I feel like a lot of my health updates center around dissatisfaction with the fitness industry. Well, nothing but positive this time.
Between April and June I’ve gone from an extreme of 298 pounds to 262 pounds. I lost 20 pounds in my last five week cycle. I finished lifting upper body with 2 sets of 6 at 195 pounds and one set of 5 at 205 pounds on bench. I managed three sets of six on military press with 50 pound dumbbells. I’m currently curling 3 sets of eight with a 50 pound bar.
Body-wise I’ve lost 4 inches around the stomach. I’m down to a 44 inch belt. I heard the number but didn’t really appreciate the result until I tried on an old 46 inch Galco sporting gun belt and had to tighten it to the next to smallest hole. Most of my other measurements are down at least an inch as well. My old Wilderness instructor belt is down to its smallest setting. My one pair of 50 inch jeans are too big. I’m avoiding buying new clothes because I don’t want to have to spend money on something I’ll just size out of in a couple months anyway.
The specifics from my last training cycle:
May 19th, 2015
Weight- 282.6
Body Fat Percentage- 36.9
Body Mass Index- 44.2
Arm Circumference- 16 inches
Chest Circumference- 49 inches
Waist circumference- 47.5 inches
Abdomen circumference- 52.5 inches
Butt Circumference- 50.3 inches
Thigh circumference- 25.75 inches
June 25th, 2015
Weight- 262.6
Body Fat Percentage- 35.1
Body Mass Index- 41.1
Arm Circumference- 15.2 inches
Chest Circumference- 46.3 inches
Waist circumference- 44.5 inches
Abdomen circumference- 48.8 inches
Butt Circumference- 48.5 inches
Thigh circumference- 26.0 inches
The biggest part of those wins came from my twice weekly training session. I can push myself hard, but to really test my limits I need someone else to get me past my mental barriers. You wouldn’t think an extra 60 minutes a week would make that much of a difference; but the combination of social expectation, a good trainer, and positive reinforcement made a huge difference—especially when I went home and had to think about what choices I wanted to make. Knowing that someone would be looking at that number once a week made me question choices when I would have otherwise have let things slide.
A less obvious contributor has been my shrunken appetite. Regular readers will remember a couple posts I wrote about running caloric deficits to facilitate weight loss. I’ve cut my daily intake down a good bit. My normal breakfast is a single banana. My usual work lunch is a 100 calorie Greek yogurt. I looked at my daily intake and found that during the work week I only cared about eating a decent sized dinner. Since the research I’ve read says that when you eat is less important than your total daily intake, I started cutting back in the mornings and afternoon. The result has been that while I’m still hungry during the day I’m not “hangry” any more. I still want to eat, but it takes less to satisfy me. This combined with a much healthier menu means I’m eating better and eating less. I hope this means my stomach’s capacity is shrinking too.
Several people have commented that I look like I’m losing weight. This is hugely flattering. Most of those comments lead to a discussion about what I’m doing differently. This is one of those questions that’s hard to answer. On the face of it, I’m exercising more and eating less; but that’s not really what people want to hear. The truth is that getting to this point has been an eight year ordeal involving working on all aspects of my life. Granted, I started seriously looking at getting physically healthy back in May of 2013. There have certainly been some ups and downs since then. The thing is, I think what people are asking is really what did you change a couple months ago that let you lose the weight…but I’ve been changing things for years in order to get to this point. In no particular order:
• Quit drinking energy drinks and soda.
• Got our finances straightened out.
• Started using a sleep machine
• Transitioned to a job with less stress, better hours, and more rewarding work.
• Built up enough working muscle to let me actually do serious exercise.
• Stopped ordering out.
• Started cooking our meals.
• Started cooking healthier meals.
• Started bringing my lunch to work every day.
• Cut my alcoholic intake.
• Started weighing myself daily.
• Started using the fitbit.
• Stopped getting my breakfast and lunch from the company café.
• Started using the Indian steel clubs.
• Made going to the gym an unbreakable part of my schedule.
• Joined a boxing class.
• Stopped drinking coffee.
• Cut down my total daily caloric intake.
• Started working with a personal trainer’s fitness class.
• Started using the dehydrator to make my own healthier snacks.
• Began making multiple smaller trips to the grocery store in order to cover more distance.
• And probably some other stuff I can’t recall.
It is difficult to put all of that in a succinct explanation—one that fits into small-talk anyway. The best I can say is that I started fixing small things and after a while all those small things added up to big things. It feels good. The recognition is nice. The lost pounds are nice too. The best thing though is that I’m going through classes and pushing myself harder and harder. No breaks, no rests, just full-on physical effort for thirty plus minutes. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I can get there. I feel good about myself and my ability to do the things I need to do.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Monday, July 6, 2015
Debt! I curse at thee!
When you work in collections, the most important part of any conversation is understanding the customer’s financial situation. Often the person on the phone has a picture in their mind of how their finances look. This picture may or may not have any basis in reality—humans are funny like that.
I collected for a major financial institution for over a decade. During that time I saw the industry move from a free form model to one where every aspect of my interactions was scripted and regulated. That scripting was designed to get the customer to a place where they were reducing their debt with an affordable payment without taking food off their table or the roof from over their head. So I spent a lot of time talking to people all over the U.S. about their financial problems. It surprised me how many customers didn’t understand how debt works. In some cases you could tell they just didn’t like the situation they created for themselves. In other cases, the customer genuinely didn’t “get it.”
Simply put, debt means you owe someone money. The amount borrowed is called the principal. The profit is the interest and fees collected while you are paying that principal back. Those fees are the lender’s incentive to make the loan and their cost of doing business. The riskier the lender thinks the loan will be, the higher the fees. This means that if the lender is paid back, they make a large profit to offset their risk. The larger fee structure also encourages the borrower to pay back the debt faster to avoid mounting interest and penalties—or at least that’s the way it’s supposed to work. In practice many Americans don’t think of credit, especially credit cards, as loans. You can attribute this phenomenon to our growing materialistic focus or the degradation of civic values; but I really think it’s that people aren’t taught what holding debt means any more. How many people do you know with $50,000 in student loans, $200,000 mortgages, or $20,000 in credit card debt? Owing the bank money just doesn’t have the stigma it used to.
My grandfather’s generation grew up mixing canned chili with dog food. They lived through one of the worst economic periods in United State’s history. WWII gave us the boost we needed out of the great depression, but it was a close thing. That experience scarred him. I can remember him railing at the idea of paying anyone interest for anything. Whenever he found a hat he liked he bought enough to last him the rest of his life. He did his own home repairs and ground work. Every vehicle he bought cheap and sold at a profit. He worked his entire life expecting to have to pay for his retirement out of pocket—which he did. He hated debt in all forms because owing money was inextricably tied up with the memory of those dark times.
My father isn’t much different. Maybe it was my grandfather’s influence, maybe it was living through the financial crash of the 1980s, but he saves and pinches every possible penny. My mother and mother in law are always looking for new ways to save a buck. Growing up, Dad budgeted everything. Notably, my parents were able to retire comfortably despite raising three kids and putting two of them through college without student loans. I grew up with the unspoken understanding that if you worked hard you could earn a good living. It might take discipline and sweat, but it was absolutely possible.
Flash-forward to the present and my understanding of how life works has been seasoned with a healthy dose of experience. You can certainly earn a good life for yourself if you are willing to work hard and improve your resume. Of course, the financial landscape of 2015 bears little resemblance to the one my parents negotiated. Part of that difference comes down to changed attitudes regarding debt and credit. Recent generations expect to borrow money to go to college, to buy a car, to fund their lifestyle—all the things that used to be luxuries in days gone by. On average American households have four credit cards revolving a combined balance of $7,500. However, only about half of American households carry credit card debt; meaning the average family debt for those that carry a balance is almost $16,000.00. 70% of 2014 college graduates took on student loans averaging $33,000.00 a piece. The average U.S. mortgage runs $156,000.00. In fourth quarter 2013 the average new car loan was $27,500.00 with those holding subpar credit coming in at a staggering $30,000.00. Used car loans came in at $18,000 on average—I say again, used car loans. Per this article:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/18/the-average-american-has-this-much-debt-how-do-you.aspx
“According to the U.S. Census, there are 115.6 million American households in 2010. That means that if we divide the total revolving credit outstanding by the number of households, the average family has $7,630 in revolving debt. The U.S. Census also reports that in 2010 there were 234.56 million people over the age of 18 years old, which suggests that the average adult owes $3,761 in revolving credit to lenders. Across the average household, American adults also owe $11,244 in student loans, $8,163 on their autos, and $70,322 on their mortgage.”
So the average American household holds over $96,000.00 in debt. Note that I said household. Not every college graduate will have a mortgage. Not every car owner will have a credit card balance. The average household debt figure shocked me; but it was the follow-up analysis that really got my attention:
“If we look at total debt divided by the total number of accounts outstanding for that debt, we get a slightly different picture. The New York Fed reports that there are 410 million credit card accounts, which suggests that the average balance on the average credit card in the average American's wallet has a $2,151 balance on it. Multiply that amount by the average 3.7 credit cards that Creditcards.com estimates each person has open and the average American with a credit card owes $7,950 in revolving debt. According to the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, the average person carrying student loan debt owes $25,745, and dividing total auto debt and mortgage debt by the total number of open accounts for those types of debt, as reported by the New York Fed, indicates that the average American with this type of debt owes $10,392 on their car and $100,197 on their home, respectively.”
You can infer just about anything you want from the above numbers. Some people will see them as good; some will see them as impending doom for U.S. consumers. I see a financial market in which more and more people are borrowing money while the amount borrowed per category continues to skyrocket. All this while the cost of living continues to rise, wages remain stagnant, and there is real concern over what “unemployment” even means any more.
