Knocks

Not much for me to do today, except lounge around the house waiting for someone or something to show me the way.  Perhaps that is what my problem is as of late, I'm waiting for the way to be shown to me, as opposed to finding my own way through the never.

I have what I believe to be a great opportunity in front of me but I believe that if I took it, I would be losing something that is great to me.  I don't want to lose either but don't want this opportunity to pass me by. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Name

"Are you trying to be funny leaving your name badge blank?  Or is that some sort of statement that you are trying to make with people not needing to ask for our names but just knowing it when they see a badge without having to get to know the person?  That must be it.  That is such a bold act and statement.  So brave."

The girl pads away from me believing that she has found some deep meaning to my actions, as if the secrets of my psyche has been unlocked and the doors flung asunder to her inquisition.  Bollocks.  Truth is, that the reason that my name was not written on the empty white space of the cheaply made "My Name Is ___" name sticker, is that I don't know it.  I do not exist in the sense of having any issued identification to look at as to be able to look at and go, "AHA! THAT IS MY NAME! JEBEDIAH!" My memory is a blank when it comes to who I am, no history from my past, nothing that would jog to who I am or was.

I wander aimlessly through life with no need of direction.  No bills, no obligations, just living however I see fit at that particular moment that strikes my fancy.  This moment I am attending a meet and greet for some company in the area, filled with numerous men and women wearing nice designer clothes, eating appetizers on fancy little picks, cheeses made from animals that don't go 'moo', whilst washing it down with 3 dollar a bottle wine that smells like it was batched in a bathtub with rose petals and lavender just hours earlier.  They eat the shit down not knowing that if they were to have the authentic McCoy they would be locked in their bathrooms waiting for the sweet relief of death to release them from the grip of the brown fire hose that would be spewing from both ends of their bodies because their pasty livers would not be able to handle the richness.  Yet here I am wearing some jeans and a shirt I scavenged from a local thrift store, looking like some new age hobo but with no name on my name tag, it just sets it all off.

Now don't think that I am totally helpless, I know things and how to do things; I just don't know my name or personal history.  Also, I am not like some Jason Bourne secret agent with amnesia but with the innate ability to call upon the super secret training to kick some ass when need be.  The only ability I can call upon with impunity is that of biting sarcasm and the ability to wash the fuck out of some dishes.

I have been wandering about the party for around an hour or so when I ran into Steve.  Not physically ran into him but through some casting of the die by the fates to catch his eye for him to call me over to his little circle for whatever reason but most likely to gloat over some grand scheme he pulled off recently.  Steve was a weasel looking man of about five foot something that talked fast and always expected a quick nod of the head as a verbal agreement was not possible seeing as he was almost always talking.  Not once while I stood there laughing at his bad jokes, agreeing to his stupid assumptions and listening to his wild claims of making a killing in the stock market; did he not once ask of my name.  Not that I wished to go into that little story of mine but goes to show what kind of person he was.  He only was only looking for an extra ear for his dubious claims.

I left after a few hours bored with the whole thing.  Tired of listening to unimportant people trying to position themselves around each other trying to out pose the other in the their false world that only matters to those in attendance.  I decided to just go to my cheap hotel room that a paid with from a winning scratch off ticket I purchased just earlier that day.

Election

It is another election year here in America, with the every other post on the social media sites informing you how important this election is and that if you vote for the wrong candidate, you are part of the problem.  Unfortunately the problem isn't who you vote for, as long as you are voting for the candidate that best meets your criteria as to whom you want to be in the office of the President of the USA.  What this means is you do not have to vote for either of the top two candidates; Obama or Romney, but have many other choices available to you from Libertarian Party, Independent, Justice, Reform, Peace and Freedom, among just a few of the parties aside from just Democratic and Republican.

In this day and age with technology in the palm of your hand to access the internet at all times of the day, it is your civic duty to research the candidates to be better informed in your decision making.  There is no reason to follow blindly with what the news media show you on television with the slant that is added to make the top candidates look better; or worse depending on the network, as the sole means to vote for them.  Basing your vote based on your dislike towards one of the top candidates as the reason to support the other candidate is not the best way to go about this either.

