot of bad habits from him and one of them is my food choice. My dad always had this whatever take on food. Whatever I wanted was whatever I got. And now, Im paying the price. But I have realized that if I don't fix what has been wrong for these past few years, I may end up like him, in a nursing home without an arm and leg. Being a guitarist, this scares me, literally half to death per se.

But most of all, I love life, and I really want to be around for a long time. Not to say that my weight will prevent me from doing this, but its scary when you are 21 and 300 pounds realizing where you came from.

So as you can see, by looking at all these things I love, I have my own little Iraqi war going on inside my head, stomach, and mouth. But, hopefully with this blog, I might be able to exhaust some of my emotions about the whole thing and JUST DO IT.

Here's my goals:

August 28, 2005: my current weight is 290 pounds

January 1, 2006: somewhere less than 290 pounds (hopefully like 250 pounds)

Here's what I ate today:

1. two chicken sandwiches and a large lemonade
2. a tomato salad with bleu cheese (not the dressing)
3. one bite of a hot dog
4. a half a piece of bread pudding
5. lots of water

Well, I guess I can axe the lemondae and maybe hold off on the dog and the dessert, but what the hell, its my first day!

Thanks for reading this, its kind of spooky writing this stuff not knowing who is reading, but regardless, Im going to keep a strict track of my progress on this thing and ill link it up to my website.