It looks like many people are choosing to finance their lifestyles on the banks' dime. That’s good news if you’re a responsible lender, not so great news if you’re a twenty something looking to buy a house, car, and/or a college education. There are some situations where credit is beneficial. Buying a home is near impossible now a days without bank financing. Sometimes credit cards are the only way to solve a short term problem. College loans let economically disadvantaged youth gain critical skills and degrees. Car loans let you buy your own transportation. Credit, used sparingly, is a valuable tool. The challenge comes when borrowing ceases to be a way to defer short term financial issues and becomes a form of supplemental income. The brunette and I have paid off almost $40,000 in debt over the last 15 years. We incurred some of that helping family, some of it making unwise choices, and some of it was a deliberate choice where the financial cost was offset by long term benefits—and yes, I know how ironic it is that I’ve had to pay back that much debt given my profession. I can say with the weight of extensive personal and professional experience that long term debt is bad—really really bad.
To illustrate this, I’m going to discuss several of the most common misconceptions I hear regarding debt. “I can afford some credit card debt as long as I’m saving for retirement.” According to bankrate.com, the average credit card fixed interest rate is running 13% as of May-June 2015. The stock market returns 2%-6% depending on fund—we’ll call it 4%. So your investments are currently returning a quarter the rate your cards are losing—and that doesn’t take into account late fees and risk based pricing. Worse, credit cards compound their interest monthly, while the 4% figure is a weighted metric assuming your investments compound yearly. That means credit cards are actually losing you more than just 4% investment+13% interest because the interest is calculating in and moving your balance every 30 days—and of course there is no guarantee that your investments will actually pay off but you can be sure your credit card balances are going to be costing you money until the very end.
“I’ll pay off my student loans/afford my mortgage/consolidate my credit cards when my career inevitably improves/I sell my house for a profit/this thing I’m working on finally pays out.” I hear this a lot, especially from people like mortgage brokers who rely on commission. There are certainly situations where it’s reasonable to carry some debt with the expectation that all accounts will be paid off once ‘X’ happens. The challenge is that for most people ‘X’ is far from certain. Assuming ‘X’ will happen because historically it always has is betting your financial future that life is reliable and predictable. There’s a temptation here to succumb to wishful thinking, a temptation that is as compelling as it is self-destructive.
“I can afford to buy this on credit because it is an investment.” We’ve already discussed how you’d need at least a 14% annual return before any “investment” would be financially viable re-credit card debt. There are some investments like college that can actually pay out long term. This comes down to a sense of scale. Is the investment going to increase your income to the point where you’ll be able to pay it back, /realize a profit before interest, minimum payments, and fees make life financially unpalatable? If you graduate college with a degree you never use, $40,000 in loans, and no job prospects how much of an investment is that sheep’s skin? Be very sure you know the answers to these questions before signing on the dotted line.
“It was totally worth putting that purchase on credit; Look at all the money I saved!” Say I want 6 eggs. A dozen eggs is $0.20 per ovum while the half dozen is $0.25 each. The 12 pack costs me $2.40 and the 6 pack costs me $1.50. Buying the 12 pack gets me a better per-unit rate, but I still end up spending $.09 more than I need to. You only save money you don’t spend. Don’t get me wrong, I think comparison shopping, coupon clipping, and unit pricing are highly undervalued skills in today’s market—especially when it comes to daily essentials. My point is that money spent is money spent. People should be looking at the end result rather than the bragging rights on their discount.
I recently spoke to a group regarding credit and finance. I tried to articulate that debt is a contract, an agreement, a Burdon—something to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. 50 years ago, bankruptcy filings were printed in local papers—publicly shaming those unfortunate enough to have filed. Now, not so much. Credit is the power to buy on someone else’s dime. Debt is someone else’s profit at your expense. Cultivate the first; avoid the second like the plague.
I collected for a major financial institution for over a decade. During that time I saw the industry move from a free form model to one where every aspect of my interactions was scripted and regulated. That scripting was designed to get the customer to a place where they were reducing their debt with an affordable payment without taking food off their table or the roof from over their head. So I spent a lot of time talking to people all over the U.S. about their financial problems. It surprised me how many customers didn’t understand how debt works. In some cases you could tell they just didn’t like the situation they created for themselves. In other cases, the customer genuinely didn’t “get it.”
Simply put, debt means you owe someone money. The amount borrowed is called the principal. The profit is the interest and fees collected while you are paying that principal back. Those fees are the lender’s incentive to make the loan and their cost of doing business. The riskier the lender thinks the loan will be, the higher the fees. This means that if the lender is paid back, they make a large profit to offset their risk. The larger fee structure also encourages the borrower to pay back the debt faster to avoid mounting interest and penalties—or at least that’s the way it’s supposed to work. In practice many Americans don’t think of credit, especially credit cards, as loans. You can attribute this phenomenon to our growing materialistic focus or the degradation of civic values; but I really think it’s that people aren’t taught what holding debt means any more. How many people do you know with $50,000 in student loans, $200,000 mortgages, or $20,000 in credit card debt? Owing the bank money just doesn’t have the stigma it used to.
My grandfather’s generation grew up mixing canned chili with dog food. They lived through one of the worst economic periods in United State’s history. WWII gave us the boost we needed out of the great depression, but it was a close thing. That experience scarred him. I can remember him railing at the idea of paying anyone interest for anything. Whenever he found a hat he liked he bought enough to last him the rest of his life. He did his own home repairs and ground work. Every vehicle he bought cheap and sold at a profit. He worked his entire life expecting to have to pay for his retirement out of pocket—which he did. He hated debt in all forms because owing money was inextricably tied up with the memory of those dark times.
My father isn’t much different. Maybe it was my grandfather’s influence, maybe it was living through the financial crash of the 1980s, but he saves and pinches every possible penny. My mother and mother in law are always looking for new ways to save a buck. Growing up, Dad budgeted everything. Notably, my parents were able to retire comfortably despite raising three kids and putting two of them through college without student loans. I grew up with the unspoken understanding that if you worked hard you could earn a good living. It might take discipline and sweat, but it was absolutely possible.
Flash-forward to the present and my understanding of how life works has been seasoned with a healthy dose of experience. You can certainly earn a good life for yourself if you are willing to work hard and improve your resume. Of course, the financial landscape of 2015 bears little resemblance to the one my parents negotiated. Part of that difference comes down to changed attitudes regarding debt and credit. Recent generations expect to borrow money to go to college, to buy a car, to fund their lifestyle—all the things that used to be luxuries in days gone by. On average American households have four credit cards revolving a combined balance of $7,500. However, only about half of American households carry credit card debt; meaning the average family debt for those that carry a balance is almost $16,000.00. 70% of 2014 college graduates took on student loans averaging $33,000.00 a piece. The average U.S. mortgage runs $156,000.00. In fourth quarter 2013 the average new car loan was $27,500.00 with those holding subpar credit coming in at a staggering $30,000.00. Used car loans came in at $18,000 on average—I say again, used car loans. Per this article:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/18/the-average-american-has-this-much-debt-how-do-you.aspx
“According to the U.S. Census, there are 115.6 million American households in 2010. That means that if we divide the total revolving credit outstanding by the number of households, the average family has $7,630 in revolving debt. The U.S. Census also reports that in 2010 there were 234.56 million people over the age of 18 years old, which suggests that the average adult owes $3,761 in revolving credit to lenders. Across the average household, American adults also owe $11,244 in student loans, $8,163 on their autos, and $70,322 on their mortgage.”
So the average American household holds over $96,000.00 in debt. Note that I said household. Not every college graduate will have a mortgage. Not every car owner will have a credit card balance. The average household debt figure shocked me; but it was the follow-up analysis that really got my attention:
“If we look at total debt divided by the total number of accounts outstanding for that debt, we get a slightly different picture. The New York Fed reports that there are 410 million credit card accounts, which suggests that the average balance on the average credit card in the average American's wallet has a $2,151 balance on it. Multiply that amount by the average 3.7 credit cards that Creditcards.com estimates each person has open and the average American with a credit card owes $7,950 in revolving debt. According to the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, the average person carrying student loan debt owes $25,745, and dividing total auto debt and mortgage debt by the total number of open accounts for those types of debt, as reported by the New York Fed, indicates that the average American with this type of debt owes $10,392 on their car and $100,197 on their home, respectively.”
You can infer just about anything you want from the above numbers. Some people will see them as good; some will see them as impending doom for U.S. consumers. I see a financial market in which more and more people are borrowing money while the amount borrowed per category continues to skyrocket. All this while the cost of living continues to rise, wages remain stagnant, and there is real concern over what “unemployment” even means any more.
It looks like many people are choosing to finance their lifestyles on the banks' dime. That’s good news if you’re a responsible lender, not so great news if you’re a twenty something looking to buy a house, car, and/or a college education. There are some situations where credit is beneficial. Buying a home is near impossible now a days without bank financing. Sometimes credit cards are the only way to solve a short term problem. College loans let economically disadvantaged youth gain critical skills and degrees. Car loans let you buy your own transportation. Credit, used sparingly, is a valuable tool. The challenge comes when borrowing ceases to be a way to defer short term financial issues and becomes a form of supplemental income. The brunette and I have paid off almost $40,000 in debt over the last 15 years. We incurred some of that helping family, some of it making unwise choices, and some of it was a deliberate choice where the financial cost was offset by long term benefits—and yes, I know how ironic it is that I’ve had to pay back that much debt given my profession. I can say with the weight of extensive personal and professional experience that long term debt is bad—really really bad.
To illustrate this, I’m going to discuss several of the most common misconceptions I hear regarding debt. “I can afford some credit card debt as long as I’m saving for retirement.” According to bankrate.com, the average credit card fixed interest rate is running 13% as of May-June 2015. The stock market returns 2%-6% depending on fund—we’ll call it 4%. So your investments are currently returning a quarter the rate your cards are losing—and that doesn’t take into account late fees and risk based pricing. Worse, credit cards compound their interest monthly, while the 4% figure is a weighted metric assuming your investments compound yearly. That means credit cards are actually losing you more than just 4% investment+13% interest because the interest is calculating in and moving your balance every 30 days—and of course there is no guarantee that your investments will actually pay off but you can be sure your credit card balances are going to be costing you money until the very end.