Instead of choosing one of either the Republican or Democratic candidate because of those two parties, one of them is most likely to win, take a look at the other candidates that are running to see which one of those meet your Presidential criteria.  

You have a choice.

Opinion

I posted a few weeks ago about how I was addicted to Instagram after discovering the app for my Razr and have been hooked ever since.  So much so that I am constantly using it to check for new photos posted by those I follow and then check the popular tab for new interesting pics to look at.  Obviously Instagram is on par with Facebook, MySpace (anyone still use that?), Google+ in that it is a haven for all those that want attention from the masses from every little thing that they post on the internet.

Which is fine for them, they are allowed to do what they want with their lives but when should they start to think twice about what they post?  Celebrities can pretty much post whatever and their fans will gobble that shit up and ask for more, never tiring of seeing Justin Beiber's face plastered all over their screens or Snooki's for that matter.  At what point does the care-free postings of a new pair of shoes or pose with a fan slide into posting pics of them rolling a fattie or celebrating some stupid act by some idiot?  

Does anyone even care?  I know I used to but then celebrities that I actually liked came out that they had a different ideology than I about certain things and I decided then, that life was too short to care about what another person believes in seeing as they personally cannot affect me with that thinking.  Sure, they can influence many of their fans into seeing things their way but there is an opposite to their yin that will hold just as much sway with just as many fans that will be just as involved with spreading their views as the first person is.  So now I just don't care if some celebrity is into Obama or another one is into Romney or someone likes chunky salsa or another like guacamole.  I have more important things to do with my time than have a running list of what celebrities I like/dislike based upon their personal beliefs, they just like us have the same freedom to share those feelings as everyone else.

It still won't stop me from looking at the pics.

Moleskine/Fountain Pen

About a month ago, I got a couple of Moleskine pocket notebooks just for the hell of it.  Been wanting to get some once before but could never bring myself to paying the cost of them but these were on clearance and Star Wars...so I had to.  Now the point of my getting them was to be able to carry them with me or at least one of them with me, at most times to write whatever, whenever.  Of course I have not really been carrying them that much but I'm half way there.

So I made one as my personal writing book, sketch, idea, whatever thing and the other is more so for Herbalife, notes during STS's, clients, etc.  I have managed to keep them separate in that regards so far at this point.  Bonus points for me.

Now, just last week I was in Walgreens looking for some replacement toothbrush heads for mine; which it seems no one carries now, and ran across a fountain pen...so I bought it.  Used it a little at the house when I got home and took it to STS for notes in the Molsekine notebook.  I love this pen as much as any person should love an inanimate object that is.  It is a Zebra brand fountain pen.  Nothing fancy, comes with two refills or it should say a fill, and a refill of ink.  Of course knowing my luck, these pens have probably been discontinued with the refills never to be produced again.  Especially considering I didn't see them in Wal-mart a day or two later.

junk promise

I gave my lady a promise ring the other day.  She was excited when I presented it but more so when I told her it was my grandmother's.

It isn't.

The ring is just some junk that I found perusing the street vendors off of Market St.  The ring holds no special meaning to me and holds a grand price of $1.00.

It sits there on her finger bright and shiny as if it was some high end designer piece from Paris.

It will probably turn her finger black for three weeks.  It will devastate her that she can no longer wear my grandmother's ring.  Inside I will smile; outside I will comfort her, tell her it will be ok and then we will have sex.

Life will be great.

Photography

I've always had a fascination with cameras and pictures and with the moments that are frozen when one is used to capture the other.  Before cameras were big, bulky and expensive, then Polaroid came out with the instant camera and further still, as time rolled on, things got cheaper with film photography.  You could buy a cheap little camera and film, take the pictures and have them developed for a decent price back in the 80's.  Then digital came along, without the need to develop your pictures, you could just print them from home; not the same quality but still cheaper in the long run if you were a shutter bug.

