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i’ve navigated a few more weeks with only a few faltering along the way. i’ve managed to eat reasonably healthy with almost 100% success! i’ve had a few bad weeks of workouts, not zero compliance, but darn near close on one of them. but the good news is that i’m alive, kicking, and still making progress.


i know i painted a semi grim picture but it really isn’t all bad, i’m a bit hard on myself at times. someone’s gotta be right? anyhow, i’m down 30 pounds to the digit as of this past saturday. not too shabby for the first 7 weeks though 1/3 of that was lost in the first 2 weeks due to water loss. i can say though that i feel amazingly focused and alive right now.


the hardest part for me has been getting my workouts in. there are days where it’s hard enough getting up to go to work let alone getting up to work out. when amy was gone for a month i had only me so i was much more rigorous about motivating myself and punishing myself for not waking up early. i forced myself to always make up for it in the evening. since she’s been back it’s been a lot harder because i’ve become a bit lax about enforcement. it’s hard after a long day sometimes and when you do get home you just want to relax with your significant other and do absolutely nothing sometimes. the problem is that i did absolutely nothing for around 30 years now and look where it’s gotten me. sure i try to make up for it sometimes with a walk but that really isn’t the same as pushing your body to your peak during a workout.


the important thing to do now is ask myself “self, how do i fix this problem?” there are a few ways i can think of. the simplest and most immediate thing i can do is reset my daily goal of not doing anything “fun” after work until i first workout. this is regardless of how bad or good the day may have went. no playing on the computer, watching the tv, reading, or anything like that until i’ve first worked out. it may not be the scheduled workout but it’ll be a full cardio or weight workout. nothing half ars, nothing shortened or abbreviated, all or no fun!


the long term thing i can do is set little alarms that force myself to get to bed a little earlier so it becomes easier to get up in the morning. a friend of mine started setting his alarm a little earlier each day and would just get up and do something, no necessarily work out. just do something to get you body in the repeatable mode of getting up early. once you’re able to train your body to get up early it’s just about doing a workout instead of say surfing the web or whatever else you decided to do when you started getting up early.


yes, i’m doing things better now that i was 3 months ago. am i, are we doing things as good as we could? no. is there room for improvement? beyond a doubt. that room for improvement and the progress i’ve seen with the few bumps i have had is what keeps me motivated. when i’m firing on all cylinders i’m really a fitness machine. it just takes a locomotive like mine a little longer to fire on all those cylinders.

some of the changes i’ve made recently are to convert to a more low-tech solution for managing my life. these little black books are the definition of low-tech. these beauties are portable and have an oilcloth bound cover with acid free paper pages that are thread bound. they have an elastic closure strap which is convenient for keeping it closed in your bag. it also has a simple inner pocket perfect for business or index cards. finally, they have a built in bookmark in the binding for quickly jumping to your current lists. in short, nerd-friendly in features and life-friendly in simplicity.


after reading getting things done (more on that later) and waking up to the hipster pda revolution, i’ve been turned on to low-tech. now don’t get me wrong, i’m not going to be throwing my powerbook away any time soon. i am however no longer relying on my brain to take notes. gone are the random stickies and papers on my desk to manage my work and personal life.


i have one pocket moleskine for my work lists and notes and one for my home lists and notes. i also have some larger books for ideas and brainstorming, but i mostly just carry around the 2 primary pocket moleskines.


the whole concept behind the lists and managing my “stuff” is central to getting things done. needless to say part of getting things done is taking control of the random “stuff” in your life. it’s as simple as putting actions around “stuff”, archiving “stuff”, or just getting rid of “stuff”. obviously there is a bit more to it, but honestly it boils down to being just that simple.


i plan on posting more about getting things done at a later time. i did however want to share some of the new happenings in my life with my fellow bloggers (in case i happen to have any readers lurking around). this is one of the bigger changes i’m making in my life along with taking control of my health & fitness again.

i know this update is going to seem random, because frankly it is. that doesn’t matter though, what does matter is that i’ve been working a lot lately and making a lot of changes in my life. one of those being restarting (yet again i know) on body for life. i know some people think i’m crazy, but at least i’m trying.


if at first you don’t succeed, try try again


taking that to heart i started eating right and working out every day, minus the freeday. about 4 weeks ago i jumped back on track and started again. as usual i saw some pretty solid instant losses, mostly water i know, but losses none the less.


focus on progress, not perfection


this time around the things that are working for are simple rules. i don’t need tons of complex rules to follow, i need simple attainable rules that fit my stressful variable schedule and life. an example of one that works for me is no matter what happens in a day, i get my workout in at some point during that day. if i miss the morning, that’s bad, but not insurmountable. it just means that i have to work out in the evening. if that means getting on the bike at 9pm then that’s what it means. if that throws off my sleep a bit, well then i have to work out the next nite instead of the morning until i get caught up. don’t let one roadblock block your whole week!!!


