Aramark Airline Cleaners Set to Strike at Logan Airport

Aramark airline cleaners are set to strike in Logan Airport. "They are worth more than $9/hr," said the union rep while citing other workers who make $14/hr. I remember interning for $10/hr and having to actually work - crunch numbers, perform financial analysis, run reports. Who knew I could've been paid more just cleaning!

I still think the time for unskilled unions are long gone. I'm cool with skilled trade unions, but other than that, unions hinder free market.

Veggie Topped Baked Chicken

I was reading Men's Health the other week, and at the end was an article by Chef Eric Ripert. He had to cook for his son after work, and he was lauding the convenience and prowess of the ordinary toaster oven. A toaster oven is a great size for small meals, yet it's nearly the same strength of an oven. Plus, the size means it heats up faster and more evenly. If you wrap the tray in foil, cleanup is super easy. Out of the five recipes he described, I liked his recipe for a fennel topped chicken, so I modified it a bit for an easy chicken entree. Check it out:




Ingredients
Olive oil
Bell pepper
Tomato
Onion
Dried basil
Chicken breast
salt and pepper


Method
1 Preheat oven/toaster oven to 400.
2 Julienne onion, bell pepper, and tomato; cut sticks in half if desired
3 Butterfly chicken breast completely (into two pieces) or pound into 1/2 thickness. Salt and pepper both sides.
4 Wrap baking pan in foil. Brush with olive oil. Place chicken breasts in pan
5 Toss veggies in olive oil and place over chicken. Add dried basil over top. (Lately, I've been sprinkling garlic powder and crushed red pepper, too)
6 Bake for 20 minutes
7 Serve with the juices



You can serve this with another veggie side and/or a starch. In the picture above, I had it with sauteed swiss chard as side. Prepare the swiss chard like spinach. Last time I had it, I had it with blanched broccoli and some sliced potato for my starch. This is a light and easy meal to make, and you have time to clean up/cook your sides while waiting for the chicken!


You're probably wondering why there isn't any details to the ingredients, as in how much of what. Well, after cooking for a while, I no longer confine myself to numbers and counts. I think of how the dish should turn out and adjust accordingly. But, if you must know, the meal in the picture took 2 chicken breasts, 1 small tomato, 1/2 a medium bell pepper, 1/3 of a small red onion, and about 2 tbsp olive oil. It produced two servings; one for dinner and one for lunch the next day. The swiss chard cooks like spinach, so one bunch barely makes two servings. I'd buy more, at least 3/4 bunch per serving.

VIA from Starbucks is actually good

Like most Americans, I drink coffee. Unlike most, I drink mine black. But no matter how you drink your coffee, most can agree that instant coffee blows. Well, VIA from Starbucks might make you change your mind.

So my preferences for coffee are different from other New Englanders who drink theirs "regular". I know Dunkin Donuts are on every corner around here, but their coffee can seem watery at times. Sure with enough cream and sugar, it tastes "good", if by good you mean you like to drink cream and sugar with a bit of coffee. I usually prefer Starbucks' Pike Place roast. It's cheaper (don't argue with me, I did the math by the ounce) and the flavor is more robust. I'll admit it's not the best coffee, especially since it's too acidic and the roast too strong. But it's better than Dunkin Donuts.

When Starbucks announced that they were releasing an instant coffee and that it is nearly as good as their Pike Place roast, I thought they were stupid. One, why compete with your in-house brand. Two, $1 for an 8-ounce serving? Seriously? And I have to make it myself??? Well, I've tried it the day it came out. It was good. Maybe because it's instant, but it was smoother than their Pike Place roast. It was a lighter roast with less acidity. I mean, I was surprised it was instant coffee. Could you tell that it wasn't Pike Place? Yes. If you drink coffee at all, you can tell right away. But it was good enough that I'm thinking of stocking VIA at home for coffee cravings and guests. I don't have a coffee maker at home, so this is the next best thing (that and my Maxwell House is not cutting it - yuck).

So go out and buy some VIA. It's about $3.00 for a 3-pack and $10 for a 12-pack. And no, I have not been paid by anyone to write this. But here are some of my thoughts on coffee:

Dunkin Donuts: Okay. Be prepared to be slightly disappointed. Black is okay. If you hide your coffee with cream and sugar, then you'll like it. They're heavy-handed.
Starbucks: Good. Nice strong taste, but a bit too strong. Be prepared for the strong roast and a bit too much acidity.
Green Mountain: Bland. If you must, go as dark a roast you can get, otherwise you're getting dark water with a hint of coffee.
@ Bickford's: Nasty. But it's cheap and bottomless. Drink it for the caffeine.
@ Cheesecake's: Pretty good. Lighter than Starbucks.
@ Finale's: Good stuff, but a bit pricey.

There are others I can't remember, so whatever.

Two Rail Passengers Killed After Complaining of Humming

Hmm...so a guy is humming to his music a bit too loudly. Three passengers confront him to complain. A fight breaks out and the three passengers gang up and wrestle the music-listening guy to the floor and proceed to beat him. The man manages to pull out his knife and stabs all three. Two die, one is recovering. Man with knife goes to jail. Why do I not feel any sympathy for any of them?

Well, for one, I am never a fan of people ganging up on one person. If you're going to be "man enough" to fight, then fight one on one. Don't grab your "crew" and/or your "boyz". Just honorably tell the person to step outside. And unless your life is in danger, no biting, no kicking where the sun doesn't shine, and don't kill the guy. I have no idea how society in general degrades into animals when fights break out. But anyway, that's why I have no sympathy for the three people who decide that humming is an act that deserves a beating. I understand that it might have been annoying, but unless it was against the rules there's really nothing you can do about besides asking politely for him to stop.

As for the knife guy. He might be able to argue that he was acting in self-defense. It is tough to determine if three guys beating you up is out for your life. And who knows what happened when he pulled out his knife? Did he tell them to stop? Did he say "back off or I will protect myself"? Beats me. For now, it'll stand that he went beyond what was necessary to protect himself. I wasn't there, so I can't really say. But he must have went for some vital points for one guy to die at the scene and another to die later that night.

In the end, all this could've been avoided if the three people requested the man to stop humming. And if he didn't, then they should've sucked it up or move to another car. There's no way to justify beating up the guy for humming. That's just ridiculous.

Acer Aspire One back to form!

After giving up hope that my netbook is dead, my cousin has managed to fix it. So again, I am a proud owner of a netbook I can take with me anywhere. It's still not as powerful as I would like my primary machine to be; that's a lesson I have to live with. But I don't have to run out and get a replacement right away. But I must say, it is such a relief to not have to sit through stuttering music and videos. Not much more to say. Just wanted to update my situation.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest

If you have been following any news at all, I'm sure you are aware that one of our local police department is under the spotlight after the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. The arrest has somehow become a racial issue, and we have all heard from the supposed representative of all things racial, Rev. Al Sharpton. My issue is that there ISN'T a racial issue to begin with!

Let's breakdown the events leading up to the arrest minus any racial cues. A thoughtful neighbor witnesses a man attempting to wedge a door open. She calls the police. An officer arrives to find a man in the residence. What would an average person do? Duh. The officer asks for identification. Man in residence refuses and starts yelling. Officer attempts to calm man down. Man continues to yell. At some point, officer and man exit residence. Man continues to yell at the officer. A crowd builds; public peace has been disturbed. Officer arrests man.

Reading the simple facts, there appears to be nothing wrong with the arrest. The officer was in the process of investigating a supposed crime in progress. The man did not cooperate with the officer. The man then proceeds to disturb the peace. Open and shut case if you ask me. So what went wrong? Well, the man was Henry Louis Gates. He was black. Second part? The arresting officer was Sergeant James Crowley, a white man. There you go. State of the nation. A white officer arresting a black man better have overwhelming evidence or Al Sharpton will be on your a**.

Now, I'm no racist. I'm Asian, and I've dealt with racial crap throughout my life. I just have it easier because Asians are stereotyped to be weak, quiet, and really really REALLY good at math. Blacks on the other hand have a harsher stereotype. It sucks. But it doesn't mean we have to walk around with a chip on our shoulder. If I just broke into my own home, and a cop comes into investigate, of course I'll prove to him I live there. Go take my ID. Check the pictures in the house. I'll even identify what's in the fridge. Why the heck would I say things like, "This is what it's like to be an Asian man in America!" How does that help anything?

As law-abiding citizens, we are required to work with police officers. They are doing their duty to investigate crimes, even if it's stupid. That's what we pay them for. What would we rather Sgt Crowley do? Should he have thought, "Oh man, this guy is yelling really loud. I should leave and let things take it's course"? Of course not. He was answering a breaking and entering call. It was his duty to check it out and to verify identities.