I had several 110 cameras, never anything expensive like a 35mm, because those were for the serious minded people, like my Grandfather.  He got into photography for a short time, not sure of anything he really took but I'm sure there were some pictures hanging around somewhere.  I do stress the hanging part as in frames or added to an album and not stuffed into a shoe box placed high on the top shelf of the closet that are of some sort of bondage featuring my Grandmother.

Anyway, I did buy a digital Olympus at one point when I had a functional Jeep and used that camera to catalog rides and such.  The camera was a piece of crap and at some point stopped turning on or failed most times to actually be usable when it did turn on.  So it lays discarded somewhere, most likely with batteries in it, rotting it from the inside out.

Recently, as in a short amount of time before a wedding, I discovered Instagram.  This is a little app for smartphones that you can use to edit pics or to even snap photos, then edit, and then post to any or all social sites that you are apart of.  I took a couple at the end of the wedding and one before I headed that way and posted them to Instagram.  If you care, go to Instagram and search for mindes13, that's me.

So now that I have been looking through some Instagram posted photos and read a blog post about some editing, I can of have a small spark that is starting to light something in me to start taking pics once again.

Or I will be like my Grandfather and start something to only abandon it after a bit.

Eat

I have been using Herbalife for five months now and have lost nine pounds so far.  That is not the huge loss I was hoping for when I started, which was disappointing considering I had lost seven in the first month to only plateau, then gain back some afterwards.  This was while going to the gym while using the products as well.  Now, some would say that I was gaining muscle and that would account for the weight gain, but that is not the case here, especially since the fat percentage that had gone done, went back up.  Muscle mass will not do that.

So I started thinking about what I was doing wrong.  I had become quite religious on tracking my food intake as well as my exercise during this time; I had been using the My Fitness Pal app on my phone before iChange was launched so I was aware of my history of exercise and food consumed.  With this thinking back, I remembered that when I started Herbalife, I felt great.  I had good energy, was losing weight, going to the gym, it was all gravy.  Then I plateaued.  I still felt good, still had energy and was still going to the gym.  Then I started to gain weight.  Right after I joined iChange.  It was not the fault of iChange, just bad timing of it all.  I continued on with everything and eventually came to a conclusion.

I wasn't eating enough.

With that thought in mind, I did some research.  In the beginning, I was told to eat 1500 calories a day, iChange advised 1932 a day.  With some further research, I concluded that I was putting my body in starvation mode when I would go to the gym.  I was eating the calories I was initially instructed to but once I entered the exercise in, I would be far below where I should be.  I also discovered that the minimum that the body needs in caloric intake a day is 1500 for men and 1200 for women.

I was at that from the start! 


No good.


So now, I am eating more, while staying out of the gym for now.  I have been hitting my caloric daily goal of 1932 and going over without fear, have lost some weigh to even being under a pound from when I started iChange and have lost the fat percentage that I had lost initially.


I am now thinking about heading back to the gym knowing what I know now.  Forming a battle plan now to keep losing while toning, without putting my body into starvation mode again.  Of course this plan starts with having to eat more but I am leaning towards purchasing something from the 24 line to aid in that.  Either some Prolong or Prepare.

Extreme Couponing

There are these shows on now that follow people that are extreme couponers.  These are people that gather coupons en masse to save money on their grocery bill.

Which is something people have down for years, right?

No.  These people take it to the extreme.  Not only do they collect coupons, but look for special coupons that they can add to those coupons to enhance the savings.  0.49 cents off a can of soup...not enough.  They will use so many coupons that 800 dollar grocery bill is only 75 dollars.  This kind of savings takes many coupons, planning and research to pull off such savings.

Which for my lazy ass, is just too time consuming for me to do and I applaud their effort.

The end.

Wait.  I change my mind...I have more.

