Day Minus 1

With the challenge start date getting closer and closer, I'm doing lotsa thinking and planning around what I will be eating most days of the week. I'm all for convenience because I don't have a whole lot of time to prepare six meals every day. Besides...my cooking skills suck.

So I opt for fast and easy on most meals. Myoplex is good, but I can't drink those all day. What I usually do is pack ready to eat items such as cottage cheese, tuna, salad fixings, and raw veggies. I'll cook up a pot of brown rice and eat on that through the week. Same with some chicken breasts. Simple stuff, but nutritious and quick and easy.

I also like yogurt. It comes in a handy portion size and is loaded with good protein and calcium. Plus, it satisfies my sweet tooth a little bit. The trouble is....yogurt comes in all types of varieties. Sheesh...the yogurt aisle in a supermarket is worse than the cereal aisle.


You have all kinds of flavors from chocolate to some fruit that nobody outside of Peru has ever heard of before. There's fruit on the bottom, cookies on the top, whipped, blended, thick, custard, low fat, light, and smoothie style. Some of these yogurts have more calories than a bowl of rocky road ice cream. You can find some that claim to be 20% less calories than the others....because they are 25% smaller. Some have containers so weirdly designed that you can't really get a spoon into them. I guess you are either suppose to dump it into a bowl or use your tongue like an anteater to get at it.

I usually just buy the generic (translation = cheap) non-fat stuff. It's about 90 calories and tastes fine to me.

Day Minus 2

Well...whadaya know...I'm an old fart today.

Fifty. That's the age I obtain health and fitness.

better late than never, I guess

Day Minus 3

The days are counting down really fast now. I just realized that the start of the challenge will coincide with Labor Day. The down-side to that is my gym will be closed...so I'm going to have to figure out how to do the first workout without weights. The up-side is that, with my new work schedule, I'll have Sunday through Wednesday off. Plenty of time to to really focus on starting the challenge with vigor.

Day Minus 4

I do a lot of typing all day so...okay...maybe it's not really exercise. I'm not going to be breaking out in any sweat squeezing on a rubber ball; but it keeps things limber so that I can do workouts.

After all...if you are in pain...it's easy to tell yourself it's okay to skip a session at the gym.

Day Minus 5

Trying out the video option for blogger.

Day Minus 6

Daddgum, almost missed today. Oh well...Sunday's are going to be free anyway.

Day Minus 7

I have to say...working on Saturday is not all that bad. It's nice and quite. No emergencies. No crisis. I'm getting plenty of work done, with even some time to post here.

Day Minus 8

See. I promised to write everyday, whether I had something to say or not.

And I don't.

Day Minus 9

Down to single digits in the countdown to the challenge date. My...how time is flying.

I recently had a change in my work schedule that, I'm hoping, will make this challenge much easier for me. I'll be working ten-hour days with Sunday (free day, yippee!), Monday, and Tuesday off. One of the major hurdles I had with staying on the challenge in the past is finding the time to fit everything into the week. No time for meals at work because of the crush to get everything done during the day and usually staying an extra hour or two. Trying to fit in an exercise for the same reason. Along with that, a perverted desire to spend some time with my partner. I could just not get the Body for Life to fit my lifestyle.

Now...I think I have a handle on it.

I go to work at 9am, which means I have to leave home about eight thirtyish. Since I regularly get up around five every morning by habit; I can easily wake up, suck down some coffee, go to the gym for a full work-out, come home and clean and eat a healthy meal with plenty of time before heading off to the salt mine. I can schedule my meals through the day much easier since I will not have any mandated 'lunch hour'. And...I get home around 7:15pm with plenty of time to enjoy a relaxing evening.

I think this will work well for me. Not much time to create progress videos for YouTube during the four days at work but plenty of time for that on the days I have off. Plus, I want to make a goal of writing in here every day...even if it is just a sentence or two.

Day Minus 16

Been a while, hasn't it?

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. The thing is...my life has been extremely busy for the last month. Major changes in processes at my job have taken a bunch of time. Then I had to do a bunch of training; both getting and giving.

Time just slipped away...and so did the challenge.

I still try to eat healthy. I don't exercise near enough but I'm keeping my weight under control, if not actually losing any pounds. I haven't given up on this. Oh no. Not by a long shot.

See that little countdown counter in the upper right? On September 3rd, me and a lot of other people are all going to do the 12-week challenge together.

Please stand by.