I admit, I can get pretty heated when some idiot comes up to me and makes fun of my native language. I can be annoyed when people do the stupid slanted eyes thing. And I get embarrassed for the other person when they mistaken me for another Asian race. But I always try to take a minute and make sure if they've just made a horrible embarrassing mistake. You have to place yourself in their shoes and see what they were thinking. Take the stupid chimpanzee cartoon a few months back. Stupid Rev. Al Sharpton started this whole thing about the cartoonist making fun of President Obama. The TARP act was written by Pelosi and a chimpanzee just died. Where did President Obama fit in?

Maybe Sgt. Crowley should have slowly backed down. Maybe the arrest shouldn't have taken place. But Mr. Gates should've cooperated when asked by a law enforcement official. There was no need for yelling. No need to claim racial prejudice. And definitely no need for our President to claim the Cambridge Police "acted stupidly." In fact, I am ashamed President Obama has chosen to put himself into the issue like he did, especially since he admitted he doesn't have all the facts. He is our President; our face of the nation. He no longer represents one race or one friend (The President and Mr. Gates are friends, for those not in the know). Just as there is still racism in the world, we have to be careful not to let that turn into reverse racism. An officer cannot do his job if he needs to second-guess himself before he arrests someone.

I know this might be offensive to some, but this is how I feel. We are one world, one people. One. Stop all this race, class, gender nonsense.

Disclaimer: I am basing my thoughts on what I have read in the news and police report as of this afternoon. I may or may not have the full details of the Gates arrest, so please forgive me if I have interpreted things wrong.

Ball Square Cafe & Breakfast

This past weekend we made it to Ball Square Cafe & Breakfast for some...*gasp*...breakfast. We had previously gone to Soundbites next door on a recommendation, but I didn't like it. The atmosphere was just a bit too busy and the space too big for the service to manage. It felt more bar-like than a breakfast place. Not so with Ball Square Cafe!

I've been to Ball Square Cafe a several times now. First visit, the place wasn't hard to find. Right on Broadway near the Powderhouse rotary tucked in with all the other breakfast places and restaurants. Walking in, it's a nice cozy atmosphere with a brick wall on the left and a finished wall on the right. Just wide enough for three rows of tables it's not too big and not too small. We were told to sit wherever we wanted and service was very pleasant. We heard the specials right away.

Food came promptly, even if service isn't the speediest. Drinks are self serve, which gives it a slight at-home feel. Food is where this place shines. I've done the whole IHOP/Bickford's deal. Chain breakfast is so...commercial. And Polly's Pancake Parlor is a seasonal roadtrip. But this place is chic, cozy, and tasty. The omelettes are generous, the breakfast combos are filling. Even the diners can be attractive. It's not the regular gramas and grandpas like IHOP.

Ball Square Cafe only opens until 3PM, so definitely a breakfast place. They also serve lunch, but I'd stay away from the burgers. My friend got one medium-rare, but it looked dry and tasteless. Go for breakfast. And if you get an omelette, get the Tabasco Habanero sauce. It's got a great kick!

Behind in summits

I didn't do so well in the cardio area last week, but I hope to change that this week. Running hurts, but I know it's good for me. So gotta do it. Here's the breakdown:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs
Monday: Run
Tuesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps
Wednesday: None
Thursday: None
Friday: Pushups/pullups, heavy weights
Saturday: None

You know, I was doing some thinking this past week. I made a goal for the summer to summit two of the forty-eight 4,000 footers in NH. But if I continue that very modest goal every summer, it'll take me 24 years to finish the summits. That's not something I want to do. To finish within 2 - 4 years, I need to do 8 - 12 summits a year. To achieve this with some semblance of a social life besides hiking, I would need to open up hiking into spring and fall as well. Otherwise, I'd be hiking every weekend in summer, which can be difficult if weather and/or social life is not accommodating. We had a horrible start to the summer season so far with nearly 4 weeks of rain, but it should be better now. I should be able to do at least two this summer and hopefully a couple more in the fall. But I need to get going and get this started.

I'm getting a bit closer to my current goal of 170.0 lb. I know my last weigh-in hit that mark, but unless I see that consistently, I'm not convinced. After 170.0 lb, I might aim for 165.0 lb with increased strength. This should give me a lean strong body with enough endurance to do the more taxing activities like hiking, biking, and running. As I've read somewhere, it doesn't mean crap if you can bench press 2 - 3x your weight if you can't do 40 pushups in a row. Being able to do that many pushups shows you have the strength and endurance to do something like, carry a kid on your shoulders out of a burning building. I want practical strength, not bragging rights.

I mean, have you ever looked at pictures of active-duty soldiers? Most pictures I see of Marines and armed forces are of men with lean tight bodies. They need to be strong, but efficient enough to lug their gear on long marches or last through a long battle. Another example? Rock climbers. Again, lean strong bodies. These are athletes that can out-pullup anybody...on their fingers.

Anyway, that's all for this update.


Last weigh-in:
170.0 lb

Getting there...

Blah...I'm not as consistent as I used to be with this. Aw well. Here's the breakdown for the past two weeks:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs

Monday: Bike (Minuteman Trail - Arlington to Bedford and back)

Tuesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps

Wednesday: Run

Thursday: None

Friday: Pushups, pullups

Saturday: None

Last weigh-in:
171.0 lb


Sunday: Chest/back/abs

Monday: Run

Tuesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps

Wednesday: None
Thursday: Pushups/pullups
Friday: Run
Saturday: Run

I must be nearing my "ideal" weight. I'm at 170.5 lb, but that goes up and down depending on my week. Weight loss isn't happening as fast even though workouts have been mostly the same. Diet, of course, could be better, but I'm doing what I can. I give in too easily when it comes to food. I can say for certain that strength is increasing. I haven't checked in with body fat lately, but some of my shorts barely hang onto my hips. There's a quick trick to determine if you're losing body fat/retaining muscle mass. If you're losing weight, but can do more pushups than before, then you're doing fine.

My shoulder seems to be pretty good. I was able to play around with some kids (kids I know, I'm not a creep) at a playground. I was able to do the monkey bars and such. Shoulder held up. I'm also up to three sets of 8 pullups, so that's pretty good. I would say I can go start rock climbing if I wanted to.

Well, I'm just gonna keep going at it.


Last weigh-in:
170.5 lb

Biking!

Yup, late with my update. So I'll just throw it down real quick.

Sunday: Chest/back/abs
Monday: Run
Tuesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps
Wednesday: Run
Thursday: Heavy weights - chest/back/quads/calf
Friday: None
Saturday: Bike (Minuteman Trail - Bedford to Arlington and back)

My cousins just got some hybrid bikes, so the biking bug is back. Did a loop at the Minuteman Trail. It's nice to be back in the saddle, though the saddle hurts when you've been gone for a while. It's less impact than running, but it's nice to have alternatives when it comes to cardio. Treadmill running can get boring, and street running is inconsistent.

Diet was a bit better, though still very hard for me. I've been upping my weight workouts a bit every week, and my shoulder is still in one piece weeks after removing glucosamine from my daily routine. Things seem to be looking good. Now if the weather gets better, I can't wait to tackle my goal of summiting two 4,000 footers this season.


Last weigh-in:
172.5 lb

Oban 14 Year Single Malt Scotch

So after sipping my Balvenie Single Barrel for awhile, I decided it was time for another bottle of single malt scotch. I've stopped by a few liquor stores during the past couple of months, but all I did was browse the scotch aisle.

Last week on my way to Finale's, I stopped by the wine place next door. They were closing, but the owner was gracious enough to let us in and browse. I struck up a conversation with him, and we discussed my scotch experiences. After describing my progression from blends to single malts, he commented that my palate seems to be developing right along and gave me a brief summary of his journey. I left that night with a bottle of Oban 14 Year Single Malt Scotch ($64.99), which was what the owner described as a nice "next step" on my single malt journey. He encouraged me to stop by and tell him what I thought.


Well, I didn't really have a chance to sip it right away, but a couple nights ago before bed, I poured myself a bit to try. On the nose, it smelled sweeter than the Balvenie. So that right away got me a bit excited. I took a nice sip and let it linger in my mouth. There were hints of sweetness and spice, and it finished quite nice (haha..). I didn't get a lot of burn, and I couldn't really remember how the Balvenie was like. So I poured myself a bit of the Balvenie and went back and forth. In the end, the Balvenie definitely left a presence after the sip. The burn lasts a bit and really warms you up. I also thought the Balvenie was bolder and demanded attention, whereas the Oban was smoother and softer. I don't favor one over the other, just as I don't favor one particular beer, but it was nice to have a different single malt. I'll enjoy this bottle for a bit before moving on to another step.

One thing I do have to note is that after trying the single malts, the Johnnie Walker blends just aren't the same. Granted I've only had the Black Label and the Gold Label, but I had some of those a few months back, and they are lacking compared with the singles. I've had a shot of Blue Label once, and I'll admit that was very smooth, but I haven't had that for a while and can't give that a good comparison. Maybe, when I have a spare couple Benjamins, I'll get a bottle to keep on hand. For now, the Oban will be good enough!