I have a problem with extreme couponers and that problem is that while being smart in what they are doing, they are also being very wasteful and greedy.  If you watch the shows, the people in the episodes buy large quantities of items to get them for either free or for a ridiculous low cost.  By large quantities I'm not talking about ten or twenty of something but hundreds of an item.  One show a couple bought sixty bottles of hand soap to be able to get them all for something like a 1.00...for sixty.  Or 100 toothbrushes for 0.10 cents or something like that.  Ok, those are all items that are not food you say, but how about 100's of boxes of cereals for 10 bucks or whatever.  On that particular show, the cereal was donated so it didn't go to waste.  But on how many other shows do the food items that are purchased in such large quantities end up having to be wasted?

None of this would bother me if these were large families that would use all of the items that was purchased for themselves or even donate the excess to less fortunate families.  I honestly have not seen this on any sort of regularity on the little bit of shows I have caught.  I do remember one couple that converted the basement of their home as a storage place for items the have purchased.  This is also the same couple that purchased large amounts of hand soap and even showed how much of bathroom items they had purchased so far.  It was enough to last the rest of their lives or for the better part of it.

This type of behavior looks to be on the same level of being a hoarder.  Except for these people, they buy to stockpile for no other reason but to be able to save.

Makes no sense to me.

Seduction

My heart beats hard, slow, heavy in my chest as she approaches, slowly, gently towards me.  Walking upon bare feet, she crosses the distance between us with an ease and grace that is not seen these days.  A warm breathe and cool lips touch my cheek as I close my eyes in anticipation of her tenderness.  Using both of her hands, she grasps the sides of my face and pulls my lips towards hers where the electricity of her touch erupts in my head sending a bolt through my body and deep into my soul.  I wrap my arms around her, pulling her closer to me, feel the warmth from her body, smell the sweetness of her skin, and the softness of her womanhood beneath her summer dress.

That same summer dress that she easily slides out of as a butterfly slips out of its cocoon.  As she stands in front of me, I run my hands through her hair, caressing it and taking in the sweet smell of lavender from the soap that it had been washed in.  Gliding my fingertips across her skin, letting the sparks of electricity from our touches light off fireworks within our heads, I stop to gently squeeze her buttocks and release a slight moan of approval from her wonderful heaving chest.  She steps back slightly, looks me in the eyes with a wanton desire and quietly begins to unbutton my shirt.  Pushing the shirt off of my shoulders she begins to rub her hands across my chest and lean in to gingerly kiss my chest and play with my nipples to much of my delight.

She works her way down further, causing my heart to beat harder and much more faster in my chest...so hard and fast, I can hear the thumping in my ears; it is so loud, it drowns out all other noise and thought in my head.  She stands up, crashes into me with a passionate kiss that heats the room up to where a glisten forms on our skin as if we had stepped out of the shower or a summer rain.  She stops long enough for me to feel the cool air that has now been able to touch where her fiery skin had just been pressed into mine.  She grabs me by the hand and leads me off into the bedroom.

Closing the door behind us once we enter.

iChange

In February I started using Herbalife to help me become healthier and lose some weight that I have been trying to lose for some time.  Since then, I have lost 7 lbs and about 4% body fat, with a goal of being around 20% body fat when all is said and done.

As with all weight loss, you should track what you eat, calories, fat, carbs, protein, water, etc. and exercise as well.  There are a couple of ways to go about this, using pen and paper or through electronic means with a computer or smartphone.  I decided to go electronic and downloaded an app called my fitness pal.  The app was free and had many foods that you could punch in, as well as exercises, track your weight, protein and other essential things.  Only problem I had with it was that it did not add the weeks worth of nutrition values on the foods you ate correctly; it would only display the first days values for that entire week.

Now just this week, Herbalife launched their own nutrition tracking site called www.iChange.com.  This site is basically the same as my fitness pal by being free to anyone, tracking your info but with added differences, it is a social site as well.  What that means is you can comment on other people's posts and give them words of encouragement to help them along their path of being much more healthier.  Once you sign up, you are assigned a coach that will help you out along the way.  As far as the commenting on posts of others, you can also friend them much like Facebook.  One other nice little bonus, as you accomplish certain goals, you receive awards as a job well done for you efforts.

Currently there is no app for smartphones, but you can access it through the phones browser at www.iChange.com/mobile.  Just in case it doesn't automatically detect you are on a mobile device, which it did not with me or my girlfriend.