“I’ll pay off my student loans/afford my mortgage/consolidate my credit cards when my career inevitably improves/I sell my house for a profit/this thing I’m working on finally pays out.” I hear this a lot, especially from people like mortgage brokers who rely on commission. There are certainly situations where it’s reasonable to carry some debt with the expectation that all accounts will be paid off once ‘X’ happens. The challenge is that for most people ‘X’ is far from certain. Assuming ‘X’ will happen because historically it always has is betting your financial future that life is reliable and predictable. There’s a temptation here to succumb to wishful thinking, a temptation that is as compelling as it is self-destructive.
“I can afford to buy this on credit because it is an investment.” We’ve already discussed how you’d need at least a 14% annual return before any “investment” would be financially viable re-credit card debt. There are some investments like college that can actually pay out long term. This comes down to a sense of scale. Is the investment going to increase your income to the point where you’ll be able to pay it back, /realize a profit before interest, minimum payments, and fees make life financially unpalatable? If you graduate college with a degree you never use, $40,000 in loans, and no job prospects how much of an investment is that sheep’s skin? Be very sure you know the answers to these questions before signing on the dotted line.
“It was totally worth putting that purchase on credit; Look at all the money I saved!” Say I want 6 eggs. A dozen eggs is $0.20 per ovum while the half dozen is $0.25 each. The 12 pack costs me $2.40 and the 6 pack costs me $1.50. Buying the 12 pack gets me a better per-unit rate, but I still end up spending $.09 more than I need to. You only save money you don’t spend. Don’t get me wrong, I think comparison shopping, coupon clipping, and unit pricing are highly undervalued skills in today’s market—especially when it comes to daily essentials. My point is that money spent is money spent. People should be looking at the end result rather than the bragging rights on their discount.
I recently spoke to a group regarding credit and finance. I tried to articulate that debt is a contract, an agreement, a Burdon—something to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. 50 years ago, bankruptcy filings were printed in local papers—publicly shaming those unfortunate enough to have filed. Now, not so much. Credit is the power to buy on someone else’s dime. Debt is someone else’s profit at your expense. Cultivate the first; avoid the second like the plague.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
The making of an action hero, or Fitbit and the science of "weight"
Status update: pounds coming off—punching more—eating less. Situation improving. Evil-doers be where, your reign of crime is about to come to an end.
I read a lot about health and fitness. While I sometimes find gems of wisdom, I more often find pseudoscience and personal opinion masked as fact. As a result, regular readers know that I’ve been more than a little annoyed lately with the American public’s obsession with terms like diet and obesity. Take an article I heard on NPR a couple weeks ago where the scientist challenged the idea that someone could be fit and fat. The tone of the presentation had more rebuttal in it than objectivity. The subtext was something like “Hey fat people, the only answer to your problems is losing weight. So stop kidding yourselves.”
Since the brunette and I began using fitbits and the aria scale, we’ve talked a lot about the subjective nature of “weight.” Society is obsessed with the ideal. For women it’s a 120 pound toned body with an hour glass figure—not cut, just smooth and toned. For guys it’s six feet of chiseled steel at about 190 pounds. These are the ideals against which all of us tend to compare ourselves. It doesn’t matter that certain body types can’t obtain that ideal or that even if they did they’d incur serious health risks, that’s what we’ve been taught. Similarly, modern “health science” is obsessed with the idea that obesity is the root of all evil. I’ve read several studies that jump strait past correlation to causation because being fat is associated with certain risk factors—which must mean that being fat causes all of those issues. Its possible these studies are double blind peer reviewed pieces of research perfection. All I hear when a scientist adopts that lecturing tone about being fat though is “confirmation bias!”
Let’s talk about weight and what it means. Weight is a measurement of how much gravity is pulling your mass down. More mass=more weight. It’s a measure of quantity not quality. The body mass index (BMI) is centered on the idea that if you are ‘X’ tall and ‘Y’ pounds there is a healthy range and an unhealthy range. To be sure, if you stand five foot four and you weigh 250 pounds, you probably aren’t in a great place health wise unless you are a professional weight lifter. The problem with our weight obsession is that we’ve come to see the ideal as an objective and anything less as failure—“If you’re not first you’re last” as Ricky Bobby would say. Looking at weight as an absolute number completely ignores the reality of healthy eating and exercise.
For example, I started April consistently weighing 298 pounds. Since then I’ve stepped up my exercise in quantity and quality. I’ve put serious effort into my diet. Currently I start a workout day at around 277 pounds and can drop as low as 271 pounds after a 90 minute boxing workout or an hour on the elliptical. On a typical gym day according to fitbit I’m burning between 3500 and 4000 calories. It’s probably a lot more than that since the pedometer doesn’t make any adjustments for my arms. So there’s six pounds or more of variance depending on when I log my weight. A portion of that loss is caloric, but the bulk is water. I could think of myself at 271 pounds, going with the lowest number, but the truth is that as soon as I get home I’m going to rehydrate and get some protein in my system. I’ll probably weigh close to 271 the next morning, but the day after that I’ll have had a complete rest day and have fully rehydrated. I’ll be up 5-7 pounds—and that’s fine. I need that water so I can go back in two days and do it all over again. I need that protein so I can refuel and heal up the damage I just inflicted on my muscles and joints. If I don’t give my body the resources it needs, it will cannibalize muscle and organ meat to make up the difference. It won’t heal the damage and I’ll perform at a lesser level. This is why people are encouraged to weigh themselves in the morning right after they wake up. Doing so gives you a consistent point for comparison without subjecting that number to the vagaries of your daily regimen.
“Diet” functions in the same manner in that eating healthy, counting calories, or going organic isn’t enough individually. I used to hate counting calories because I didn’t understand what they represented. If a serving of food contains 500 calories, then it represents 500 units of potential energy. When we talk about “burning calories” we’re really talking about consuming that many units of power. Your body burns calories keeping itself going, processing food, breathing…etc. The easiest way to look at what most people think of when they want to lose weight is caloric intake VS. Expenditure. A single pound equals about 3800 calories so if you eat 1700 and burn 1800 each day then it will take a little over a month to lose one pound. That’s why exercise helps; if you’re running a 100 calorie daily deficit and you burn 700 extra calories through exercise each week, you’ve doubled your loss rate—and 700 calories is about what you can expect to burn from a solid 45 minute run on the treadmill.
Calories are not an absolute. Water for instance has weight even though it has no calories. If I “retain water” then I’m retaining weight. It isn’t adding to my body fat percentage but it does increase my mass. There are plenty of 0 calorie sodas that fall into the same category. You regularly expel respiratory and digestive byproducts. That material has weight too. When you lose 1 pound of fat and build 1 pound of muscle you’ve made a net 0 weight trade but significantly improved your fitness. It’s very easy, especially in a good exercise program, to have large weight swings that have nothing to do with your core body fat percent. When you are sick your body will often cut your appetite and consume muscle fiber and organ meat. This results in weight loss, but not the kind most people are looking for. This is why I’m not fond of the body mass index. It’s a simplistic way of evaluating health. It certainly has validity on a macro scale, but when you go micro you start seeing where it breaks down.
There are other ways of looking at weight and health as well. There is an ongoing debate in the health media right now over “diet.” I’ve talked before about Atkins, palio, South Beach, the fermented diet, and primal. Each of these philosophies has nutritional benefits and drawbacks. In general they represent a focus on reducing sugars and carbohydrates while focusing on nutritionally rich food sources. Each diet takes a slightly different angle; but Regardless of how you come to it, if you cut out sugar, reduce your processed foods intake, and focus on lean protein you are probably improving your diet even if you don’t lose a single pound. The catch, there is always a catch, is that you need a balanced selection of nutrients to operate at peak efficiency. We need fat to manufacture hormones. Carbs are used for ready energy after exercise burns out the reserves held in your blood and muscles. Fiber aids in digestion. There are a host of nutrients your body craves. So if your diet focuses on one side of the equation too much, you can actually lose weight and still take a hit on health. You can eat 2000 calories of leafy green veggies; however, if you only burn 1800 calories each day you are still gaining weight. You can dehydrate an apple and make it smaller but you are not reducing the calories—just the size and amount of water in it. Weight loss is…complicated.
I think one of the reasons we love diets so much is that they make thinking about weight loss easy. Outside of the philosophical appeal some plans present, it’s nice to have all your choices distilled down to a couple words of wisdom or an easily actionable process. After the novelty wears off it becomes difficult to sustain the momentum and we fall off. One of the reasons I’ve had success lately is that working with fitbit, counting calories, and monitoring my intake VS. Expenditure means that I’m not sweating the number any more—you know “Oh Noes! I gained 2 pounds since yesterday, how did that happen?!?! Whatever am I going to do?” I know why I gained those 2 pounds. It takes the mystery out of stepping on the scale and the guilt out of reading the results.
Speaking of fitbit, I love it. There’s something about the abstraction of “steps” that keeps it from being one of those diet things I hate. It does the tracking for you, which takes all the effort out of the process. If you want to log your food or water consumption you can do that, but it’s not required. The result is a process that encourages me to walk more, to get up and move, to compete with friends for the better number. It’s a no-stress positive way of getting me up and moving—which is good. It also gets me to pay attention to tracking so after a while being more active is second nature. I realize it isn’t for everyone, but it’s been great for me.
I read a lot about health and fitness. While I sometimes find gems of wisdom, I more often find pseudoscience and personal opinion masked as fact. As a result, regular readers know that I’ve been more than a little annoyed lately with the American public’s obsession with terms like diet and obesity. Take an article I heard on NPR a couple weeks ago where the scientist challenged the idea that someone could be fit and fat. The tone of the presentation had more rebuttal in it than objectivity. The subtext was something like “Hey fat people, the only answer to your problems is losing weight. So stop kidding yourselves.”
Since the brunette and I began using fitbits and the aria scale, we’ve talked a lot about the subjective nature of “weight.” Society is obsessed with the ideal. For women it’s a 120 pound toned body with an hour glass figure—not cut, just smooth and toned. For guys it’s six feet of chiseled steel at about 190 pounds. These are the ideals against which all of us tend to compare ourselves. It doesn’t matter that certain body types can’t obtain that ideal or that even if they did they’d incur serious health risks, that’s what we’ve been taught. Similarly, modern “health science” is obsessed with the idea that obesity is the root of all evil. I’ve read several studies that jump strait past correlation to causation because being fat is associated with certain risk factors—which must mean that being fat causes all of those issues. Its possible these studies are double blind peer reviewed pieces of research perfection. All I hear when a scientist adopts that lecturing tone about being fat though is “confirmation bias!”