Note: After writing this, just found out Oban is owned by Diageo, which owns among all their liquor companies Johnnie Walker! They also own some other names such as J&B, Guinness, Crown Royal, Captain Morgan's, Bailey's, etc....

Done with glucosamine

Well, I did it. I weaned myself off of the glucosamine sulfate. I was paranoid about going off of it, but someone had a knee problem from running and I gave my mostly full second (and only) bottle to him. I've been off for about a week and the shoulder feels mostly the same. Is it a 100%? No. But the fact that it made it through a heavy workout says quite a bit. Here's the breakdown:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs

Monday: Run

Tuesday: Shoulders/biceps/triceps

Wednesday: Run

Thursday: Heavy weights - Chest/back, calf raises, lunges

Friday: None
Saturday: None

For my "heavy" workout, I actually made it to the gym. I had access to whatever I wanted. I started off with body weight chest dips/pull ups supersets. Three sets of five. It felt awesome to be able to do a decent amount of pull ups again. Then I headed over to a bench and did supersets of dumbbell chest presses and one-arm rows using 45-lb dumbbells (I did one set with 60-lb and decided that was too heavy for now). I followed that up with some incline presses and finished off at the lat pulldown with 130-lb. Then I did some box jumps and a quick cooldown at the treadmill. Boy, it was nice to have all that stuff available. Very nice. I know my "heavy" isn't quite heavy right now, but considering that I have never benched my full weight and the fact that I'm getting over a shoulder injury, I'm doing just fine.

I knew the workout was pretty good, because I started feeling some tightness by the end of the day. When I woke up the next day, My chest and lats were sore. It was a feeling I've missed for awhile. Then I started feeling sick. Well, at least I thought I was sick. My gut felt pretty bad. It took me a while to realize it was my core that was sore and even longer for me to piece together that it was from the box jumps. I haven't done box jumps for a while and didn't think it did more than work out my legs. But anyway, I've recovered from that workout and even finished my regular chest/back work out. It feels pretty good.

My first 4,000 footer summit is this coming weekend. I feel pretty confident in my physical state, so I hope to summit and descend just fine. Mt. Osceola is a bit more than Mt. Monadnock, so if I finish in a better state than Monadnock, then I've come a long way.

As for my diet. Yeesh. From Thursday on, it was trash. I even gained weight, though 0.5 - 1.0 lb may be water retention from some salty foods I ate. I was so bloated yesterday that my eyes hurt. Need to concentrate more this coming week.


Last weigh-in:
174.5 lb

Don't go cheap on razors

So, I was at Target restocking on everyday items. I was out of razor cartridges for my Mach 3 razor (No Fusion for me, the three blades work just fine). I pick up a pack of 8 cartridges and it was $20.49 or something. Unit price was $245.00 per 100 count. I look down at the bottom of the shelf and saw a pack of 8 disposable Gillette three bladed razors. Unit price was nearly half. I'm thinking, "Shoot, I change cartridges all the time. Let's try the disposables. I also had one or two disposables lying around at home too.

Cut to the next day when I had to shave for work. Every stroke was torture. My dull cartridge was better that the new disposable. So I'm thinking, maybe it's because I'm not in the shower (I usually shave in the shower). So this morning, I wait a bit longer after applying shaving gel. No such luck. It didn't hurt as much, but I definitely notice a difference in the quality of the shave. Just not up to par at all.

In conclusion, the price difference really is warranted. The quality of the shave is much better with a non-disposable razor. So, don't go cheap! Or if you have, try the cartridges. It's niiiicce.

Beware the Brazilian BBQ Buffet!

So, I ate too much again. Man. Buffets are a killer. I went to a Brazilian BBQ Buffet the other day. This is a meat lover's dream. They bring large skewers of meat over and slice it right at the table for you. So...much...meat. But it was really good. But sooooo much.... I gotta really watch myself. Anyway, here's the breakdown:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs
Monday: None
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Shoulders/biceps/triceps, run
Thursday: None
Friday: Pullups, elevated pushups
Saturday: Run

I added pullups and elevated pushups to try to sneak "heavy" weights back in. I'm only doing three sets of five to start out just to be safe. My shoulder feels pretty good now and it only feels weird once in a while. I'm still taking glucosamine, mainly out of paranoia. I'll stop after I finish the bottle. Eventually, I'd like to get back to bench presses and some lat pulldowns/weighted pullups. For my regular weight workouts, I'm up to three sets of 14, so I upped the dumbbells to 25 pounds. We'll see how that goes next update.

The main thing now is getting ready for my hike. I'm still doing stairs at work, two at a time. Really gets my heart pumping and simulates short bursts going up a mountain. I need to make sure I do my squats and lunges though. Been kinda lax on that since running. Gotta work on my diet some more too. I'm pretty good at work, but I still get too relaxed outside of that. But the guilt's there, so that means I'm paying attention at least. Blegh, fitness is a life long struggle.




Last weigh-in:
173.5 lb

New goals

After weighing in at my usual time, I realized I have finally cracked 175.0 lb. I had been wavering around there and was starting to worry that was my body's comfortable weight. Anyway, I was working out and I started to evaluate my journey here.

I left high school at 155 lb. Okay weight. I had the benefit of my younger faster metabolism. I graduated college at 165 lb when I added some bulk from periodic exercise. Then something happened. I started to work. I was still able to squeeze in workouts, but as my responsibilities grew, my stress grew. I had a job where I was pretty much 24/7 and I didn't feel like working out at the gym at work after work. It took my 45 minutes to get home. By the time I unwound it was 7-7:30PM. Dinnertime. My workouts were further and further apart. I hit my goal of "bulking" up to 175 lb. But I hadn't been working out. It was fat.

Then a couple years ago, I went on a hike to summit Mt. Monadnock. It was supposed to be an easy summit as I had done that before. My legs were screaming when I was halfway down. I told myself to start working out. The mini-workout was born. But I did nothing with my diet. Finally the wake up call. I weighed myself and I was at 189 lb; just shy of 190 lb. I knew I had to do something. And though it wasn't a quick-fix, I gradually made my way to where I am today.

Anyway. Since I've never felt better. I'd like to make some new fitness goals. I'd like to be sub-170 lb. I think that's a good weight for me. There are some pretty fit guys out there who are taller than me at my current weight. I must be carrying excess. I'd like to be at 8-11% body fat. I'd like to run a faster mile. I'd like to have a good right shoulder again. All these goals have an ulterior motive. I want to be fit enough to tackle some of the more physical goals in my life list. I mentioned before that I want to summit all 48 4,000 footers in NH. Kinda hard if I'm not in shape. There are some more items on my life list, but no need to list them all here. Anyway, here's last week's breakdown:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs

Monday: Run

Tuesday: Shoulders/biceps/triceps

Wednesday: Run
Thursday: None
Friday: Lunges
Saturday: Calf raises


Last weigh-in:
173.0 lb

Got sick

No running at all last week. I caught something over the weekend when I went to NYC. Had a sore throat for a couple days then just felt blegh for a few more days. I managed to squeeze in the weights, but it was tough. Here:

Sunday: None
Monday: Chest/back/abs
Tuesday: None
Wednesday: Shoulders/biceps/triceps, weighted calf raises
Thursday: None
Friday: None
Saturday: None

I hung out with my cousin midweek and was able to use her body fat machine. I lost 2.2%. So 1.8% to go! I doubt I'll make it by June 1st, but I like the changes I've made to my life, so I'm gonna keep it up. I just added the 48 4,000 footers of NH onto my life list, so I'm going to need to be in good shape.

Last weigh-in:
175.0 lb @ 13.5% body fat

Two week update

I was a bit busy last week with my office move, so I didn't post a fitness update. So, I'm just going to put the last two weeks together:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs
Monday: Run
Tuesday: Single leg calf raises, shoulders/biceps/triceps
Wednesday: Run
Thursday: Lunges
Friday: Run

Saturday: none

Weigh-in:

175.5 lb

Sunday: Chest/back/abs

Monday: none

Tuesday: Run

Wednesday: Shoulders/biceps/triceps, calf raises
Thursday: Run
Friday: Squats
Saturday: none

Overall, I've been mostly good. I've been sticking with my weights workout and keeping with a 2-3 times run every week. I'm making very good progress in terms of my running. When I started I would break up my half hour run so I can preserve myself. Typical "run" was a 5 minute warmup, 10-13 minute run, 4-5 minute fast walk with incline, then a quick 1 minute of a fast run followed by a gradual 0.5 mph drop every 30 seconds until I hit 3.5 mph for a cool down. I would then walk at 3.5 mph at an incline until my heart rate drops to a more or less stable rate. However, my last run was warmup followed by 21 minutes of running. I went straight to my fast run with an incline then a cooldown. I felt very accomplished. I just wished I tightened my shoes beforehand. Had a small blister on my right foot afterwards, but that went away by Saturday.

