Day 600! (day 22 of BFL challenge)

600 days and nearly half the man i was, here I am in my apartment beginning another day of practicing and composing, preparing myself for further musical adventures down the road. While I may not have a gig tonight, I know that my gigs are coming soon and like all men in the military i must be ready for action.

My fitness plan has overwhealmingly gone superb. Ive kept the weight off, and lost another 10 pounds for over a year. While I still want to lose another 30 pounds, I know im on the verge of it. Right now, I need to focus more on my music and hopefully that will distract me enough to get the last bit off. . . . .

I broke my promise to myself this morning though, and stepped on the scale. But Its good news because I seem to have lost a few pounds the past couple weeks, and yet my waist line is still the same - i guess this means im gaining some muscle and losing some flab.. . .

Today I started using a timer in the weight room - I didn't realize how fast I was going before. Now I can pace myself a bit more (to quote good old Mr. Talbot, wherever you are. . .) and slow down. I think that slowing down my weight routiene, in particular, will get me some better results. New workout clothes yesterday, always excite me, and im ready to start doubling up on my cardio sessions. Since today was a weight day, tommorrow will be some eliptical action in the morning and then im going to go for a run when i get back from what will presumably be a slow day of teaching tommorrow.

So todays song is going to have two vibes. . . . im trying to figure them out right now, we'll see how it goes.

Wish me luck with all this, it seems my life is so simple right now - all i have to do is write about 10 tunes for myself, another few tunes for the guitar quartet, continue to book our summer tour, and lose another 30-45 pounds! And while all these tasks may seem easy, they do take a lot of planning and goal work. We'll see how it all goes. . .

Cheers to 600 days and a NEW LIFE!

597/19

The day started off perfect and ended in utter catastrophe diet wise. Excersize was good today too, tommorrow is going to be hard also with the swimming and all, im looking forward to it.

By next week, things should be back to normal. Im actually seeing some better definition this week, im excited that improvements have surely been made the past couple weeks.

Music wise, worked on the new west record today, didn't get much practicing in. . .

595/17 (yesterday)

Splurged quite a bit at the harbor house, had fries and the works, still had a great workout in the morning. At night had a nice shrimp dinner

Today is day 596/18 and im going to go swimming right now. . . .

started working on a version of im getting sentimental over you for the quartet, in a samba style, we'll see how it goes. . . more to come for today's post. . .

Day 594/16

I had three meals this weekend that would qualify as destructive to my diet, not only because they were pretty big, but because I ate so late into the evening. I seem to be back on track now - the excersize is coming along great, yesterday worked upper body exclusively and today Im going to go swim hard. I packed a great lunch yesterday and wasn't hungry for a second . . . thats so much the key. . .

Im still working on this goal for a due date of early july, and I think I can still get there. This is really, really, really hard work for me now. I never thought it would be this tough.

Music wise, im excited to work on some organ trio arrangements today. I've got some great gigs coming up in the coming months to look forward to and im so excited for this.

Thanks so much for all your support everyone and I look forward to the journey ahead!

Day 589/11

So far, so good - still doing well with the excersizing. However, yesterday i ate out all three meals, but i still made good decisions. Today, i've been a bit off, having cereal, 2 pieces of toast for breakfast, and for lunch 2 beef patties, 2 corn dogs, 1 whole wheat pita. For my dinner im going to pack, ill be sure to put in a bunch of vegitables and maybe a half of a sandwhich instead of a whole one. I swam hard this morning, and it felt great. Tommorrow, is lower body weights. Saturday morning, im going on a long run. I've started measuring again, which i really should stop. But im doing well, i've lost 1 1/2 inches the past 11 days! so now i only need to lose 8 to get to my goal. . . i can do it! cheers

Music wise, composed some more pop stuff today, and worked on that hard classical piece i have to perform on sunday. Ran through the changes on a few tunes, now its off to teach and tonight a rehearsal with Slide Fx - should be fun.

. . . here comes mom again. . . uh oh. . .

day 587/9

Last night was fun again, an evening of jamming at the mint and hanging with lots of friends from out of town. Although I sounded like crap last night, im still trying to not be too self-concious of my playing.

Man its so tempting to drop a line on the AIM, but i know she's busy and ill have to wait until at least tommorrow afternoon. . . the suspense is just crazy!!!! !?!?!!@#!@!

Today, i rode the bike at the Y, cause the machines were all taken, still feeeling amazing, and i've already lost over an inch around my waist! Im still determined to not step on the scale until the end of the month. . ..

diet has been great, yesterday ate perfectly, today i intend on doing the same.

Hopefully when my mom comes to town this week, ill be able to plow through and not fall victim to her taking me out for dinners and stuff. I've bought my groceries, and I intend on still cooking them here.