Let’s talk about weight and what it means. Weight is a measurement of how much gravity is pulling your mass down. More mass=more weight. It’s a measure of quantity not quality. The body mass index (BMI) is centered on the idea that if you are ‘X’ tall and ‘Y’ pounds there is a healthy range and an unhealthy range. To be sure, if you stand five foot four and you weigh 250 pounds, you probably aren’t in a great place health wise unless you are a professional weight lifter. The problem with our weight obsession is that we’ve come to see the ideal as an objective and anything less as failure—“If you’re not first you’re last” as Ricky Bobby would say. Looking at weight as an absolute number completely ignores the reality of healthy eating and exercise.
For example, I started April consistently weighing 298 pounds. Since then I’ve stepped up my exercise in quantity and quality. I’ve put serious effort into my diet. Currently I start a workout day at around 277 pounds and can drop as low as 271 pounds after a 90 minute boxing workout or an hour on the elliptical. On a typical gym day according to fitbit I’m burning between 3500 and 4000 calories. It’s probably a lot more than that since the pedometer doesn’t make any adjustments for my arms. So there’s six pounds or more of variance depending on when I log my weight. A portion of that loss is caloric, but the bulk is water. I could think of myself at 271 pounds, going with the lowest number, but the truth is that as soon as I get home I’m going to rehydrate and get some protein in my system. I’ll probably weigh close to 271 the next morning, but the day after that I’ll have had a complete rest day and have fully rehydrated. I’ll be up 5-7 pounds—and that’s fine. I need that water so I can go back in two days and do it all over again. I need that protein so I can refuel and heal up the damage I just inflicted on my muscles and joints. If I don’t give my body the resources it needs, it will cannibalize muscle and organ meat to make up the difference. It won’t heal the damage and I’ll perform at a lesser level. This is why people are encouraged to weigh themselves in the morning right after they wake up. Doing so gives you a consistent point for comparison without subjecting that number to the vagaries of your daily regimen.
“Diet” functions in the same manner in that eating healthy, counting calories, or going organic isn’t enough individually. I used to hate counting calories because I didn’t understand what they represented. If a serving of food contains 500 calories, then it represents 500 units of potential energy. When we talk about “burning calories” we’re really talking about consuming that many units of power. Your body burns calories keeping itself going, processing food, breathing…etc. The easiest way to look at what most people think of when they want to lose weight is caloric intake VS. Expenditure. A single pound equals about 3800 calories so if you eat 1700 and burn 1800 each day then it will take a little over a month to lose one pound. That’s why exercise helps; if you’re running a 100 calorie daily deficit and you burn 700 extra calories through exercise each week, you’ve doubled your loss rate—and 700 calories is about what you can expect to burn from a solid 45 minute run on the treadmill.
Calories are not an absolute. Water for instance has weight even though it has no calories. If I “retain water” then I’m retaining weight. It isn’t adding to my body fat percentage but it does increase my mass. There are plenty of 0 calorie sodas that fall into the same category. You regularly expel respiratory and digestive byproducts. That material has weight too. When you lose 1 pound of fat and build 1 pound of muscle you’ve made a net 0 weight trade but significantly improved your fitness. It’s very easy, especially in a good exercise program, to have large weight swings that have nothing to do with your core body fat percent. When you are sick your body will often cut your appetite and consume muscle fiber and organ meat. This results in weight loss, but not the kind most people are looking for. This is why I’m not fond of the body mass index. It’s a simplistic way of evaluating health. It certainly has validity on a macro scale, but when you go micro you start seeing where it breaks down.
There are other ways of looking at weight and health as well. There is an ongoing debate in the health media right now over “diet.” I’ve talked before about Atkins, palio, South Beach, the fermented diet, and primal. Each of these philosophies has nutritional benefits and drawbacks. In general they represent a focus on reducing sugars and carbohydrates while focusing on nutritionally rich food sources. Each diet takes a slightly different angle; but Regardless of how you come to it, if you cut out sugar, reduce your processed foods intake, and focus on lean protein you are probably improving your diet even if you don’t lose a single pound. The catch, there is always a catch, is that you need a balanced selection of nutrients to operate at peak efficiency. We need fat to manufacture hormones. Carbs are used for ready energy after exercise burns out the reserves held in your blood and muscles. Fiber aids in digestion. There are a host of nutrients your body craves. So if your diet focuses on one side of the equation too much, you can actually lose weight and still take a hit on health. You can eat 2000 calories of leafy green veggies; however, if you only burn 1800 calories each day you are still gaining weight. You can dehydrate an apple and make it smaller but you are not reducing the calories—just the size and amount of water in it. Weight loss is…complicated.
I think one of the reasons we love diets so much is that they make thinking about weight loss easy. Outside of the philosophical appeal some plans present, it’s nice to have all your choices distilled down to a couple words of wisdom or an easily actionable process. After the novelty wears off it becomes difficult to sustain the momentum and we fall off. One of the reasons I’ve had success lately is that working with fitbit, counting calories, and monitoring my intake VS. Expenditure means that I’m not sweating the number any more—you know “Oh Noes! I gained 2 pounds since yesterday, how did that happen?!?! Whatever am I going to do?” I know why I gained those 2 pounds. It takes the mystery out of stepping on the scale and the guilt out of reading the results.
Speaking of fitbit, I love it. There’s something about the abstraction of “steps” that keeps it from being one of those diet things I hate. It does the tracking for you, which takes all the effort out of the process. If you want to log your food or water consumption you can do that, but it’s not required. The result is a process that encourages me to walk more, to get up and move, to compete with friends for the better number. It’s a no-stress positive way of getting me up and moving—which is good. It also gets me to pay attention to tracking so after a while being more active is second nature. I realize it isn’t for everyone, but it’s been great for me.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
In Memory of My Grandfather
I love reading about larger than life characters. Walt Longmire, Spenser, Earl Swagger, Jeff Cooper, Andrew Jackson, and Louis L’Amour are a few of my favorite examples. As long as I can remember my Grandfather was one of those mythic figures. He was tougher than steel and rawhide. He flew planes, shot in competition, fought in WWII, ran his own company, taught himself to play the organ, hunted, and fixed anything he put his mind too.
As a wee lad, I couldn’t say “pop” so I called my grandfather “puck.” Puck was the man with the tractor who let me ride on his lap while he mowed the lawn. Puck was the man who took me for my first haircut with a barber. Puck was the man who put my Christmas presents together and showed me how they worked. Puck was the man who gave me my first pocket knife—a stag handled silver chased Boy Scout folder that originally belonged to my great great grandfather. Puck was the man who took me fishing and taught me how to cast a line. As I grew older and more independent, I spent hour upon hour listening to his stories—delivered in his dry “just the facts” style. Some of my favorites were when he fixed his first car at age 12 (taking the bus to his grandparents with all his oil and tools in the process), how he almost shot down a Japanese fighter in WWII, how he quit smoking cold turkey, how he put his kids through college by fixing up old boats and selling them at a profit, and how people used to date my aunts just so they could see his gun collection. I listened to him talk for hours while he tinkered with his plane or changed the oil in his car or landscaped his yard. A couple years ago I bought a 1907 vintage colt 1903 pocket hammerless. When I told my grandfather, he said that he never cared for them that much since they were prone to corrode in the marine humidity. The way he told it, they’d go up for a flight and come back to the carrier and the gun would already have begun rusting. A month later and I had to get mine refinished because it too had started corroding. He always had a story or bit of wisdom to share—and even if it was something I’d heard before it was worth hearing again.
I remember him as a physically imposing man. He was a bewhiskered colossus with the answer to any question. It wasn’t that he was physically large—more that his life seemed so much bigger than the one I lived in. He didn’t just go out for Sunday dinner; he flew to whatever eatery his group of fellow fliers decided on for that week. If there was a problem around the house, he would fix it. He learned how to fly in the dark by instrument for the heck of it. He rode his bicycle well into his 80s 15+ miles a week. One of my proudest childhood moments came when I finally beet the old man at arm wrestling. He was a force to be reckoned with—uncompromising in his principals, fiercely loyal—a man who was shaped by events that I know only from history books and movies.
Chester Nixon passed away Sunday May twenty fourth, 2015 at age 94. To my knowledge the only task he set himself that he didn’t accomplish was making it to 100. I am reminded of a line uttered following the death of Teddy Roosevelt:
"Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake there would have been a fight”
He would often ask me to sing the Navy hymn at his funeral. It seems a small tribute for so great a man—I pray you find it worthy.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3375356/memorial_final.mp3
Husband, veteran, businessman, hunter, pilot, father, captain, grandfather, and friend—he was the finest man I have ever known. Puck, you are loved. You are remembered. You will be missed.
Rest in peace sir, the world is smaller without you.
As a wee lad, I couldn’t say “pop” so I called my grandfather “puck.” Puck was the man with the tractor who let me ride on his lap while he mowed the lawn. Puck was the man who took me for my first haircut with a barber. Puck was the man who put my Christmas presents together and showed me how they worked. Puck was the man who gave me my first pocket knife—a stag handled silver chased Boy Scout folder that originally belonged to my great great grandfather. Puck was the man who took me fishing and taught me how to cast a line. As I grew older and more independent, I spent hour upon hour listening to his stories—delivered in his dry “just the facts” style. Some of my favorites were when he fixed his first car at age 12 (taking the bus to his grandparents with all his oil and tools in the process), how he almost shot down a Japanese fighter in WWII, how he quit smoking cold turkey, how he put his kids through college by fixing up old boats and selling them at a profit, and how people used to date my aunts just so they could see his gun collection. I listened to him talk for hours while he tinkered with his plane or changed the oil in his car or landscaped his yard. A couple years ago I bought a 1907 vintage colt 1903 pocket hammerless. When I told my grandfather, he said that he never cared for them that much since they were prone to corrode in the marine humidity. The way he told it, they’d go up for a flight and come back to the carrier and the gun would already have begun rusting. A month later and I had to get mine refinished because it too had started corroding. He always had a story or bit of wisdom to share—and even if it was something I’d heard before it was worth hearing again.