As for weights, I'm at 20lb dumbbells with sets of 10 reps. I'm pretty satisfied with the healing of my shoulder, but I do notice that while strength is returning, power is not. I haven't tried throwing anything, but whenever I make sudden movements with my right arm, there's a twinge of discomfort. Not pain, but something. And with my paranoia, I am pretty slow with my reps, which probably is a good thing because I am working out with good form. I'm just worried about how I can't seem to do fast things with my right arm. One thing that was good about the last couple of weeks was my office move. With the move, I was the go-to person for most things heavy. I was very careful whenever I had to move or lift anything. And I feel the moving was a real-world test of my shoulder, and the stress of real-world lifting helped with the rehab a bit.

I went away for the weekend, and as you know, going away means eating. I didn't have my normal weigh-in, but a quick weigh-in after a dinner post-trip was at 178.0lb. The last weigh-in at my normal time and conditions was before my trip and is listed below. I did hit my goal of 175.0lb, but now that I've been working on cutting fat, I'm not placing as much emphasis on my weight. I haven't measured my body fat lately, but I'm paying more attention to how my clothes fit and how much I see my veins, which is a simple test to see if you've lost fat. Veins are more visible and "pop" when you have less fat (for a guy anyway). Based on what I've observed, I've lost some body fat, but I doubt it was 4% loss. I started at 15.7, so my goal is 11.7%. And I don't look like I'm at 11.7%.


Last weigh-in:
175.0 lb

Run. Run. Run.

Well, so far I'm keeping up with my workout schedule. I'm doing my weight regimen with plenty of rest. I'm running three times a week. I'm pretty excited about sticking to this. Here's the breakdown:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs
Monday: Run
Tuesday: Squats (50), shoulders/biceps/triceps, ab work
Wednesday: Run
Thursday: Squats, lunges
Friday: Run, ab work
Satuday: Small hike in NH

One change I made is that I'm running in the morning before work. So yeah, I'm actually waking up earlier than usual for something that isn't quite fun. Plus, I shower at the gym...*shudders*. But the feeling of knowing you got a difficult workout out of the way is out of this world. It beats getting off work and knowing you have to spend an hour to hour and half working out and showering. Leaves time for the other wonderful mundate tasks of my work week routine.

Again, diet is still a toughie for me. Friday night, instead of going for Subway for a $5 footlong, I opted for Boston Market. Bad decision. The grease made me feel sick. Let's not even talk about the weekend. I know I might be a bit harsh on myself, but I aim for 100% adherence to my diet mainly because I know I would only achieve 70 - 80%. If I aim for 80%, I might only hit 50 - 60%. Hence, the bland healthy food during work. I know I won't eat as healthy at night and on the weekends, so I build insurance in. I work against my weakness. But anyway, with the consistent workouts and a critical eye on food, I've managed to lose quite a bit this week. Check it out for yourself.


Last weigh-in:
175.5 lb (on a Sunday!!)

Finally made it to the gym

So I finally made it to the gym for my cardio sessions. Only did one last week, but for this week, I've already made it in once. I'm on track for my 2-3/week. Here's the breakdown:

Sunday: Chest/Back/Abs
Monday: None
Tuesday: Squats (50), lunges (25 each), shoulders/biceps/triceps
Wednesday: Run
Thursday: Lunges (25 each), squats (50), weighted squats (20, 20), weighted calf raises (60 total)
Friday: None
Saturday: None

I'm not sure if it's because of my ab routine, but I was able to run longer than usual without cramping up (that's how poor my cardio health is). But I thought I made a great effort on the first run. I went back last night and made even better progress. I'm pretty excited about running 2-3 times a week. Weights-wise, I'm still sticking to my 2-3 times a week. I stuck to that pretty well, except for the legs routine. Hope to change that as I go to the gym a bit more.

I made a change to the weight routine. I went from 10-lb dumbbells to 15-lb dumbbells (will drop reps from 15 to 10). My muscles can support it. It's just the shoulder I have to worry about. I'm also going to cut out the rotator-cuff exercises like I did with the diagonal raises. I've already determined that my injury is not muscle related, so I want to limit the stress my joint goes through. When the shoulder gets better, I'll add the exercises back in as a preventative measure. I'm going to feel out how the heavier weight feels. I might start a cycle where I lay off the weights for a week or two at a time to give it more rest. In the past, whenever I took a week or two off, I actually got stronger and didn't have to lower my weights when I went back to it.

Diet-wise, I'm still pretty bad at nights and weekends. I'm still eating breakfast and good snacks to keep my metabolism up, but some of the dinners I eat are not what I'd ideally eat. I'm good in terms of keeping my portions in check. I'm pretty good with keeping bad snacks out of my system, such as skipping snack size Butterfingers (85 calories!) or a stick of Twizzlers (35 calories) and going for a handful of low or no sodium nuts instead. I try to keep sugar to a minimum, which isn't so hard for me as I don't have a tremendous sweet tooth and I love my coffee black and sugar-free.

My weight is mostly constant, but what I'm curious about is my body fat. Haven't tested since the initial test, so I don't really have a good idea where I'm at. I do notice I'm a bit leaner and my clothes fit looser, but no hard numbers. Anyway, looking forward to a good week this week. Already at day three!

Last weigh-in:
177.5 lb

Dry steak??

I went to Stockyard Restaurant in Brighton off of I90 the other week with some friends. I didn't pick it, but I always see it when I'm on the Pike, so I thought why not? I wasn't quite pleased with the experience.

The restaurant itself has a sort of charm to it. The interior was very woody and gives you a sense that it was around a while. Who knows, it might've been. We sat in the main dining room and there was a this huge bar in the middle. Very open. It took a while for us to get served. There was this larger set waiter that kept flying from table to table, and I was hoping he wouldn't be serving us. I was wrong. After managing to flag him down, he hastily took our order and rushed off. Our first impression of him was that he was either new or a very bad waiter. We mostly agreed on the latter.

I ordered a "Land and Sea" - 8-oz sirloin and three stuffed shrimp. As usual, I got my steak medium rare. We also ordered an appetizer sampler. The sampler was decent, but fatty appetizers tend to be good. Fat makes food tasty. Entrees came a bit later. My steak looked good, but I was very surprised to find that my steak was not seasoned at all. I'm used to places where the kitchen has seasoned the steak enough so that it complements the natural flavors. I very rarely use any other sauces/condiments on my steak, but this steak tasted like unseasoned beef. Salt and pepper kinda helped, but I maintained my no sauce on my steak rule (I probably should've given in to some A1). The steak was cooked right; warm red center. However, it was dry. I was stunned. How can a medium-rare steak be dry? That goes against all laws of nature for steak!! I know it was a sirloin, but come on, it was blood red! To top it off, one side of my steak had this tough chewy fat running along it. Great. On a good note, the broiled stuff shrimp was good. Again, fat makes things tasty. I had a baked potato, too, but you can't get that wrong. One of my friend's had this steak covered in this mushroom sauce. He liked his steak fine, but the sauce probably covered any deficiencies in the steak.

After dinner, we passed on dessert and got the check. The waiter deemed our party of six as large and added an 18% gratuity on the bill. When I got my credit slip, there was a line for "additional tip". I laughed at that. For what I paid, I could've went to Texas Roadhouse for a dependable tasty steak. It's a "No" to Stockyard.

Taking glucosamine now

So, my shoulder is starting to feel better. I'm on the new weights schedule, and it's definitely enough rest for my body. Just not sure how severe my shoulder is, so I'm paying very close attention to it to see if I should stop the weights. Here's the breakdown:

Monday: Squats (50), lunges (25 each), Chest/Back/Abs
Tuesday: Calf raises (90)
Wednesday: Squats (50), Shoulders/Biceps/Triceps
Thursday: Calf raises (90)
Friday: Squats (50)
Saturday: None

I did manage to sign up for Planet Fitness. I just haven't gone yet. Haha. I do plan on going tonight for a quick cardio workout. Most likely a short treadmill workout. My diet is okay. Nights and weekends still are weak spots. But I'm pretty good at work in term so breakfast, lunch, and snacks. I'm missing my mark with the water, but I try to make up for it outside of work. I feel I am leaning out a bit, even without the cardio, but I'm sure the cardio will ramp it up a notch. Besides, I want the cardio to condition myself for the hiking I will be doing this summer.

I also started taking glucosamine three times a day. There are arguments for which one to take - glucosamine sulfate versus glucosamine hydrochloride. I solved that with a glucosamine complex with 300 mg of glucosamine sulfate and 200 mg of glucosamine HCL in each tablet. Three times daily makes it 1500 mg. Seems to be helping, but then again the progress in my shoulder could be from the rest I give it with my new weights schedule.