If you would like to add me as a friend, search for mindes and that will be me.

Playboy

The other night whilst laying in bed with my girlfriend, the discussion of my upcoming birthday came up and what it would be that I would like for said event as a gift.  Now my normal answer to any such question that puts me on the spot to make a fly decision is to answer, "I don't know."  Which for me is the only answer there is for any sudden questions such as that as I have not carefully weighed all of the options to form a truthful non-regrettable answer.

After some prodding as to why I "don't know", I came up with needing a solution to store my magazines.  Her first thought upon hearing the word 'magazine' was to pertain to that of what goes into a firearm holding the bullets for said firearm to shoot.

Which was wrong.

I meant for some sort of device or devices to hold the several years worth of Playboy magazine that while being a subscriber has thusly accumulated...en masse.  I would conservatively put that at 6, six, seis, years worth of tits and ass...of course, not just T&A, but as well as interviews, reviews, social commentary, political commentary, so forth and so on.

I enjoy the magazine thoroughly...and not in the Jergens and Kleenex sort of way either.

It seemed to me that my answer to the question and talk of the magazine brought about the idea that I may have some sort of problem with letting go or throwing things out.   Which is not the case by no means.  I can throw things away...just not going to be throwing any Playboys away.  I may not be going back to past issues to re-read them per se, but they are something of an art that should be kept around.

Speaking of art, I do remember seeing a hang-able, clear, plexiglass box that could fit a years worth of magazine in one of the magazines.

Baby, I need about 7 of those.  Please and thanks.  Your the best.

write

If you look on the internet these days looking for advice on writing, you'll find a bevy of sites and authors and writers telling you the correct way to write.  You'll get advice from what type of  paper to use; to which is better, the pen or the pencil and then which sub-types of those is better; which program on the computer is better; which blog site is better; what is the proper way to write a story or whatever.  The point is, the amount of advice out there is as abundant and varied as there are faces and asses out on the street.

There is no right or wrong way to write.  You just need to write what you feel needs to be said at that particular moment in your time; not at that time or what you think, but what you feel and in your time.  If you feel you need to write expose ratting out the wrongs done by the school bullies to the small youth in your younger days or if you feel that the time is right for the world to read about your passion for micro-photography or the fictional story of a dying planet risking everything for the hope of a tomorrow, then write it.  

Don't worry about having the correct space, the correct chair, the correct ambient light or background noise; if it is meant to be written by you at that time, it will flow forth from your mind, to your hands, through your implement, to your medium.  You will edit, think about and ponder your next steps, scene and characters through several re-reads till you feel it is perfect.

Be proud.  You have created something, breathed life into something that was not there before.  It is something that will be overlooked, ignored, loved, hated, praised but always be yours and only yours.  No one will be able to take that fact away that you created it.

Herbalife Update

Just a little update about my Herbalife progress so far.

As of today, I have held steady with my weight at 217 lbs and have lost another .4% body fat to bring me down to 30%; I started at 34.6% when I started Herbalife on the 13th of Feb., 2012.  Here it is only 45 days into using Herbalife.  I still have a ways to go to be within a healthy body fat percentage; 20% for my age range, but I believe that with the proper nutrition and exercise, I can do it.

Tomorrow I start on the Ultimate Program from Herbalife, to help with better results.  The little bit of the Advanced that I had left, I donated to my girlfriend to try out.  She wants to be healthy and would like to lose weight but finds it difficult while having severe asthma.  Whenever she has a severe attack or gets a respiratory infection, the Doctors like to prescribe to her steriods that  keep her hungry, which is not good if you are trying to lose weight.  There are other things at play as well but I wish not to incur a woman's wrath by posting on the internet for all to read.

Sailing

A single boat approaches the lone uninhabited island that for hundreds of thousands of years sat in the vast waters of the empty sea, visited often by passing ships that looked to replenish their stores of food and water before moving on with their journeys.  On this boat, two couples traveling on a much needed respite from the hectic hustle and bustle of their daily lives back on the mainland.  None of them experienced in seafaring, but thought it would be fun to try it as a new experience to spice things up.