I remember him as a physically imposing man. He was a bewhiskered colossus with the answer to any question. It wasn’t that he was physically large—more that his life seemed so much bigger than the one I lived in. He didn’t just go out for Sunday dinner; he flew to whatever eatery his group of fellow fliers decided on for that week. If there was a problem around the house, he would fix it. He learned how to fly in the dark by instrument for the heck of it. He rode his bicycle well into his 80s 15+ miles a week. One of my proudest childhood moments came when I finally beet the old man at arm wrestling. He was a force to be reckoned with—uncompromising in his principals, fiercely loyal—a man who was shaped by events that I know only from history books and movies.
Chester Nixon passed away Sunday May twenty fourth, 2015 at age 94. To my knowledge the only task he set himself that he didn’t accomplish was making it to 100. I am reminded of a line uttered following the death of Teddy Roosevelt:
"Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake there would have been a fight”
He would often ask me to sing the Navy hymn at his funeral. It seems a small tribute for so great a man—I pray you find it worthy.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3375356/memorial_final.mp3
Husband, veteran, businessman, hunter, pilot, father, captain, grandfather, and friend—he was the finest man I have ever known. Puck, you are loved. You are remembered. You will be missed.
Rest in peace sir, the world is smaller without you.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Return to the range
Last week I had the pleasure of hitting the range for some trigger time. What with the rising cost of ammo, I’d forgotten what it was like to have more gunfood than time to work with.
If I had my way, I’d be at the range weekly. As friends have gotten jobs and kids, it’s become more and more difficult to find the necessary time and company. Back in March I spent my portion of our tax return on a Benelli Vinci tactical—a semiautomatic 12 gage shotgun built off Benelli’s newest sporting design. I also got my 10/22 takedown back from the gun smith. I’ve been waiting for two months for a chance to test the new hardware—so I was super excited about this outing.
I invited K&G to attend, but in the end K wasn’t feeling good so it was just the two guys. G is a relatively inexperienced shooter—smart and attentive but still learning the basics. We got placed on a small caliber lane first so I took out the 10/22 for function testing. The current 10/22 takedown build consists of the standard receiver, stock, and barrel fitted with a Kidd precision 3 pound trigger group, extended magazine release, bolt, rod, buffer, QD Leopold 4xrimfire scope, and 2 piece scope base. I don’t see the point of building a heavy barrel onto a .22 takedown as it imbalances the package. A takedown rifle should be compact and handy, not a bench rest piece. Our first five round strings from the factory BX10 magazine were…mixed. It worked pretty well for me, but G had several failures to eject leading to crushed brass and a lot of resets. After 50 rounds of bulk rim fire ammo, the action seemed to be breaking in—though G was still having a disproportionately larger number of feeding and ejecting issues. He preferred to run the Ruger without the scope. He said that with more practice he might change his mind; but he enjoyed the clear lines of sight provided with the irons. The quick detach rings let me remove the scope in seconds as intended.
There’s a perception in the gun-owning community that firearms should work 100% of the time regardless of conditions. My experience is that most guns require a 250-1,000 round break in period before testing for absolute reliability. Parts need to wear in before an action is going to operate at peak efficiency. Since the 10/22 became more reliable during the initial testing, I’m not concerned about its dependability yet—I just need to get to continental again and run some more rounds through it.
After a half hour of rim fire fun, the clerk told me that a big-bore lane was available. I moved our gear over, set up a new target, grabbed ammo, and pulled out the Benelli. The Vinci is my second Italian scattergun purchase following last year’s super nova tactical acquisition. I wanted a semiautomatic shotgun with an 18.5 inch barrel, easily disassembled action, inertia driven system, and a dependable track record—oh, and it couldn’t be made by a Freedom group subsidiary. I read a bunch of reviews and came to the conclusion that my best options were either the Vinci or the M2. Then while browsing the cases after a range trip the clerk put a vinci law enforcement into my hot little hands. I can’t buy it (stupid import laws) but the attendant said that the tactical American version just had a longer barrel and lacked the increased magazine tube. As I mulled it over I shouldered the gun and put hand to the pistol grip. I usually detest pistol grips. They are often built as an afterthought lacking any kind of ergonomic comfort. But this, this was like heaven. The front grip has beefy finger grooves molded into a smooth plastic form that feels natural to the hand. The rear is covered in an over-molded rubber coating that provides a very comfortable cushion—especially in the face of 00 buck loads. Having held the monster I set about acquiring my own 943 compliant version.
It took me a couple tries to get the hang of the Vinci’s manual of arms. It has a disconnect which keeps the bolt from loading another hull into the chamber. It’s designed to let you unload the gun without grabbing another round from the magazine tube. The challenge is that if you actually want to chamber a shell, you can end up working the action without actually touching the magazine—leading to some interesting click-no-boom situations. Once I got it down, G and I took a couple tubes worth of 9 pellet buck and had at it. It quickly became apparent that the Benelli, much like the 10/22, liked me better. I ended up with 1 failure to eject while he had 3 in the course of shooting through 40 shells. My suspicion is that since he has a bad shoulder, he wasn’t driving the scattergun into the pocket—giving the inertia driven action less to push off of. After a couple tubes down range, G moved to my .22 marlin lever action while I kept on hosing down targets with the Benelli.
Things I learned this session:
1. I need to go through my range bag and look for opportunities to consolidate and lighten the load. I keep adding gear to the kit such that with 100 rounds of 12 gage, a couple hundred rounds of .22, and all my accessories it felt like I was hauling an anvil collection.
2. Upgrading the Ruger with quality parts should have made it more accurate and reliable. It looks like I have an uncertain break-in period coming up. If that doesn’t work, I’m going to have to put it back in for smithing. I’ll try it with some cci minimag and see if premium ammunition helps. Maybe I’m just using crappy ammo.
3. I really like 12 gage. Especially with the choke keeping the patterns tight, I get a nice accurate shot weight with a satisfying boom. I used to think of myself as primarily a handgun guy, but that’s changing. Daddy is really taking a liking to these Italian boomsticks.
4. I need to sit down with wmtrainguy and figure out how to disassemble and clean several of the newer pieces. I’m going with frog lube as my main cleaning/maintenance product line. That means I need to treat all of my platforms.
5. I really miss regular range time. It validates the time I spend researching and futzing around with gear at home. It relaxes me. It’s a rewarding activity that I’ve been able to ignore due to gym sessions, but that capacity is rapidly dwindling.
That’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll have more to report soon. I just ordered a custom holster for the Governor—and once that’s set up it’s due for an action job. Priorities priorities.
If I had my way, I’d be at the range weekly. As friends have gotten jobs and kids, it’s become more and more difficult to find the necessary time and company. Back in March I spent my portion of our tax return on a Benelli Vinci tactical—a semiautomatic 12 gage shotgun built off Benelli’s newest sporting design. I also got my 10/22 takedown back from the gun smith. I’ve been waiting for two months for a chance to test the new hardware—so I was super excited about this outing.
I invited K&G to attend, but in the end K wasn’t feeling good so it was just the two guys. G is a relatively inexperienced shooter—smart and attentive but still learning the basics. We got placed on a small caliber lane first so I took out the 10/22 for function testing. The current 10/22 takedown build consists of the standard receiver, stock, and barrel fitted with a Kidd precision 3 pound trigger group, extended magazine release, bolt, rod, buffer, QD Leopold 4xrimfire scope, and 2 piece scope base. I don’t see the point of building a heavy barrel onto a .22 takedown as it imbalances the package. A takedown rifle should be compact and handy, not a bench rest piece. Our first five round strings from the factory BX10 magazine were…mixed. It worked pretty well for me, but G had several failures to eject leading to crushed brass and a lot of resets. After 50 rounds of bulk rim fire ammo, the action seemed to be breaking in—though G was still having a disproportionately larger number of feeding and ejecting issues. He preferred to run the Ruger without the scope. He said that with more practice he might change his mind; but he enjoyed the clear lines of sight provided with the irons. The quick detach rings let me remove the scope in seconds as intended.
There’s a perception in the gun-owning community that firearms should work 100% of the time regardless of conditions. My experience is that most guns require a 250-1,000 round break in period before testing for absolute reliability. Parts need to wear in before an action is going to operate at peak efficiency. Since the 10/22 became more reliable during the initial testing, I’m not concerned about its dependability yet—I just need to get to continental again and run some more rounds through it.
After a half hour of rim fire fun, the clerk told me that a big-bore lane was available. I moved our gear over, set up a new target, grabbed ammo, and pulled out the Benelli. The Vinci is my second Italian scattergun purchase following last year’s super nova tactical acquisition. I wanted a semiautomatic shotgun with an 18.5 inch barrel, easily disassembled action, inertia driven system, and a dependable track record—oh, and it couldn’t be made by a Freedom group subsidiary. I read a bunch of reviews and came to the conclusion that my best options were either the Vinci or the M2. Then while browsing the cases after a range trip the clerk put a vinci law enforcement into my hot little hands. I can’t buy it (stupid import laws) but the attendant said that the tactical American version just had a longer barrel and lacked the increased magazine tube. As I mulled it over I shouldered the gun and put hand to the pistol grip. I usually detest pistol grips. They are often built as an afterthought lacking any kind of ergonomic comfort. But this, this was like heaven. The front grip has beefy finger grooves molded into a smooth plastic form that feels natural to the hand. The rear is covered in an over-molded rubber coating that provides a very comfortable cushion—especially in the face of 00 buck loads. Having held the monster I set about acquiring my own 943 compliant version.