I really really want my shoulder to get better in a hurry so I can start some rock climbing. It's something I've always wanted to do. But I don't want to put any unnecessary stress on my shoulder until it's done. One of my friends who had a shoulder injury said it took him five months of no upper body training for his shoulder to recover from tendinitis. Yeesh... Like I said, I'm willing to stop the weights, but five months is a long time. We'll see how it goes.




Last weigh-in:
178.0 lb (on a Sunday too!)

Okay week...

I definitely overworked my shoulders. But I did switch to a schedule that's not as intense and has more rest time. I didn't make it to Planet Fitness to sign up; I had a few dinners during the week and didn't feel like walking in before bedtime to sign up. Here's the breakdown:

Monday: Squats (50), lunges (25 each), BBS
Tuesday: Calf raises (90), counter pushups (30)
Wednesday: Squats (50), lunges (25 each), CTA
Thursday: Chest isometric (60), calf raises (90)
Friday: Squats (50)
Saturday: None
Sunday: None

I'm still doing mini-workouts for the legs. I did take out any upper body exercises except for BBS and CTA at home. This week I plan on splitting my workouts differently with some cardio at Planet Fitness (I know, I say this every week). If after this week, my shoulder still feels weird, then I will stop all upper body workouts till it heals.

I'm still doing fine with my eating habits. Trying hard to resist certain foods. I don't deprive myself, but I'm pretty good during work hours. After hours and on weekends, I try to be picky with what I eat, but allow myself not-so-good food in moderation. For example, I had some sushi with spicy mayo (gasp!), one Popeye's Cajun french fry (soooo good), and sugar-free non-fat frozen yogurt with peanut butter cups mixed in (sugar!!) on Friday night. So I try to cut when and where I can while allowing myself some guilty pleasure. Besides, I know once Monday hits, it's back to bland-food-city.

Last weigh-in:
179.0 lb

So...maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all...

I've had my Acer Aspire One for a bit, and while I appreciate the ultra portability very much, I'm not quite satisfied. I don't miss the CD/DVD drive that much. I barely use it, but it does stink a bit not having one. The main thing I'm frustrated about is the performance.

At first, I thought performance wouldn't be an issue for me. I mean, I only use my machine at home to surf and play music/videos. Problem with that is that I multi-task and I'm impatient. When I surf, I have multiple tabs/windows open. Sometimes, I might even have music playing. When I click on a program to open, I expect it within 1-2 seconds. The Intel Atom chip just can't provide that performance. So, as much as I hate to say it, the Aspire One probably wasn't a good idea. I suppose it's great for a vacation computer. I did take it with me on my road trip. It was very nice to have a computer last 5 hours. It was very nice to have it be so portable. But when I'm at home, it's lacking.

Another thing with the Aspire One was a manufacturing design issue. They placed the HDD too close to the right speaker. There was an article online that certain songs played at full volume causes vibrations from the right speaker to affect the HDD. It can disturb the HDD to the point of permanent damage/data loss. Anyway, I think that kinda happened last Monday. Now, my machine is sluggish with certain actions. Songs and videos lag now too. I suppose it didn't help that I've dropped my Aspire One a couple times, though it was a short fall to carpet. Powering on and hibernating is taking longer now too. So my slow machine has become even slower.

Overall, I miss having a full-powered laptop. I really really like the Aspire One's portability, but for me it sacrificed just a bit too much. I'll be looking for a deal on a nice 13.1" or even another 14.1" laptop now. And with my luck, I will go for a Dell with a SquareTrade warranty (I'll probably put in a claim for my Aspire too) or a machine from Best Buy with an extended warranty. I don't believe in manufacturer's warranties anymore.

Need to change my workout schedule

I'm breaking from my norm of posting my fitness updates on Mondays to write about my shoulder. After a tiring back, biceps, and shoulders (BBS) workout last night, I realized I may be overworking the shoulder during my so-called "rehab".

Reviewing my last few updates, the first thing you notice is that I am aiming for 3 BBS workouts and 3 CTA (chest, triceps, and abs) workouts per week. Guess which joint is used during all six workouts? Shoulder. In fact, during my rotator-cuff exercises, I still hear clicking on diagonal raises. During lying external rotations, I actually heard my right shoulder move; as in, I heard the ball of my humerus move in it's socket with each rep. Very scary.

So, after doing some quick research and thinking, I will be changing my workout schedule. To what exactly, I haven't yet determined, but I will be looking at 3-4 weight workouts a week instead of the 6 I'm doing now. I'm looking at an alternating one weight day, one off day program. With my plans of signing up for Planet Fitness again, this could be easily achieved with cardio on the off days. I just need to decide what schedule would work best for me. Here's the main two types I'm looking at:

Workout schedule A
Day 1: Chest/Back/Abs
Day 2: Cardio
Day 3: Shoulders/Arms/Abs
Day 4: Cardio
Day 5: Legs/Back/Abs
Day 6: Cardio
Day 7: Free day

Workout schedule B
Day 1: Chest/Triceps/Abs
Day 2: Cardio
Day 3: Back/Biceps/Shoulders/Abs
Day 4: Cardio
Day 5: Legs/Abs
Day 6: Cardio
Day 7: Free day

With both workouts, I hope to squeeze in a quick 15-20 minute cardio session at the end of weight days (with rowing for Legs days). But both schedules allow for quite some time of rest/recovery, and both only have one dedicated shoulders workout once a week. I think this is important, as my right shoulder is still recovering. In fact, I've read that the shoulders are a small muscle group and it's important that I don't overwork it. Especially since the shoulders are part of nearly every upper body workout. I've also read that I won't need super high weights to challenge the shoulder. High reps and good form should do the trick. So even 45-lb dumbbells for the shoulder press should be good (when I work up to that anyway).

Since I did BBS last night, I'll try for some type of cardio, then do CTA on Wednesday. I'll follow up with a cardio day and cap the work week with a Legs workout. Next week, I'll probably go for Workout schedule A. The scheduling is more in tune with P90x, so it should prep my body for that in May (my target for starting P90x). I might start taking some glucosamine sulfate for the shoulder too. We'll see.


Last weigh-in:
178.0 lb (See what I mean about doing better on the work week?)

Still on track!

Did pretty well again last week. But I realized my weekdays are the least of my worries. It's the weekends that kill me. Workout-wise I've managed to be pretty consistent with my mini-workouts and my weight regimen. Here's the breakdown:

Monday: Door jamb rows (25, 25, 25), squats (50), lunges (25), standing rows (15, 15, 15), BBS
Tuesday: Counter pushups (30, 30, 30), calf raises (90), chest isometric (60), triceps dips (15, 15, 15), CTA
Wednesday: Squats (50), door jamb rows (25, 25), lunges (25 each), BBS, lower ab work
Thursday: Counter pushups (30, 30, 30), calf raises (90), triceps dips (20, 20), CTA, chest isometric (60)
Friday: Squats (50), lunges (17 each, 15, each), BBS
Saturday: Standing rows (15, 15, 15), CTA
Sunday: None

I'm on week one of using 10-pounders, and as much as I am tempted to go up to 15lbs this week, I will stick to two week phases. I'm being very careful with my shoulder. I'm still using 5-pounders for my rotator-cuff exercises, as I was told to aim for high reps on those exercises rather than high weight. I'd like to hit 3 sets of 30 or 40 before increasing weights and dropping down to 20 reps. Right now I'm at 3 sets of 20 - 25 reps @ 5lbs. So not too bad.

As for cardio, I made it to the YMCA on Monday only to find out my friend's membership, which I was piggybacking on, expired. I suppose it works out, as I was thinking of heading back to Planet Fitness. PF is open 24-hours during the weekdays, making missing workouts harder. So, the plan this week is to stick with my mini-workouts and weight workouts while signing up at PF again.

The weekends are proving quite a challenge. I had pretty bad meals on Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. That plus my inability to stick to my 80-100 oz daily water intake caused me to jump from 176.5lb during the week to 179.5lb by Sunday night. Craziness. I'm hoping to be better during the weekend. That plus the cardio I plan on doing should help with my diet. I'm looking forward to my dumbbell weight increase too. My shoulders and arms are getting a pretty good endurance workout, but my chest and back are hardly challenged. With my two-week phases, it appears I will be back up to 30-lb dumbbells by end of May. Hopefully by then I am doing pullups/chinups and full pushups too. It's a long road to recovery.

I'm also looking forward to the warmer weather. I'd like to fit in more biking and hiking. Bagging a couple of 4,000-footers is my summer goal. And I'd like to start rock-climbing/bouldering too.