As they drop anchor in the small protected alcove of the island, they decide to venture onto the island itself to feel the sand beneath their feet and swim in the warm tropical waters for a bit of relaxation before heading on.  Once swimming ashore, the couples drop onto the sand tired but rejuvenated from the exercise.  After a brief respite, the men decide to do some exploring into the jungle of the island; the women being much satisfied to continue laying out on the sand soaking up the warm sun.

In the shade of the jungle as the men wander about exploring, they fancy themselves as long ago pirates that have come upon the island to hide their trove of treasure for safe keeping.  Each of the men wondering to himself if pirates may have ever landed on the island to squirrel away their loot for safe keeping and if they did, could it be possible that it would still be there?  Aimlessly walking along through the ferns and palms, they look for any signs that could be from any such prior expeditions on the island; carvings on the trees, rocks stacked in unnaturally occurring positions that foretell of where the treasure might lay.

The women lay on the sand listening to the soothing sound of the waves gently washing upon the shore the rhythmic, steady sound enticing a deep sleep and with the help of the sun warming the sand and air around them, they quickly succumb to the Siren's call.  After sleeping for several hours, the women awake to the sky displaying the oranges and crimson of the sun making its' daily return back to the sea to let the moon have her fun for the evening.  The women wonder why the men did not stir them from their rest once they returned from their foray into the island, they dismiss the thought as the men being respectful and just returned to the boat to begin the evenings meal.  Once back on the boat, the women notice that they were in fact mistaken on their initial thinking that the men had returned to begin dinner.  As the sun plunges beneath the waves and the darkness of the night takes over, the women begin to fear something may have happened to the men.  They begin calling out for their men from the boat towards the island, listening intently for a call back that the men are okay or for a sign of distress.  None was ever returned; only the lapping of the water against the boat's hull and the gentle breeze of the ocean through the island's palm trees were the only sound they heard.  After calling for several hours, the women decided to try to get some rest and take the zodiac inflatable to the island in the morning to search for the men.

Morning came and the women prepared the zodiac with some supplies of water, first aid, food and basic survival items, preparing for the worst but hoping for the best was the frame of mind they were going for while they prepared.  Beaching the zodiac, they secured it by tying the line to a palm nearby; there was no need to have to swim after it in case it was needed to transport the men back to the boat in an emergency.

Once into the canopy of the jungle, they started looking for signs of where the men traveled; footprints, branches broken, anything that may give a clue as to where they went the previous day.  Following a set of tracks, the women pushed deeper and deeper into the island.  Only the faint wisps of sunlight managed to break through the canopy to light the floor below.  The heat and humidity was stifling to almost the point of unbearable but they pushed on ignoring it as the only concern was finding their lovers that they were hoping were just lost on the island.

After following the trail for what seemed of an eternity, they happened upon the end of the trail, a point of the island that overlooked the alcove they had sailed into the day before.  This was where the clues of where the men had gone, stopped.  No other clues of back tracking they way they had come were visible, nor were there any signs that they had continued along the opening along side the edge.  They stood there contemplating what could have happened and took in the view of the island, the alcove, the boat and the ocean surrounding it all and something caught one of the women's eye down below.  As they both peered over the edge, they felt a shove at their backs, pushing them off the shear drop to the island floor.  Tumbling through the air they looked back to the top trying to see their assailant or assailants, terrified that it was one of or both of their men that could have done this.

Crashing through the canopy of the jungle, the women land in a twisted heap.  Their bodies broken against the rocks scattered about the floor to rot in the humidity for several days as the scavengers of the island begin to feast on the rot and decay of the four bodies that have been served before them.

Herbalife Week 2

Soooo, I have been doing Herbalife for two weeks now and I feel pretty good about it.  I'm done to 220 even but think I have slimmed down more than having lost weight.  I only say that because clothes seem to fit a smidge looser, which could be a figment of my imagination as I did not do any measurements other than weight before starting.  Weight loss will probably be on the slow side as I go to the gym to workout four days out of the week and that may increase as my schedule at work may start to fluctuate, which will alter the current workout schedule I am on.