another simple rule, no playing games until i’ve worked out. i know it may seem i haven’t been playing much lately but that’s actually because i’ve been working so much, not because i’ve not been working out … confusing i know. despite the fact that i put in 80 hours at work last week i still managed to get in 5 solid workouts. i know that isn’t 6, but 5 is better than none.


top all of that off with sound well rounded meal choices, airing on the side of bfl 6 meals per day, and we have a 18 pound loss and i feel amazing. i wake up with energy, sleep well, am more focused at work (despite the pain that is work), and feel like i get more done in a day. that may also be due to other changes i’ll talk about later but the workouts are definitely giving me the extra kick i need.


get off your butt and get back in the game … yes that means you!!!

as you may or may not have noticed i’ve taken a posting vacation as of late. between buying a new house, an insane work schedule, and just plain burnout i’ve needed to drop a few things. unfortunately this was one of them, but it had to give somewhere. there are only so many hours in a day. anyhow, i’m going to try to get back into posting my thoughts and ideas and other generic information that i find useful or helpful.


i’ll also try to update a bit with what’s been happening in my life lately. i’m also going to try again to keep myself accountable for working out and living a healthy lifestyle as well. nothing to different than before except trying to post more often like i used to.


thanks to everyone that posted and asked if i was alive and well, you know who you are.

i wanted to drop an update out for people that are interested. amy and i have been good. we’ve had some good house walk throughs this past week. we decided to lower the price a bit to make it more attractive to potential buyers. the biggest thing about our house is that the location isn’t easy to see from any major roads and there isn’t any through traffic so it’s hard to get people to it. i know, it’s weird because we’re so close to everything yet we’re not easy to find. anyhow, we’ve been getting the word out online in all of the listing sites as well as the local and regional papers. we’re moving right along though … we’ve had two open houses and are having a realtor open house this week. the average selling time for townhouses in our complex is around 40 days. that’s a lot of nail biting if you ask me.


we’ve been pretty bad the last few weeks. with the house, working a lot, and laziness on our part we’ve reverted to our old ways. i’ll be working out again this week though, trying to get back on track and relieve some of the frustrations as of late. last weekend i helped my in-laws with some yard work and it was nice to get out and do something other than clean the house. anyhow, the seesaw of healthy living continues.


i was supposed to be in ann arbor michigan this week for recruiting for bank of america but a bunch of release things came up that prevented me from going. i was pretty bummed as i wanted to see my family and interview some of the talent out there. i’ve done a lot of interviews at the companies i’ve worked for but i’ve never done any college recruiting on campus. maybe next time … internship interviews are in the winter i think.


other than that, we’ve been pretty boring. my goals for this winter are to live healthy, lose weight, spend more time with our families, sell our house, and not stress too much about life.

we’ve decided to sell our townhouse in glendale heights illinois and are looking for a house in downers grove illinois. we put our townhouse up for sale on monday afternoon with joe pepitone realtors. if you know of anyone looking for a huge townhouse in the chicago suburbs give it a look. there are pictures here and i put together a description sheet you can print out as well.


we’ve been looking online and driving around downers grove for weeks checking out houses and learning the area. amy grew up around there but i didn’t know the area that well. at first we were put aback by the prices that houses were going for in downers but after talking with our realtor and looking around some more we were much more optimistic. we decided better now than later so we might as well jump. wish us luck and spread the word if you know of anyone looking. thanks!!!


we sold the townhouse, thank you for showing all the interest in it. i have removed the links to the townhouse website and other files.

yesterday amy and i completed week 3. i was down another 3 pounds and was quite happy with the results. that brings my total to 19 pounds in a little over 5 weeks of working out.


the last week was good, but not perfect. we didn’t work out on sunday and didn’t eat right either. i was getting home from my star party and we were also invited to a bears game party which we went to and had a great time. we ate good every day this week though we did miss our cardio workout on wednesday due to conflicts and me having to work late. i was quite happy with the meals this week but was less than happy with the workouts. with that though i still managed to see some losses and we started this week very solidly.


we nailed this mornings lower body workout and ate perfect all day. we also planned all of our meals for the week and bought all of the groceries. for this week our goal is 100% compliance and focus. no excuses, we want a solid week with lots of drive and killer workouts. it’s going to be hard for amy as she’s starting a new rotation this week so we’re not sure what her schedule will be like. at the least though we’re going to do everything in our power to keep her on track and focused.


have a great week all and live smart!!!