Last weigh-in:
179.5 lb

Good progress with a slight setback

Well, up till Thursday night, I did okay last week. I was able to stick to pretty good eating habits and was able to squeeze in all my mini-workouts plus most of my weight workouts during the work week. Here's the breakdown:

Monday: Door jamb rows (20, 20), squats (50), lunges (25 each), BBS
Tuesday: Calf raises (90), counter pushups (25, 25, 25), chest isometric (60)
Wednesday: Squats (50), door jamb rows (20, 20, 20), lunges (25 each), BBS
Thursday: Counter pushups (25, 25, 25), calf raises (90), counter dips (10, 10, 10), chest isometric (60)
Friday: Squats (50), door jamb rows (20, 20, 20), lunges (25 each)
Saturday: manual labor
Sunday: CTA, counter pushups (25, 25)

Eating wise, I grabbed a mouthful of cereal and a vitamin to start each day. Then I had two cups of Cheerios with skim milk. I usually had some sort of snack before lunch (I keep either natural or unsalted roasted almonds, peanut butter, a serving of protein powder, and protein bars at my desk now). For lunch, I had the same thing the whole week. Sauteed chicken breast, lightly seasoned with blanched broccoli and baby carrots (I know...pretty bland, but as Jack LaLanne said, "if man made it, don't eat it", and "if it tastes good, spit it out."). I usually have another snack before I leave work. During work, I aim to drink at least 64 ounces of water. The only thing I would change about the meals now is to add a serving of carbs to my lunch. I noticed my energy levels were a bit low without the carbs. I would like to throw in a fruit in there too, although I wouldn't want too much. Don't want excess sugar.

With the new eating habits and my workouts, I was able drop down to 177.5 by Wednesday night. Half probably being water weight since my body now realizes it gets water all the time now. No need to retain water. But then my cousins arrived Thursday, and it was all about sleeping late and drinking. Tried to be really good with any meals that we grabbed, but it was tough.

Shoulder seems to be getting better. No complaints with the weight exercises with 5 pounders and 3 sets of 12. So bumping up to 10lb dumbbells with 3 sets of 8 and see how that goes. If it goes well, then I'll do sets of 10 or 12 for a week or two to let the shoulder get used to that. My chest is barely getting challenged with the low weight, but I don't want to rush it. Hopefully, I can bump up to 15 pounders in two weeks.

I didn't make it into the gym for some cardio, so I'm going to try this week. Weights are good, but with this "rehab" I'm doing and this body-fat loss challenge, I need the cardio.


Last weigh-in:
180.5 lb

Trying very hard to fit more in

With the new body fat loss challenge, I've been trying very hard to fit more workouts in. I have yet to go to the gym, but I'm trying to fit my upper body workouts in. It really isn't too hard since I'm using five pounders to give my injured shoulder some rest. I had on a heat pad a couple days to help improve blood flow. It feels a bit better, but still some instability. I really don't think it's a pulled muscle anymore as it doesn't hurt during exercises. It feels more like it's unstable. Diagonal raises causes clicking too. I'm thinking it's a minor tear in a ligament or a strained tendon. Wonderful...

Here's the breakdown:

Monday: none
Tuesday: Calf raises (90), CTA
Wednesday: Squats (40), lunges (20 each), BBS
Thursday: Calf raises (90), counter pushups (20, 20)
Friday: Chest isometric (60), squats (50), lunges (25 each), neutral grip pullups (1, 3), BBS
Saturday: Wall pushups (20), CTA, pushups on knees (20, 20), Dynaflex PowerBall (2x1min each)
Sunday: Ski, short 20 min run/walk

Eating was a challenge. I was able to keep to a 5-6 meal day on the weekdays. Weekends are tougher, with me barely able to keep eating when I'm hungry. I aim to plan for my calories instead of the multi-meals. I've been good on the hydration during the weekdays too, which intakes of 100+ ounces of water. Weekends again, are a bit of a challenge, but I take in more water than I normally did.

I fit in a ski day on Sunday. Again, my quads were not ready, and they were on fire by the end of the day. Squats help, but not enough. I really didn't follow through with the horse stance training. I did go for a short run when I got home. It was quite a challenge to run after a ski day, and I barely made it back up to my apartment afterwards. But it was great to feel all the different parts of the body ache during the run. Makes you realize there's a lot of work to do.

I'm hoping to hit the gym this week and add in more runs. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, my shoulder is good enough for me to start increasing my weights. Talked to a guy on the ski trip who's going in for PT degree. He said rotator cuff exercises might help stabilize the joint. I gotta aim for high reps, low weights though, he said. So the 3 sets of 10's with 5 pounders are gonna cut it. Should drop to 3 pounders with sets of 20-30. We'll see how that goes.

Last weigh-in:
180.0 lb

Some progress with shoulder

I definitely gave my shoulder some rest, but it's not feeling that much better. A bit better, but not that great. I'm going to start the rehab again, but this time I won't do high reps. I'll still start with five pound dumbbells but with sets of 8-10. That should give it enough stimulus without going overboard with the exertion. Anyway, here's last week's breakdown:

Monday: none
Tuesday: calf raises w/10lb (90), chest isometric exercises (240 total)
Wednesday: none
Thursday: none
Friday: none
Saturday: none
Sunday: none

I was away for the weekend and spent some time with my cousins. My LI cousin suggested we do a friendly body fat reduction challenge. He's currently at 12.x% while I'm at 15.7%. To be fair, we would aim to lose 3% and 4%, respectively. We have till June 1st to do so. I've never focused on losing body fat before, so this is new to me. I'm researching eating habits and am seriously considering moving to a 6-7 meals/day diet.

The first thing I did so far is focusing on getting at least 64 ounces of water a day. Muscles are 70% water and your body tends to retain water when it's not getting enough. So getting at least 8 glasses a day will keep myself hydrated while preventing water retention. To help with that I replaced my 32 ounce Nalgene bottle with a 16 ounce sippy thermos (Keeps my water cold!). I use the thermos to bring skim milk with me to work for my whole-grain cereal, then aim to drink four thermos-ful of water. Another thing I did was to start reading all labels of food I buy. So laborious.

Last weigh-in:
180.5 lb at 15.7% body fat

Gonna take a break

It's been a rough week. The light weights didn't help much, and after seeing the doctor's for an unrelated issue, I decided to pretty much take this week off. Here's last week's breakdown:

Monday: Lunges (20 each), squats (40), BBS w/5lbs (20, 20), shoulder/back stretches

Tuesday: CTA (20, 20), calf raises (90), ab work, leg stretches/splits

Wednesday: Lunges (20 each), squats (45), BBS (20, 20)

Thursday: none

Friday: Lunges (20 each), squats (45), counter pushups (10), CTA (20, 20), ab work, leg stretches/splits
Saturday: Chest isometric exercises (60 total)
Sunday: rest

Last weigh-in:
179.5 lb

I hate the "It's my life, I'll do what I want" people

It's Wednesday again. I hate hump days. The past weekend is but a memory, but the coming weekend is still pretty far away. You know what else I hate? The people who think they don't have to wear a seat belt or a motorcycle helmet because it's their life and they'll do what they want. Their argument is usually that it doesn't affect anyone else. But you see, it does!

Take seat belts. Say you get in an accident. If you die, great. But say you survive, and your injuries are so severe you exceed your coverage on your insurance. Maybe you have enough personal money to pay your medical bills. But if not, you apply for Medicare. I now support your sorry butt, because you didn't wear a seat belt. Say you don't exceed your coverage. But you just added to number of claims that the insurance company pays out. Next year, insurance companies adjust premiums all across the board to cover their potential losses. I pay for your mistake. This is the same for motorcycle helmets, although if we're all lucky, your head explodes like a melon and no one needs to pay for your poor decision-making.

Another scenario in the seat belt issue is this: What if you get ejected from your car during an accident? What if I was just walking along the street when you smack me and kill me? Or what if you're sitting in the backseat and you fly over the seat and break the neck of the person sitting in front of you? Of if you were sitting in back of me? I don't want to die because the dumba** in back of me didn't put on a seat belt.

So stop complaining if the government passes another seat belt law or helmet law. Yeah, we might be infringing on your right to do as you please, but I don't want to be paying for your stupid mistakes. Wear your seat belts. And if you ride, wear a helmet. You don't want bugs in your teeth anyway.

I hate stupid people!

I hate a lot of things, and one of them is stupid people. They annoy me to no end. You can try and break it down to them, but they would just look at you with a blank expression.

A while ago, I had gone to KFC with a $3.00 off coupon. I picked a family meal with sides that was on the menu for $32.49. I asked the girl behind the counter if she took the $3.00 coupon, which I printed off the KFC website. She said sure. She took the coupon, wrote $34.11 on it and did the math for the $3.00 coupon, bringing the total to $31.11. Simple enough; the $34.11 was obviously the meal price plus tax. She then proceeded to manually type $31.11 into the register and hit the pre-programmed total button. The screen flashed $32.67. She looked at me and asked for my payment. What ensued boils my blood till today:

Me: Why is it $32.67?
KFC idiot (looks at register then at me confusedly): Oh, we add tax.
Me: But you already added tax. (points at coupon with math)
KFC idiot: No, I didn't.
Me: Why did you write $34.11 on the coupon?
KFC idiot: That's how much the meal costs.
Me: Wait, how much is the meal? The menu says behind you says $32.49.
KFC idiot: Right, $34.11 is the meal plus tax.
Me: Okay...then you take $3.00 off for my coupon, put it into the register. How did it become $32.67?
KFC idiot: That's plus tax.
Me: But you already added tax!