I do have one of those body mass scales that are able to check your body fat percentage when you stand on them and according to that, I am down 2% body fat since starting.

I tend to still have a hard time hitting the daily caloric and protein goals but it is not without effort.

On a side note, my mother has started this as well and with only being on it for less than a week, has lost three pounds so far.  Her weight should come off much rapidly than mine as she is only doing the program without any exercise, other than day to day activities.

Herbalife

First off, this is not a post about me going the stoner lifestyle, growing my hair out, joining a commune and stop bathing; this is about me taking a step to be a healthier me.

I've posted before about joining a gym to try to lose a gut that I've had most of my life, if not all of it since before high school and I'm in my early-30's now, so I've had it for quite some time.  The only change I've done to get in shape, was to join and go to a gym to workout.  Through that alone, I lost some weight but not a whole bunch.  What did end up happening was I slimmed down some.  In high school I wore size 42 pants and up to the point I decided to stop drinking Pepsi by the gallons and to start some exercising, before joining a gym, I stayed that in that size of pant.  Once I quite drinking soda, I lost 20 lbs just from that, which was from 250 lbs.  After buying a weight set and through some pedal pushing, went 230 lbs. and size 42, down to 226 and size 38.  For about a year my exercising slowed down but I still managed to lose weight, got down to 216 lb and size 36 for a short time.

I've been going to a gym now more regularly since my last posting on the matter but still have not managed to slim down to where I would like to be.  Most of that is because of diet, I like to eat, which is not the best way to lose the pounds or slim down, regardless if you exercise like an inmate, so to combat that, I've started doing Herbalife.  This decision wasn't brought on by some research or an article read somewhere or even from an ad I saw, but from a friend.  Last year he weighed in at 345 lbs in Oct. as of Feb of 2012, he is down 55 lbs by using Herbalife.  He no longer needs to take high blood pressure medicine and not because of Herbalife, but because he is eating better through the system, his body has been given the resources to heal itself.

After talking with him and deciding how much I would like to lose, I purchased a system for myself.  The system replaces two meals with shakes that you make and with a balanced third meal, you will lose weight.  I started on Monday February 13th and as of, Wednesday the 15th, have lost 1 lb, down from 221 lb to 220 lb.  Now, that may not seem like much but to me it is quite a bit.  I have been instructed to eat 1500 calories and 150 grams of protein a day, which I have found to be difficult, with the me liking to eat, having snackage readily available to me at work.  With no longer eating in the employee cafe, which is free to us, I am not taking in as many calories as I used to and not as much protein either.  I just have to find the sweet spot to grab the necessary protein without all the calories.

To help me track all of this, I downloaded an app to my phone call MyFitnessPal.  With it, you can track what you eat, how much, your workouts, water intake and it will tell you the nutrients you've taken in for the day based on what you put in.  Bonus is, you don't have to guess or read the labels for the information, it has a search function that looks up the items.  No more guessing or tracking in a notebook.  Oh, it's also free and you can use it on a regular computer as well.

Time

We always seem to think we don't have enough time to do the things we want or need to do.  There just aren't enough hours in the day to do all of this stuff that need has to be done.

But...

Have you really thought about all the wasted time that is used up without thought?  All the time we spend on Facebook, texting, being bored and avoiding other things, could be better off spent doing things we would like to do.

I know for me, Facebook is a large time waster, as is Cracked.com.   Which tends to cut into the time I could be updating this thing, as opposed leaving it sitting in the cold dark confines of the internet being visited by Brazilians with their amazing asses.  The problem I tend to have, besides general laziness in banging something out to post, is the fact that I have trouble finding something to write about.  When that spark of an idea comes to me, I tend to be still lazy and unwilling to go get something to write the idea down with or even jot the idea down into my phone so I can expand on the thought or idea when I might be more so inclined.

Oh, these are usually great ideas that I have, that I flesh out completely inside my head but my laziness, keeps me from utilizing the means to keep me from forgetting them for future reference.