It took me a couple tries to get the hang of the Vinci’s manual of arms. It has a disconnect which keeps the bolt from loading another hull into the chamber. It’s designed to let you unload the gun without grabbing another round from the magazine tube. The challenge is that if you actually want to chamber a shell, you can end up working the action without actually touching the magazine—leading to some interesting click-no-boom situations. Once I got it down, G and I took a couple tubes worth of 9 pellet buck and had at it. It quickly became apparent that the Benelli, much like the 10/22, liked me better. I ended up with 1 failure to eject while he had 3 in the course of shooting through 40 shells. My suspicion is that since he has a bad shoulder, he wasn’t driving the scattergun into the pocket—giving the inertia driven action less to push off of. After a couple tubes down range, G moved to my .22 marlin lever action while I kept on hosing down targets with the Benelli.
Things I learned this session:
1. I need to go through my range bag and look for opportunities to consolidate and lighten the load. I keep adding gear to the kit such that with 100 rounds of 12 gage, a couple hundred rounds of .22, and all my accessories it felt like I was hauling an anvil collection.
2. Upgrading the Ruger with quality parts should have made it more accurate and reliable. It looks like I have an uncertain break-in period coming up. If that doesn’t work, I’m going to have to put it back in for smithing. I’ll try it with some cci minimag and see if premium ammunition helps. Maybe I’m just using crappy ammo.
3. I really like 12 gage. Especially with the choke keeping the patterns tight, I get a nice accurate shot weight with a satisfying boom. I used to think of myself as primarily a handgun guy, but that’s changing. Daddy is really taking a liking to these Italian boomsticks.
4. I need to sit down with wmtrainguy and figure out how to disassemble and clean several of the newer pieces. I’m going with frog lube as my main cleaning/maintenance product line. That means I need to treat all of my platforms.
5. I really miss regular range time. It validates the time I spend researching and futzing around with gear at home. It relaxes me. It’s a rewarding activity that I’ve been able to ignore due to gym sessions, but that capacity is rapidly dwindling.
That’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll have more to report soon. I just ordered a custom holster for the Governor—and once that’s set up it’s due for an action job. Priorities priorities.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Punching below my weight class
Villains be afraid, I’m coming for you with a left and a right, and a hook…and ow, ok, maybe not quite yet…but soon!
Saturday we went to see the new Avenger movie. The pre-lunch was held at 5 guys. As I’ve said before, I’m not running from less than healthy eateries. This was one of those devil’s choices—either eat my normal and regret it for days or suffer in silence. I split the difference. I love burgers. That being said, most of what I really like about them is the toppings. Sometimes dead cow must be had, but this wasn’t one of those days. I got a grilled cheese with bacon and all the veggies.
This accomplished two things. First, it let me eat something fun that tasted good. Second, it cut my caloric intake down by skipping the meat and sauces. I had a couple of the Brunette’s fries and a glass of water. The group retired to an Italian dessert eatery after the movie where I declined anything. In this case I wasn’t hungry, I couldn’t find anything with a minimal amount of sugar in it, and I kept seeing my $200 investment flashing in front of me. My weight has been on a steady decline lately—something I really enjoy seeing every time I go to the gym.
It isn’t as if my motivations have changed that much. It’s more that I’ve found a balance between caloric intake and my appetite. The nice thing about work is that there are no comestible distractions on my floor. I could go down to the café, but that’s only a temptation if the craving is really strong. It helps that I know now that I have to give myself 3 hours fasting before intense exercise if I want my energy levels at maximum. Since I leave work at 4, I have to get my eating done before 1 on gym days. My body has normalized around this routine; meaning that if I can make it till 1, I’m good to go. One of the benefits of gym+work days is that after 90+minutes of cardio the endorphins are pumping and my apatite is dampened. This means that work+gym days are my highest calorie burn and usually lowest caloric intake periods as well. This isn’t a perfect science. I hate “counting calories.” The thing that’s kept me sane so far is thinking of it in terms of cutting total intake—not calories, not portion size, but actually cutting total food eaten. I cut myself some slack if what I’m eating is all fresh veggie or lean protein; but it’s been all about eating fewer calories than I burn. This should be obvious to most dieters, but I think it gets lost in the hype of fad diets. Eat less than you burn and you’ll lose weight. Eat healthy and exercise at the same time and you’ll lose even more. Maybe it’s because the result is a process, but it makes sense to me—plus, processes don’t make me dig in my heals like “diets” do.
As of yesterday I’m down to 287.6 pounds. Granted this is about where I was at the end of 2013. The difference is that I feel this level of intensity is more sustainable than the loss back then. Most of that has to do with increased cardio and fun-factor. A lesser but important portion comes from learning my physical limits. I’m in week four of a five week cycle in this weight loss program. After the fifth week I’m taking a week off to heal. I can feel my left knee starting to complain if I push it past an hour on the elliptical. My right shoulder is protesting too much pummeling with the heavy bag. My feet start to wine after an hour of kicks. I toned my punches back yesterday and I’m cutting back on my pace on the elliptical. I’ll make it for the three more days of boxing and one day of lifting I have left—but then it’s time to avoid injury. So far, three weeks of increased exercise and diet and I’m down ten pounds. Fingers crossed—papa gonna punch that fat off.
Saturday we went to see the new Avenger movie. The pre-lunch was held at 5 guys. As I’ve said before, I’m not running from less than healthy eateries. This was one of those devil’s choices—either eat my normal and regret it for days or suffer in silence. I split the difference. I love burgers. That being said, most of what I really like about them is the toppings. Sometimes dead cow must be had, but this wasn’t one of those days. I got a grilled cheese with bacon and all the veggies.
This accomplished two things. First, it let me eat something fun that tasted good. Second, it cut my caloric intake down by skipping the meat and sauces. I had a couple of the Brunette’s fries and a glass of water. The group retired to an Italian dessert eatery after the movie where I declined anything. In this case I wasn’t hungry, I couldn’t find anything with a minimal amount of sugar in it, and I kept seeing my $200 investment flashing in front of me. My weight has been on a steady decline lately—something I really enjoy seeing every time I go to the gym.
It isn’t as if my motivations have changed that much. It’s more that I’ve found a balance between caloric intake and my appetite. The nice thing about work is that there are no comestible distractions on my floor. I could go down to the café, but that’s only a temptation if the craving is really strong. It helps that I know now that I have to give myself 3 hours fasting before intense exercise if I want my energy levels at maximum. Since I leave work at 4, I have to get my eating done before 1 on gym days. My body has normalized around this routine; meaning that if I can make it till 1, I’m good to go. One of the benefits of gym+work days is that after 90+minutes of cardio the endorphins are pumping and my apatite is dampened. This means that work+gym days are my highest calorie burn and usually lowest caloric intake periods as well. This isn’t a perfect science. I hate “counting calories.” The thing that’s kept me sane so far is thinking of it in terms of cutting total intake—not calories, not portion size, but actually cutting total food eaten. I cut myself some slack if what I’m eating is all fresh veggie or lean protein; but it’s been all about eating fewer calories than I burn. This should be obvious to most dieters, but I think it gets lost in the hype of fad diets. Eat less than you burn and you’ll lose weight. Eat healthy and exercise at the same time and you’ll lose even more. Maybe it’s because the result is a process, but it makes sense to me—plus, processes don’t make me dig in my heals like “diets” do.
As of yesterday I’m down to 287.6 pounds. Granted this is about where I was at the end of 2013. The difference is that I feel this level of intensity is more sustainable than the loss back then. Most of that has to do with increased cardio and fun-factor. A lesser but important portion comes from learning my physical limits. I’m in week four of a five week cycle in this weight loss program. After the fifth week I’m taking a week off to heal. I can feel my left knee starting to complain if I push it past an hour on the elliptical. My right shoulder is protesting too much pummeling with the heavy bag. My feet start to wine after an hour of kicks. I toned my punches back yesterday and I’m cutting back on my pace on the elliptical. I’ll make it for the three more days of boxing and one day of lifting I have left—but then it’s time to avoid injury. So far, three weeks of increased exercise and diet and I’m down ten pounds. Fingers crossed—papa gonna punch that fat off.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
The making of an action hero, or punch more, weigh less.
I’ve come to the conclusion that fitness is a journey. There always seems to be some new supplement, diet, activity, or program that will fix all your problems, as if you can undo years of bad health with a couple months of product x. Finally I’m beginning to hear small peeps of the truth.
I recently heard a presentation on a local radio show that discussed the ten biggest nutritional fallacies. Top of that list was the idea that obesity shortened your life. It seems that being overweight is linked to many health complications like diabetes, cardiovascular issues, and joint problems. So being “heavy” may degrade the quality of your life but it doesn’t shorten it. Hearing that statement made me go “hmm” for a while. We have become a culture obsessed with weight, health, and those that don’t match the ideal. The author didn’t say that it was ok to be overweight, but she did point out that our superficial obsession with the topic has inflated its importance.
A couple weeks ago I was cleaning out my old audible library. I came across a great courses presentation called the myths of nutrition and fitness. This was a very pleasant factual course that touched on a lot of subjects I care about. Things I learned:
1. The author said that it’s better to be fit and fat than a thin couch potato. Basically, an active person, even if they’re over weight, is going to be healthy on a variety of metrics. Being thin isn’t everything.
2. Weight loss is a calculation of calories in vs. calories out. You have to burn about 3800 calories to lose a pound. Considering that a strong 30 minute treadmill run burns about 700 calories, the most important factor in weight loss is the quantity and quality of the food you eat. Your body needs a balance of food; so depriving it of carbs or fat or salt entirely is actually bad for you.
3. High intensity exercise for more than 90 minutes at a time is detrimental. You are best off finding a regular exercise program of 30-60 minutes a day rather than trying to squeeze all your exercise into a couple of 2-4 hour sessions.
4. Most diets look helpful on paper because reporting only tracks within two years or less from the end date. After five years almost everyone gains more than their starting losses back.
5. Hydration is best done in sips over a long time. Drinking a lot of water at once is difficult for your body to absorb. If you don’t keep hydrated you won’t get the most out of exercise.
