I have been a little nervous about the concept of posting a link to my supplemental blog for my personal “body renovation” project, both because of my self-esteem issues related to the blog, and because I don’t think most of my readers would be interested in such things. I have been trying to post a synopsis entry here for every few entires I post there. Anyway, for anyone who is interested in the other blog, it is located at:
http://body.livecurt.net
The supplemental blog isn’t required reading, as I will continue to make a synopsis post here, since it is still relevant to my general life. The other blog is more detailed and focuses only on my progress and things I learn along the way.
AeroGarden #2
Today was my “birthday observed” day, and it is the day I received gifts. My mother decided to get me another AeroGarden, so that I can grow more things. I have already set up the new garden with a chili pepper seed kit. Since the other garden was started on a Saturday, and today is Saturday, they are on the same nutrient schedule, and they have been reset to have the same light schedule.
The peppers require 8 hours of darkness each day, so I have had to make sure both gardens are set to be dark at night. I’m looking forward to seeing more things grow in my environment.
GITI Gets Fit
As with any great change in my life, the Getting It Together Interface will be changing with me. In the next few days, the Health module (to be called Heath and Fitness Module) will gain a nutrition component to supplement the existing workout component. The components will then be integrated into the common module. During this change, the Exercise module will likely become more complex and more able to handle the complexity of routines I will be doing. Exercise will become more about planning and scheduling than recording data. For too long GITI has been about recording data that won’t mean shit to anyone in 6 months, so its time for a change, time to get GITI more involved in my life and helping in its improvement. The new nutrition component will be able to calculate my dietary needs based on information that it knows about me and will be able to make suggestions as to the profile of foods that I should eat. Maybe eventually I will get the cookbook module written and it will be able to suggest specific foods that I should eat.
One thing I think this will reveal about GITI is that it is a very personal thing. GITI isn’t the type of application you can create an account on and instantly get what you need from it. GITI has to know a lot about you before it can help you. If I ever open GITI to the world, each module will require a “getting acquainted” survey, as well as probably a synopsis of the logic used to write each module. Some things are too specific to ever be for everyone though, such as the sneaker management utility (its friendly name is “collection”).
I think if I put enough effort into GITI’s Health and Fitness module, I will learn more than I ever wanted to know about the topic of fitness, but also will be more dedicated to it than before the existence of the module. The fun part will be using the creation once its finished and having it dictate what workouts I do and what I eat.
Making Progress
Over the past few days I have significantly reduced the amount of calories I take in. I have stopped drinking carbonated beverages completely, falling back to water, juice and small amounts of tea. I have been picking up more workouts each day too it seems. I started with Chin-ups, then went to chin-ups and sprints, and on to chin-ups, sprints, push up, crunches, oblique crunches and some lower ab workouts. Today I added some more upper body work, including some exercises for my triceps and my favorites, some bicep curls. In the next few days I will begin dividing up my calories into their types and determining how much of each type of calorie (fat, protein, carbohydrate) I should eat.
I will likely take Sunday as a day to relax and not workout at all, except for a morning sprint. I intend to have a serious workout at least four days per week, and stick with fairly standard rotation routines for most of my body parts. Abs will be on a three to four day cycle, something like lower abs, obliques, then upper abs and then a rest day. Then something compatible for the arms and legs as well.
I am a little upset because I missed my morning sprint today because of rain.
Art History Psycho Bitch
I am usually a very calm and rational person when it comes to bad grades on assignments, for one, they happen to everybody, but in this instance… I can safely say, it is everybody in the class. There are 4 people in my drawing class, 2 in Drawing 1 and 2 in Drawing 2. On this one particular test that was given, no one made above 90 and even that person admits to getting the grade based on guessing.
First, two weeks ago the drawing instructor (who is an art history psycho bitch) announced a test in the course. No big deal we all thought, “it will be simple” the instructor repeats over and over. She asked bizarre questions in class and we got all of them right, and then she gave us a sheet with some terms to memorize. No big deal I thought. On the sheet of terms she starred (*) terms that she wanted us to know. On the day of the test, she had decided to ask all of the random shit from the class, including things that had only been mentioned once or twice and there were arbitrary questions from the page she gave us.
The test material was not abnormal for the course, however, there was no formal outline of test topics, and we were deceived into believing that the test would be more simple and straight forward.
Why do I call her an Art History Psycho bitch? Well… she is an art history person, that is her area of expertise, that and sculpture. She has no business teaching a 2D/Drawing course. Psycho bitch comes from her abnormally perky nature, and dismissive manor for handling student criticism of her course. I honestly believe she is a nice person, but she is in over her head with this course, since she has no fucking clue how to teach it.
Where is Mr. Biggers and his 30 years of drawing/instructional wisdom when we need him?
Addendum:
My score is 78. I missed 2 questions of 21. You do the math.
Happy Birthday to Me
Aside from a variety of friends wishing me happy birthday today, I haven’t had a lot of feeling that is my birthday today, but it was a good day.
I would like to thank all of my friends who acknowledged me today:
Chris, Oscar, Denon, Brian “Curtis” Moss, and David Loder
Thanks guys, you made me feel very special 🙂
Chin Up Bar
I have gotten so attracted to my chin-up bar. It is like totally staring at me, daring me to use it, daring me to do more reps. Only discouraging factor is the way my hands feel after. My hands get sore from the bar, but I am not letting that deter me at all. I am going to get some protection for my hands this weekend to make things a little better. Now I just have to get myself this motivated about daily sprints (or runs) and working my abs just as hard as I am working my arms.
“Abs are made in the kitchen”
I have been reading the book I obtained yesterday, “Total Body Plan”. I have picked up a strong quote that I am going to stick with for the duration of my personal “body plan”… “abs are made in the kitchen”.
The quote is good and helps a lot, but I have one major obstacle, the resources of my kitchen suck. I don’t have a clue how to prepare a meal that avoids heavy carbohydrates and encourages the consumption of protein.
I guess over the next few weeks I will learn how to make things work for me, and with the help of friends and professional resources I will learn everything I need to know for having a healthy lifestyle.
Instinct
Would the person who decided to send me a subscription to Instinct Magazine please step forward?
I know I am a bit of a perv, but I really don’t need dudes coming to me monthly in the form a magazine… at least not guys that are that gay. There is no information included with the subscription, so I have no clue who the hell did this, and the magazines just sort of appeared suddenly today (two of them, one for last month, one for this month).
I’m a bit freaked out, so if the responsible party will come forward, it will ease my worries a bit.
http://www.instinctmagazine.com if anyone else is curious what showed up in my mail today.
Starting the plan
With my birthday approaching quickly (tomorrow) I was eager to get my plans made and my workouts started yesterday. I was planning a nice brisk hike to inaugurate a time of physical fitness and overall health, but I got to Crowders Mountain and there was no where where to park, which meant the trails would be crowded. Then on top of that I hadn’t planned even physical activity to get me through the week. All of the books I have are for more specific training once I get started, they don’t give any clues to how to build a workout routine, or how to eat properly while following a workout routine. I stopped in at the bookstore, and picked up another book for my collection. I picked up Men’s Fitness Total Body Plan (978-1-57243-971-9). This book is supposed be a good plan for beginning this type of life. I guess that is why this one contains the word “Plan” in the title. I have the “Hard Body Plan”, but that is for a little later in this process I believe.
I started this morning with one very productive activity. I hung my new pullup bar that I bought yesterday. I have already found that I suck at doing pullups, but I think it may be because of lack of technique and fear of the bar that I installed falling off the wall while i’m in mid-workout.