At this point, the girl next to her is listening to the conversation.

KFC idiot: I don't understand. That's how we always do it for these coupons.
Me: Okay. How much is my meal?
KFC idiot: $32.49.
Me: Okay, why did you write $34.11?
KFC idiot: That's the meal plus tax.
Me: Fine, you take $3.00 off for the coupon. You type it into the register. Why is it $32.67?
KFC idiot: Because you add tax.
Me. You just said it! You added tax twice.
KFC idiot: No, I didn't. That's how we always do it.

Now the girl next to her is beginning to suspect something is wrong. She mumbles something to the idiot about what I'm trying to say. I am getting pretty heated now, but I don't want to lose my cool over something sooooo effing stupid. KFC idiot tells me she'll get a supervisor/manager. What's worst than dealing with a stupid person? Dealing with TWO.

KFC idiot supervisor: Sir, that's how we always do this with the coupon.
Me: But you're adding tax twice. (At this point, I don't understand why they can't press the button for the meal, total it, and use a coupon function. I used to be a cashier, though not at a KFC. But it's simple procedures.)
KFC idiot supervisor: No, we're not. This is how it works.

I go through the whole step-by-step thing. It's so simple, it hurts. They look at me like I'm crazy. At this point, I wish I had a pen and paper and I could write the stupid steps for them so their stupid heads could understand. But I had stood there for 10 minutes over $1.57.

Me: You know what, I don't care. It's a dollar something, just get me my food. I'm wasting too much time.

They get me my food. I look at the girl who's still pretty confused about the whole thing. I tell her not to worry about it and that I don't even care for the dollar something. As I leave, I contemplate writing to KFC. Or contacting the IRS or Attorney General, because if they do this to everyone that uses a coupon, they are cheating people out of their money and they are way off on their meal taxes that they pay. But I think to myself, that this is a battle I'm not gonna pick and that I'll let it slide. Besides, that KFC if pretty close to me and they haven't disappointed me in the past. I'd hate to to have to drive farther for my heart attack in a bucket.

I guess what gets me is that the girl behind the counter is at least high school age. What is so hard to understand about the whole thing? It bugs me to no end who stupid she was. Then her supervisor? Man oh man... But whatever. I feel better ranting about it.

Starting rehab

I'm quite frustrated at the rate of recovery for my shoulder. What frustrates me more is that I can't seem to find a stretch that hits the spot. Thinking back to a neck injury I sustained back in college, my doctor had told me to strengthen the surrounding muscles so they would take off some strain in the injured muscle. So that's what I decided to do. Isometric exercises are cool and all, and I will continue to fit them in during my mini-workouts, but they're just not the same.
I decided to start rehabbing the shoulder. I still feel some pain during certain movements, but instead of starting at 15lb dumbbells, I got my hands on a pair of five-pounders. Used in high rep sets, I can give my muscles a good burn without stressing the injured muscle. Besides, I'm way overdue for switching to a workout that targets the endurance/slow-twitch muscles (should try to mix my workouts more often). I'm hoping these exercises with the high-rep sets and light weights will strengthen the surrounding muscles in my shoulder and take some load off the injured one. Here's the breakdown:

Monday: Squats (40)
Tuesday: Counter pushups - less weight (40), various isometric exercises w/focus on chest and triceps (220 total)
Wednesday: Lunges (20 each), squats (40), various isometric exercises w/focus on back, biceps, and shoulders (240 total)
Thursday: Calf raises (90), one-legged calf raises (20 each)
Friday: Squats (45), various isometric exercises w/focus on chest and triceps (240 total)
Saturday: Hammer curls (10, 10), Biceps curls (10, 10), lateral raises w/5lbs (20, 20), rear lat raises w/5lbs (20, 20), eyebrow kicks (10 each, 10 each), front raises w/ 5lbs (20, 20), bent-over rows w/5lbs (20, 20), shoulder presses w/5lbs (20, 20), shrugs w/5lbs (20, 20), hammer curls w/5lbs (20, 20), biceps curls w/5lbs (20, 20), standing external rotator w/5lbs (10, 10), diagonal raises w/5lbs (10, 10)
Sunday: Dumbbell press w/10lbs (20, 20), triceps extension w/10lbs (4 sets - 20 each), chest flies w/5lbs (20, 20), ab work

After the high-rep sets, my shoulders do feel tighter (like they normally do after a good workout). I seem to have a bit more range of motion, but it's really too soon to tell. We'll see how it goes.

Last weigh-in:
179.5lb

Soup and poultry!

I had the pleasure of being able to cook dinner the other day with a friend. We made a soup, roasted cornish hen, roasted potatoes, and a quick salad. Didn't take much effort and was very cheap. I think the dinner for two wound up being $10 total (I did have some veggies and stuff in the pantry, but still). Anyways, I figure I should quickly put the recipes down. It's unbelievably easy. I don't really measure much, but I'll guesstimate:

Chicken Noodle Soup (though we skipped the chicken)

2 cans chicken broth (low-sodium recommended, can always add salt)

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1/4 lb cooked chicken

1 tbsp olive oil or butter

oregano

basil

salt and pepper

In a pot over medium heat, saute onions and celery in oil/butter until tender (about 5 min). Add chicken, carrots, herbs, salt and pepper. Bring to boil, then simmer for at least 20 minutes. Done! If you're adventurous, make your own chicken broth!

Herb Roasted Cornish Hen

I wanted roasted chicken, but didn't really need all that meat from a 4-5 pounder. So I went and got a 2lb cornish hen. Perfect size!

1 cornish hen, about 2lb

1/3 lemon

dried rosemary

dried thyme

dried parsley

kosher salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

Cut cornish hen in half and remove backbone (you can try to make some stock/broth with the bone and the giblets, but I doubt the small amount would produce a good enough stock. Maybe freeze it with other carcass bits until you have enough?). Drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil over chicken. Add herbs, pepper, and lemon juice. No salt yet, don't want to draw out the moisture from the meat. Let sit for an hour (Do this before you prep the rest of your meal so you're not just standing there doing nothing). Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat a skillet/nice frying pan to high. Add the other tbsp olive oil. Salt both sides of the cornish hen halves. Add to pan and sear till brown. Throw the whole thing into the preheated oven (don't have a pan that can go into the oven? Go here or here! Or you can transfer the halves into something oven safe) for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven (use mitt!) and let sit at least 5 minutes for juices to settle back into meat. Serve!

Herb Roasted Potatoes

I got this recipe from my coworker. When I asked her what she added to her potatoes, her answer was "whatever I got." I use this answer now when people ask me about my potatoes.

Potatoes, cleaned and cut into pieces (as much as you want. I prefer new potatoes, but will settle for red potatoes)

kosher salt

pepper

olive oil

whatever else you want

Drizzle oil over potatoes and add the "whatever I got" ingredients into potatoes. I like to add basil, Italian herbs, dill, a bit of Cajun mix, and onion powder). Don't be shy about the salt. You'll need more than you think. Arrange in shallow pan or casserole dish in an even layer. I would oil the pan, but I normally season the potatoes in whatever I plan on roasting them in, so it's usually coated. Throw in a preheated oven (450 degrees). Half hour should do it. I would mix the potatoes a couple times while they roast to get the entire surface area exposed.

Move over Dom!

Over the New Year's, I had the fortune of having a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin La Grande Dame in my possession. My cousin was generous enough to give it to me before she had moved. At the time I didn't think much of it, but when I went to open it, I noticed it had a vintage year on the label. 1995. As I studied the label, I realized that this was more than an ordinary bottle of champagne. With a little research, I realized this bottle ranked up there right along with the Dom Perignon.


I also had the fortune of having a bottle of Dom before. A friend had given it to me (what luck huh?). I remember not being overly impressed with it, at least not impressed enough to spend $200. I mean, it was a great brut; not too dry, good flavors. Just not a $200 bottle to me. But anyhoot, I had some company over and we opened the Grande Dame. The cork came out with a very small, very disappointing pop. But man, it tasted nice! Just enough bubbles to dance on your tongue. Just enough dryness to cut to the palate. Just enough sweet to satisfy. This bottle, I could clearly see why someone would pay $160 - $200 for. Would I? I wouldn't say for sure I would go out and get one. Maybe for a special occasion.

I have heard that Veuve Clicquot makes a very nice Rose Champagne, and those go for $65 - $80. I'll probably try that in the near future. It's just that for me, if I were to spend $60+ for a bottle of liquor, it should be a long lasting type of alcohol like a nice single malt or a premium hard liquor. But as I've said, for the right occasion, I wouldn't mind splitting a bottle. Last bottle I split was the "Black Bubbles". Mmm...that was tasty too.