The big lesson I took away from this course is that I’m not going to hit my goals with exercise alone. I already knew I needed to take control of my intake. I do pretty well at work—it’s the weekends and Friday nights I need to work on. I recently read another article on the truth about guns in which one of the commentators lost 60 pounds in a couple months through what’s basically the Atkins diet. You can see his technique here:
www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/04/foghorn/more-guns-fewer-carbs-how-i-lost-60-pounds-in-3-months/
I’m not a fan of any program that essentially puts your body into semi-permanent emergency mode. Atkins has its place as a philosophical approach to dieting, but not when used as an excuse to eat a bunch of meat and dairy to the exclusion of other nutrients. The point I took away from this article in combination with the audible course is that eating better is within my control.
First, I need to start exercising and checking weight methodically. One of my employer’s maxims is “what gets measured gets attended to.” It’s time to start checking weight regularly again. This will start tying exercise, weight, and results together in my head. I’ve bought into a 5 week class at the gym where they check weight twice a week, exercise together as a class for 30 minutes twice a week, and compare results at the end. I can’t afford $200 every 5 weeks going forward, but as a starting motivator it’s working.
I started the course the 16th. At that time I measured 37% body fat according to the little electric hand-grippy-thingy they made me use. At 298 pounds I have been holding steady this year, but it’s time to kick it up. After one week of paying attention to my intake again I’m down to 292 pounds—possibly due to variation in the scale but I’ll take it. I am determined to get that % down—I mean 37% is just terrifying. My time with the fit bit is also keeping my mind on “steps.” It isn’t a big deal; I just know I need to walk a little bit more to hit my goals. So I’m back on the measuring band wagon.
As far as workouts go, Tuesday is an hour boxing class followed by a 30 minute hard push boxing finish with the weight loss class. This is my high intensity day—where I try to push myself. Thursday is whatever time I get into the gym with light cardio on the elliptical, a half hour with the clubs, and a high intensity boxing finish with the weight loss class. Sunday is upper body lifting, light core, and extended time on the elliptical. I’m doing what I did before but with more of an eye toward quality of investment—especially in those two half hour classes. After a week, I think I might have been taking my cardio a little too easy after my knee and foot problems. It’s about balance, and I need to do a better job of balancing intensity with healing time. I’m trying to find a way to improve my cardio workouts that doesn’t risk more joint damage. Boxing is great for this since even with kicks, I’m not stressing my knees as much. I often feel stupid when I hit the bag hard enough that I have to go find it or it flies around and attacks me from the side…but I’m in this for exercise not to look smooth.
Sooooo…..eating. As above, I aint no fan of Atkins as it’s popularized in the media. I think the author has a good point when he works on cutting down on carbs and refined sugars. I’ll add to that processed foods in general. I’m skipping sandwiches and wraps for my lunch—I don’t need the carbs in the bread and tortillas. I’ve begun hard boiling eggs for us at the beginning of the week so we can have a protein blast for a couple breakfast meals. I’m looking to use more individual ingredients rather than pre-made mixes, sauces, and such. I’m looking up home-pickling, cooking chicken in different ways, and new recipes. It’s amazing what a single measurement plus the desire to get the most out of my $200 investment can do. My new rule is less carbs, as little sugar as possible, and avoid processed foods where I can. I’m trying to think of this as less of a more healthy diet and more of a way to focus my consumption around better choices—I’m not going to sweat eating out when it comes I’m just not going to go looking for trouble. Looking at that sentence I’m clearly using semantics to avoid stressing out over “diet.” Whatever, I’m ok with that if it gets results. I needed motivation and I seem to have found it.
I recently heard a presentation on a local radio show that discussed the ten biggest nutritional fallacies. Top of that list was the idea that obesity shortened your life. It seems that being overweight is linked to many health complications like diabetes, cardiovascular issues, and joint problems. So being “heavy” may degrade the quality of your life but it doesn’t shorten it. Hearing that statement made me go “hmm” for a while. We have become a culture obsessed with weight, health, and those that don’t match the ideal. The author didn’t say that it was ok to be overweight, but she did point out that our superficial obsession with the topic has inflated its importance.
A couple weeks ago I was cleaning out my old audible library. I came across a great courses presentation called the myths of nutrition and fitness. This was a very pleasant factual course that touched on a lot of subjects I care about. Things I learned:
1. The author said that it’s better to be fit and fat than a thin couch potato. Basically, an active person, even if they’re over weight, is going to be healthy on a variety of metrics. Being thin isn’t everything.
2. Weight loss is a calculation of calories in vs. calories out. You have to burn about 3800 calories to lose a pound. Considering that a strong 30 minute treadmill run burns about 700 calories, the most important factor in weight loss is the quantity and quality of the food you eat. Your body needs a balance of food; so depriving it of carbs or fat or salt entirely is actually bad for you.
3. High intensity exercise for more than 90 minutes at a time is detrimental. You are best off finding a regular exercise program of 30-60 minutes a day rather than trying to squeeze all your exercise into a couple of 2-4 hour sessions.
4. Most diets look helpful on paper because reporting only tracks within two years or less from the end date. After five years almost everyone gains more than their starting losses back.
5. Hydration is best done in sips over a long time. Drinking a lot of water at once is difficult for your body to absorb. If you don’t keep hydrated you won’t get the most out of exercise.
The big lesson I took away from this course is that I’m not going to hit my goals with exercise alone. I already knew I needed to take control of my intake. I do pretty well at work—it’s the weekends and Friday nights I need to work on. I recently read another article on the truth about guns in which one of the commentators lost 60 pounds in a couple months through what’s basically the Atkins diet. You can see his technique here:
www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/04/foghorn/more-guns-fewer-carbs-how-i-lost-60-pounds-in-3-months/
I’m not a fan of any program that essentially puts your body into semi-permanent emergency mode. Atkins has its place as a philosophical approach to dieting, but not when used as an excuse to eat a bunch of meat and dairy to the exclusion of other nutrients. The point I took away from this article in combination with the audible course is that eating better is within my control.
First, I need to start exercising and checking weight methodically. One of my employer’s maxims is “what gets measured gets attended to.” It’s time to start checking weight regularly again. This will start tying exercise, weight, and results together in my head. I’ve bought into a 5 week class at the gym where they check weight twice a week, exercise together as a class for 30 minutes twice a week, and compare results at the end. I can’t afford $200 every 5 weeks going forward, but as a starting motivator it’s working.
I started the course the 16th. At that time I measured 37% body fat according to the little electric hand-grippy-thingy they made me use. At 298 pounds I have been holding steady this year, but it’s time to kick it up. After one week of paying attention to my intake again I’m down to 292 pounds—possibly due to variation in the scale but I’ll take it. I am determined to get that % down—I mean 37% is just terrifying. My time with the fit bit is also keeping my mind on “steps.” It isn’t a big deal; I just know I need to walk a little bit more to hit my goals. So I’m back on the measuring band wagon.
As far as workouts go, Tuesday is an hour boxing class followed by a 30 minute hard push boxing finish with the weight loss class. This is my high intensity day—where I try to push myself. Thursday is whatever time I get into the gym with light cardio on the elliptical, a half hour with the clubs, and a high intensity boxing finish with the weight loss class. Sunday is upper body lifting, light core, and extended time on the elliptical. I’m doing what I did before but with more of an eye toward quality of investment—especially in those two half hour classes. After a week, I think I might have been taking my cardio a little too easy after my knee and foot problems. It’s about balance, and I need to do a better job of balancing intensity with healing time. I’m trying to find a way to improve my cardio workouts that doesn’t risk more joint damage. Boxing is great for this since even with kicks, I’m not stressing my knees as much. I often feel stupid when I hit the bag hard enough that I have to go find it or it flies around and attacks me from the side…but I’m in this for exercise not to look smooth.
Sooooo…..eating. As above, I aint no fan of Atkins as it’s popularized in the media. I think the author has a good point when he works on cutting down on carbs and refined sugars. I’ll add to that processed foods in general. I’m skipping sandwiches and wraps for my lunch—I don’t need the carbs in the bread and tortillas. I’ve begun hard boiling eggs for us at the beginning of the week so we can have a protein blast for a couple breakfast meals. I’m looking to use more individual ingredients rather than pre-made mixes, sauces, and such. I’m looking up home-pickling, cooking chicken in different ways, and new recipes. It’s amazing what a single measurement plus the desire to get the most out of my $200 investment can do. My new rule is less carbs, as little sugar as possible, and avoid processed foods where I can. I’m trying to think of this as less of a more healthy diet and more of a way to focus my consumption around better choices—I’m not going to sweat eating out when it comes I’m just not going to go looking for trouble. Looking at that sentence I’m clearly using semantics to avoid stressing out over “diet.” Whatever, I’m ok with that if it gets results. I needed motivation and I seem to have found it.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
A Saturday to remember
Saturday, a few of us gathered at
casa-de-Squish for a celebration of beer, bourbon, and BBQ. We wanted to recreate the local festival of
the same name in a relaxed environment. Man
that was a party.
The twelve of us ordered take out
from Andy Nelson’s BBQ. The participants
brought a selection of whiskey, ciders, and beers—emphasis on the whiskey and
cider. K&K brought some home crafted
sparkling alcoholic blueberry juice and Southern comfort. I think they brought some beers as well, but
honestly, I don’t remember. The juice
came from a home-craft set you can pick up on Amazon called spike my
juice. You take a 64oz bottle of your
favorite fruit juice, drop in one of the yeast packets, screw on the provided
vented top and let sit for 2-4 days. The
yeast converts the sugar into alcohol venting the extra gas through the top
while it self-carbonates. Based on
several reviews, there’s an art to getting the alcohol content to the desired
level while leaving the right amount of sweet in the drink. We’ve ordered one of the kits and should have
a test batch to try this weekend. I’m
looking at making my own Southern Comfort as well because this stuff is
a-ma-zing—more on that later.
There were several very nice
bourbons on display. I brought a
selection of high end items I’ve been hording for just such an event. While I brought three E.H. Taylors and Thomas
Handy rye, it was my Elijah Craig that took the biggest hit. I find it interesting that of all the premium
bourbons I brought it was the least expensive of the batch that attracted the
most attention. Granted, it’s my
favorite for value and flavor; but it was a little odd. Number two was the willett. It had a very bold flavor that appealed to
everyone.