I think the key to success right now is to really focus on my music, and then the weight will come off, i've been so fixiated with the goal i think its been frankly rather distracting and defeated the whole purpose to begin with. And everything has changed since i met her last weekend, i think this has helped too, we'll see how well it all goes. . . .

Day 586/8

Things have been great! Yesterday ate a great diet, today shopped at trader joes, bought enough food for a couple weeks, have been doing well with the excersize and it feels good to stay away from the scale for a while. My goal is to get to my birthday with this and then scale in. Talk about a wonderful week - i was out all week listening to music and sitting in at jam sessions, and on friday I hung out with some friends and met the most amazing girl ;-) then saturday i had an evening to myself where i swayed from the diet for one meal and had some delicious fish tacos and a brownie for desert - yum. Yesterday was all protein, lean ground w/cottage cheeze, peaches, tomatoes, and lettuce and for dinner spinich/potato soup.

Im excited for this week to get to hang with her again, continue to write and practice, and focus on progressing with my lifing routine. Today i did lower body, tommorrow is all cardio, and then ill work on upper body on wednesday.

I also budgeted things out for me this week and i seem to be doing quite well for myself financially right now.

Things could be worse. . . wish me luck with it all :-)

Day 582/4

After four days on the challenge, im feeling great - and im seeing and feeling huge improvements. Although, its been tough to make this a perfect week, but it sure has been perfect in all aspects of the word. My diet has been streamlined, and my excersize has been balanced and effective. Yesterday:

Lower body routine - leg press, lunges, crunches, standing calf raises, etc.

Diet:

1. cereal
2. cottage cheeze
3. brown rice
4. vegie patties
5. artichoke hearts
6. salsa
7. cesar salad
8. salmon - 3-4 oz
9. steamed veggies
10. some white bread w/sesame seeds
11. wheat toast w/peanut butter
12. water water water

Today, i had a great swimming session in the morning, and a good breakfast, im going to shoot for a similar lunch and dinner, i think that my motto of "consistancy gets results" still holds true, and while Im going to try my best with not getting bored with this food, im going to try to stick to the same stuff, maybe then ill drop a few more pounds.

I really want to take things one day at a time right now and focus on the goal . . . come the 4th of july i want to see some results. Its been a great year so far, march had its ups and downs, but overall, i've had great trajectory and I need to keep the positive reinforcement going. Maybe this body for life challege will really push me over the top? We'll see!

Day 580/2

The dawn of a new horizon, and April, have both arrived. After a month of frankly being rather depressed, being invaded by the big M for the majority of the month, and the spring break season, im now ready to buckle down for the next 12 weeks and get these damn results that have been so flimsy for me the past few months. I've decided to enter the body for life challege, and we'll see how it goes, my before pictures are still pretty etrocious, and I can only hope that ill see that six pack come july. So here are a few changes i've made to my diet and plan:

1. Im taking a vacation from the scale and tape measure - im not going to weigh in until my birthday - May 5 or the day of the Pioneer Challege - May 10. and then ill weigh in after the challenge is done.
2. Im cutting out the processed foods i was buying like pretzels, chips, any sort of snack bar, and any other sort of thing that trader joes has, you'd think it would be healthy, but i think its been preventing me from getting to my goals.
3. Im trying my best to cut all soda out all together, that includes diet soda
4. Im trying to eat out only once a week right now - this might be the hardest goal . . .
5. Im going to alternate between weight routiene and cardio routienes - this way i can maximize both sessions without just dabbling in both for an extended period of time
6. And honestly, im trying NOT TO THINK ABOUT IT all the time!

I have my music to work on, lots of composition goals, and tunes to write . . . I honestly believe that it will come to me when i least expect it, and most want it. . . and after 9 months of staggering 30-50 pounds from my goal, I know now that i want it bad. . . I also want my music bad too, and after last night's session, that was once again re-iterated for me again. . .

yesterday I had:

1. cereal
2. cottage cheese
3. carrots
4. peanutbutter/jam on whole wheat pita
5. almonds
6. celery
7. brown rice
8. 2 morningstar veggie patties
9. artichoke hearts
10. salsa
11. cobb salad w/avocado, chicken, bacon, apple, and balsamic vinegarette dressing

exersize: upper weights routine, the seated dumbell press was hardest for me . . .

today Im going to have:

1. cereal
2. cottage cheese
3. carrots
4. brown rice
5. artichoke hearts
6. 1 mini-pizza bambino
7. peanut butter/jam sandwhich
8. celery
9. almonds
10. laughing cow cheese

exersize: cardio on the eliptical 25 minutes - from 10-25, alternating intervals low int 2 min, high int 1 min. . .

So far im on the right track and I already feel better, and its only been 2 days into this - more journaling to come. . .