Take this update for example, it only came to be as I was sitting at my computer bored, trying to decide what it was I wanted to do at that time.  Read a magazine, Playboy, mess with Tarot cards, stalk on Facebook or read more articles on Cracked.com.  Tarot was about to win out, but in my head, I said, "I don't have enough time to do that right now."  Enough time, was the key that got the ball rolling on this right there and then.

Which to add, I managed to finish even with a text message waiting to be read.

Hangover(s)

I've watched both Hangover movies, found the first one to be alright and the second one to be ok.  Neither of which weren't nearly as funny as everyone I talked to claimed they were.  After having watched both movies, I have noticed a couple of things about the characters that are portrayed in the films.

Phil

He's the pretty boy of the group, a teacher, probably was a jock and or a frat boy in college and is married; unlike the others at the beginning of the first movie.  He is the calm re-assuring voice that talks to the bride-to-be (H1) or Doug (H2) while the boys are out having fun or should I say, frantically searching for a missing person.  

Since he is a teacher, these weddings are the only times he gets to get away and cut loose without fear that some nosy parent of a student might see him to tell to the school board on his wild drunken behavior while watching Phil bang strippers at 2 a.m. at some seedy motel on the bad side of town.

Phil is the guy that likes to live vicariously through his friends; mostly since he is married and is a teacher, which he probably tends to talk the others into doing things that he only wishes he could do while vigorously whacking his weasel. 

Doug

This poor bastard seems to miss all the fun.  Oh, he got to experience the first bachelor party seeing as he was the groom but missed the fun in searching for himself the next day.  The next bachelor party, he left early to go to bed and thusly missing the fun in Bangkok.  

He just looks like he is always stressed.  As if he always wonders if the other guys will make it back alive.  He probably does this on a day to day basis when there is no weddings going on at all, just wonders if Phil will be involved in a drug bust at the school or if Stu accidentally kills some stripper in a back alley and needs help in hiding the body.  

Stu

Stu is just a bundle of anxiety and fetishes.  Not only is he paranoid that at anytime will he be ruffied but deep down inside, he longs for it and awaits its warm, moist trip.  If it wasn't for him being ruffied on the first bachelor party, he would not have realized how much he hates his then current girlfriend and that he secretly likes strippers and on his party, transsexuals.

You would think that after the first bachelor party, that he would not take anything from Alan out of fear that it may be drugged in some manner but since he secretly wants to be let free to have an excuse to pursue his stripper habit without remorse, he willing partakes in the marshmallows.

He is also an Attention Seeker as evident by removing his own tooth at the first bachelor party and then getting a face tattoo during his bachelor party.  Marrying a stripper during the first and having sex with a transsexual stripper at his party.

Alan

 

Alan is a man-child, still living at home with his well to do parents living in the lap of luxury.  He is also a sociopath with no regard to anyone but himself.  He ruffies everyone at the beginning of the first bachelor party and once more on the second.  He has no conscience to speak of as he constantly puts the others in harms way with his actions.

The only reason he was allowed to come to Stu's wedding in Thailand (H2), is because the others feared that Alan would probably kill them if he wasn't allowed to come.  Which was the lesser of two evils, certain death by Alan applied death because he couldn't come to Thailand or the possibility of being killed after having been drugged by Alan during the bachelor party in Thailand.

Choices, choices...

Mr. Chow

Mr. Chow tried to kill the above trio, minus Doug, during the first bachelor party when Alan (surprise!) accidentally grabbed the wrong purse...er...shoulder bag full of Mr. Chow's winnings.  Of course Mr. Chow shows up at the second party since Alan (surprise again!) has been keeping in touch since Mr. Chow tried to kill them the last time.

It also helps that Mr. Chow is a known drug dealer and has probably been supplying Alan with drugs since after the first party.   Mr. Chow being a criminal wanted by FBI, DEA, Interpol and how many other acronyms, was probably planning on upping his game in Thailand by working with Alan and harvesting the body parts from the others to only be thwarted by a bust by Interpol.