It's official, my shoulder's busted again.

So I think it's safe to say that my right shoulder is busted. I tried doing some lateral raises to test my shoulder integrity, and it's not there. I've tried lying to myself by saying it was "tweaked", but I must've pulled a muscle deep in my shoulder. I'm suspecting rotator cuff, but whatever it is, it's not major muscle I can feel, but it plays a major part in supporting my other muscles during other workouts. I can feel it ache a bit during pushups. I feel it when I apply lotion to my back. I feel it when I lift my arm a certain way.

The only thing I can do is let it rest. I've tried lightly stretching the affected area, but I can seem to quite locate a stretch that hits that area. I've tried shoulder stretches, upper body stretches, biceps and triceps stretches. Can't seem to get it. So I'm going to let it rest. Then slowly strengthen it again by dropping my weights to 10-15lb each. Meanwhile, I'm going to find exercises that doesn't require any shoulder rotation. I'm going to start isometric exercises again. I did those a lot during my days in Aikido during college. They work, but you really need to concentrate, and you get what you put in. When the shoulder gets better, I really need to focus on getting into a routine workout regimen. I'm thinking I've been too lax and I tweaked it doing something as mundane as shadow boxing. Phooey. Here's last week's breakdown:

Monday: Squats (40)

Tuesday: Calf raises (90)

Wednesday: Lunges (20 each), neutral grip pullups (10)
Thursday: Hammer curls (10), biceps curls (10), calf raises (90), pushups (40)
Friday: Iaido cuts (150), lateral raises (10), hammer curls (10, 10), biceps curls (10, 10)
Saturday: Pushups (40 on knees)
Sunday: Various isometric exercises (160 total), roundhouse kicks (10 each, low and medium height), side kicks (10 each, low and medium height)

Last weigh-in:
180.0 lb

Workout update

So this shoulder of mine is bugging me more than I thought. Last week I managed some mini-workouts. Trying to control my diet a bit more again by cooking/bringing my lunches. But this shoulder thing is really making an effect. I haven't been able to do my other upper body routines. I need to be creative and find exercises that don't involve the shoulder too much so I can let it rest. I'm trying to stretch it out a bit more too and do lighter exercises that would slowly build it up again. Here's the breakdown for last week:

Monday: Lunges (20 each)

Tuesday: Calf raises (90)

Wednesday: Hammer curls (10), Biceps curls (10), Squats (40), neutral grip pullups (10)

Thursday: Pushups (40)

Friday: Neutral grip pullups (10)
Saturday: Skiing
Sunday: None

Last weigh-in:
179.5 lb

Work ethic or just genes?

I was out to dinner last night, and my sister was telling stories about high school and stuff. You can probably imagine a lot of drama there. Anyway, there was a pretty funny moment when she mentioned that a neighboring city's high school doesn't seem to rank as high as our city's high school. She mentioned that A's high school's 2008 valedictorian only (haha) went to Brown University, whereas B's high schools top three went to Princeton, Harvard, and MIT. As a joke, I plainly said that cause B has more Asians:

Me: Is B's number one Asian?
Sis: Yea...
Me: Is B's number two Asian?
Sis: Yea...
Me: Is B's number three Asian?
Sis: Yea...
Me: Is A's number one Asian?
Sis: Yeah...
Me: Is A's number two White?
Sis: Hahaha....Yeah...

And there you go. Now, before you go off and claim I'm racist, I am NOT racist. I'm just pointing out a fact. Currently, Asians seem to work harder right now. Even when I was in high school. The majority of the top ten of my class were Asian. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we are fresh immigrants rather than the other "Americans" who immigrated here much much earlier. Because of our "fresh" status, our parents whip us to strive and succeed in school so that we can make a place for ourselves and our future generations. The others already have their place.

You know what it is? They gone soft. I mean, how else can you explain that 75% of my high school English AP class was Asian. Shouldn't the real "Americans" be kicking our butts in their own language? Shouldn't we only be doing well in math? Just based on B's high school graduation results, it has nothing to do with money. It has nothing to do with where the kids grew up. It has nothing to do with genetics (I know, my post title was misleading, but I've met some stupid Asians too so you can be rest-assured that the world won't be taken over by Asians who will then proceed to kill themselves because they got too jealous and competitive by each other's accomplishments). The reasons I think Asians do well is because 1) our parents really kill us if we get less than an A. Seriously. And 2) people look down on us.

I'm not deaf. I'm not stupid. I know not all "Americans" like us. I hear things. I read things. "Eww...City of B is going down. There's too many Asians." Or "Don't move to B, or your kids might wind up speaking Mandarin." Who's racist now? The funny thing is, most of the Asians I know are Americans. Whether naturalized or actually born American. But people don't see past our yellow skin huh? Well, because of this, we work harder, faster, better.

So if you sit at your kid's graduation this summer and wonder why the top ten of the class are mostly Asians, don't kid yourself. It's not because we're Asians and it's in our genetics. It's because we work harder and your kid is stupid. Well...maybe we're smarter too.

By the way, you're racist if you do the following:
-Ask me where I'm from and then be surprised when I say "Boston". What did you expect? "Oh my motha come from Hong Kong, but we weely like Amelica!" Do I ask you where you're from and then go, "Oh, I meant your great-great-great grandfather that immigrated here on a steamboat. Was it Italy?"
-Tell me that you had a Chinese kid stay with you for some foreign exchange student program, as if that makes you cool.
-Tell me you knew this Asian person once. Do I go up to you and go, "Hey, I used to live near this Caucasian family. They were really nice."
-Tell me you like Chinese food and order chicken fingers and General Gao's chicken. We made that stuff so you people would buy it and feel special that you're so culturally experienced. At least smarten up and know it's really American Chinese food:

(At my part-time job during college)
Coworker 1: Hey Dan, how come I never see any Chinese people at the Chinese restaurant down the street?
Me: 'Cause that's not Chinese food...
Coworker 1 to Coworker 2: I told you!

Locally produced food at The Local

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by a cool little restaurant/pub in West Newton. My friend took me to The Local based on recommendations she received. But the main reason was to go check out some fried pickles! Haha.

The Local is a pub/restaurant with a menu that includes locally produced foods. Tucked into a section of Washington Street in West Newton, it's practically on the Mass Pike. Atmosphere is pretty casual, cool, and very lively with the bar taking up the left third and the dining area the rest of the place. The wait was pretty long on a Friday night, 45 minutes on that particular night. But I think it was worth the wait.

The Local has a pretty good list of appetizers and small snacks. We ordered some fried pickles and their warm potato chips. Very tasty, though the fried pickles weren't really my thing. For entrees I had a salmon that had a wonderful crunchy crust on a bed of bacon mushroom salad and some roasted garlic mashed potatoes. I gulped down a beer from Maine to wash that food down.

This is a place I will definitely go again. If it was closer, it would be an awesome place to gather up some friends for drinks and yummy snacks.

Check out more of my posts on food here!

Pepsi = No Good

You might now know it, but I'm a Coca Cola fan. I've always been. Yeah, Pepsi is oh-so-cool with the ad campaigns. They even got quite a few Hong Kong pop stars on their ads and stuff. But it's about the taste, man. Coca Cola is awesome. And less sugar too! So, I'm here to spread the word that Pepsi is bad. I know Coke isn't much better; it's still sugar water. But I no like Pepsi. So check out this guy's rendering of the Pepsi logo. Haha.

Tweaked my shoulder

I've come to a realization. Ever since I started my moving process, I wasn't as religious about cooking/prepping my own lunch. I was able to some soup and lean pocket weeks, but after I moved, I got lazy with that too. Just these past two weeks, I ordered out with my coworkers. Though I gave each lunch order some thought as to what impact it would make, I still managed to go up in weight. Obviously, the answer to that is make/bring my own lunch. I can control my caloric intake and see what I put in my system. Anyhoot, here's the breakdown.

Monday: Squats (40)
Tuesday: Calf raises (90), pushups (40)
Wednesday: Lunges (20 each), shadowing boxing
Thursday: Calf raises (90), pushups (40)
Friday: Horse stance (1.5 minutes), neutral grip pullups (10), squats (40)
Saturday: none
Sunday: Horse stance (1.5 minutes)

Squeezed in some horse stances at the end of the week. I somehow managed to tweak my right shoulder doing some shadow boxing on Wednesday. I managed to contract a muscle deep in my shoulder and cramped it a bit. Then I aggravated it doing pushups in my cubicle. It was quite tight and I tucked my elbows more than usual, putting more stress in the tweaked area. It's feeling kinda weird right now, but it should heal soon I hope. I did some pushups yesterday and it seemed fine. Blegh.

Last weigh-in:
179.5 lb