Amongst the alcoholic wonderland
several of us settled down to try a game of iron & Ale. I&A is a
dwarven themed drinking card game. My
lovely wife backed it on kickstarter for me as a gift a couple years ago and
this was the first chance I had to take it for a spin—and man what a spin. Game play involves each player picking a
dwarven lord. Each lord has a special
ability so most people will want to randomize the selection. Then the person with the best beard
starts. Each player in turn draws up to
2 cards from the mountain deck which is composed of monster fights and
different kinds of metal ingots. Then
they draw one physical challenge. If you
win a fight or challenge you keep the card and the associated honor. The player with the most honor at the end of
the game wins. The way the rules are
written makes clear that players are encouraged to bet on challenges, play side
games, and generally carouse in typical dwarven fashion. Many of the penalties and contests involve
“drinking” whatever one happens to be holding at the time. Since several players started off with
bourbon things got interesting quickly.
Things we learned after playing two rounds of the game:
1.
Next time we play drinks will be standardized for alcoholic
content and volume.
2.
I still can’t beat Squish at arm wrestling.
3.
Doctor ninja will run out of energy punching my arm before I
flinch.
4.
I can do more pushups than anyone in the group.
5.
Game needs to be sleeved.
6.
Those Lego drinking glasses need to be drunk from the flat
side.
7.
Standing on one foot and drinking is hard,
That list says a lot about how much fun this game
is. I haven’t laughed that hard in a
long time. It put two of our Dwarven clan
on the floor, but them’s the breaks. I
can’t wait for the expansion we preordered to come in.
Cleaning up
the next day it turned out that most of our friends left their booze at
Squish’s. He didn’t want it which leaves
me in an interesting place. I have so
much bourbon. Some of the lower end
stuff will get turned into cuffs and buttons:
That is going to be some serious experimenting—especially
if I end up mixing it up with our nitrogen infuser. God, I love science.
The
afternoon and subsequent evening recovery period were a great deal of fun. I oft time wax professorial on fine spirits,
games, and food. I enjoy the finer
things in life as grace notes to memorable moments. The element that makes those moments worth
remembering is fellowship. Saturday was
filled with pleasant company. Thanks to
all who made it possible.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
The making of an action hero, Mixed results
Preparing
to confront the villain of the week is getting easier. Eating well, not so much. I’m not sure how Bat man does it.
The gym is
a set part of my routine. The instructor
for my boxing class and the people at the front desk know me by name. There are a couple people who make a point of
saying high. It’s much like riding the
bus—after a while you form a location specific bond if you see people often
enough. Sunday I hit upper body and
cardio. I’m finally getting full use
from my left knee—so it looks like it’s back to full power again. Squish and I have been working off joint and
back issues for the last two months. It
was nice to finally feel whole. I’ve got
enough practice in that I can hit the boxing room twice a week—once on Tuesdays
with class and once on Thursdays after my clubs. It’s taken a while to get my hands and
shoulders to a point where I can box regularly.
Even with one pound training gloves and heavy padded bags, the repetitive
impacts take their toll. I know longer have pain in my right hand if I box more
than an hour a week. My knuckles are
slightly flattened. They align so that I
can get my weight into hooks and punches.
I always thought people were talking figuratively when they said boxers
got sunken knuckles. Apparently those
stories were more literal than I realized.
Yesterday I had my best bag session
in recent memory. I paced myself with
short breaks throughout the class and ended up working with more overall
intensity and endurance than I’ve had in a while. I spend the class at a single heavy bag that
is lowered to touch the floor in order to keep it from moving around too
much. The rest of the class moves with
partners from station to station. It’s
easier for me just to stay in one place than to try and figure out where the
next station is and what the next exercise will be. Of course that means I don’t have a partner
to switch off with. I started off trying
to go 100% on my own for the entire hour.
Half way through I was mostly done unable to really push myself. By pacing my efforts I managed to actually do
more. I like the earthy simplicity of
the boxing room. It is very no-frills,
just moving weights and punching things and cardio. The atmosphere reminds me of my high school wrestling
room. The people there aren’t there for show;
they’re in there to do serious work.
My employer
is sponsoring an 8 week fitness challenge where we track our steps and
exercise. It motivated me to finally get
the fit bit zip I earned last year up and running. I’m not sold on these pedometers—especially
since the new iWatch is coming out soon.
It seems to me that this dedicated technology is going to be quickly superseded
by phones and other wearable tech. Also,
I’ve seen some strong arguments that their measurements are unreliable. That being said, I figure it’s a place to
start. If the zip is unreliable at least
I can get a consistent measurement to compare day to day. I’d rather upgrade to the fit bit flex. The flex is a bracelet that you never have to
remove. The zip is a little key-fob-like
device that you carry around with you.
If you forget to put it in your pocket you lose that time. I’m going to use the bit I already have and
see how I like the tiny master before I drop cash on its replacement. Next on my list is grabbing the aria wireless
scale so that my phone can keep me honest re-weight. It’s like having a bunch of secret agent tech
monitoring your every move. I linked my
fit bit account and my work tracking group.
Now there’s no need for me to do the annoying tracking of steps and exercise—the
unit does it for me.
Sooooooo,
weight. Yeh…so I’ve been holding steady
just under 300. This is good in that I
haven’t gained weight during my injury recovery. This is bad in that while I’m stronger, I
haven’t seen any progress on weight in about 8 months—which was when I stopped
gaining and just flattened out under 300.
I am seeing steady strength gains—I am benching 175 and military 105 in
three sets of ten which is up from last cycle.
My endurance and speed are up.
I’m noticeably stronger on the heavy bag. I’m down to a size 48 jeans—which was one of
those long ago goals to start wearing normal sizes again. Granted, it’s almost the biggest size rangler
makes, but it’s a good start.
The catch
is that my diet hasn’t done so well. I’m
still not ordering or eating at the café much.
We cook often. However, I’ve
gotten out of the habit of morning health shakes. I snack more than I’d like when I’m at
home. Worst of all, the meals that were
interesting back when I started training have become dull. It’s much easier to fudge the diet when
you’re not interested in the available options…or maybe it would be more
accurate to say that my preferences have begun to run to the options that used
to be the treats and exceptions. The
brunette recently gifted me with two spicy cookbooks which are going to serve
as the fulcrum for moving the diet along in this regard. I have new cooking gear from the pampered
chef…I need new dishes to keep things spicy.
Monday I
grilled marinated steak strips, made Mexican rice, diced veggies, and assembled
a dressing from light sour cream and salsa. The marinade was a head of
cilantro, a couple table spoons of minced garlic, black pepper, and half a cup
of sweet bourbon sauce. I could have
made this healthier by cutting out the cheese (which didn’t really do that much
for the flavor anyway.) I could have
used brown or basmati rice instead of the boxed mix and just added my tomatoes
and chilies. I want to start thinking
along these lines more often—not how can I eat something different that’s
healthier, but how can I make the dish that I want to eat better for me? I’ve already done that with burgers a couple
times mixing lean ground beef and lean ground turkey for a burger which my
father says is better than beef anyway.
I don’t want to find a better way to eat junk food. I do want to find a healthy way to expand our
menu that keeps life interesting. Offhand
that’ll mean reducing pre-packaged elements I use as much as is cost
effective. I’ll start adding these
recipes to my entries going forward.
Hopefully others can add to and offer suggestions about these ideas.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Projects
Each spring the brunette and I set aside money from our return for personal projects. Consequently, tax season forces me to examine the “stuff” on my to-do list.
One of my 2015 goals is to close out projects. Some of these include finishing the man cave, upgrading certain firearms, working on our preparedness gear, finishing up my warmachine model selection, working on my EDC gear, cleaning out unwanted firearms, building a reloading set up, clearing out old games, and generally getting “stuff” down to a manageable level. So I’ve been busy.
A couple weeks ago Squish drove me out to Duffy’s where I dropped off my 10/22 takedown for smithing. Part of my return went to a Kidd custom trigger which was the final component of my modular takedown build. While I was there I sold my Colt 1903. It suffered its first strike when it started rusting after only a week in the safe. The second strike came when the rear sight fell off. The final strike came when I started consolidating calibers and platforms—mainly focusing on the 1911 for magazine fed pistols. So it’s out. I miss the little pocket hammerless in the way you miss anything once loved and now departed. Even so, it’s a relief to not have to worry about refinishing the new rear sight, getting it installed, and finishing up the upgrade process. I got word yesterday that the smithing on the .22 project is done; I just need to get out to Duffy’s to pick up the completed package.
The man cave boasts a role-top desk, new shelving, and functional lighting now. To that, I’m considering adding a full sized project table. Working with firearms and related products means I’m often handling chemicals, large pieces of metal, and lots of “parts.” I could really use a dedicated work surface to keep everything straight. The one I saw at office depot is $500ish—which is a lot of money. I’m caught between the desire to buy something strong and functional and the desire to get something economical that I can live with. It’s a more challenging choice than one might think because as the brunette constantly reminds me I need to make sure this is something I’m not going to switch out in 6 months—Plus, it isn’t like I’m going to have $500 all in one place later if the cheapo route goes South.
That’s a big factor—rarely will I have this much money in one place to complete projects for the rest of the year. That being the case, most of my energy goes toward reviewing miniatures and firearms. Those categories are my most expensive draws by an order of magnitude. Board games, RPGs, and EDC gear can all usually be had for $150 or less—which is within my monthly budget. There are some exceptions—I can always find something more to drop cash on—but those are the big two.
For miniatures, I have a couple more Khador models I’d like to grab to round out my case. Painting and assembly are up in the air sadly. Deathquaker has other personal commitments which limit her capacity. Corc has been working on my legion beasts for months with no end in sight. I don’t expect either of them to be available for additional work any time soon. Blue table is—well—blue table. They handled my original butcher battle group, so I’d love to have them round out my collection with a matching paint job. If I’m going to do that though, I really should wait till Butcher’s character jack comes out. Plus, they never make things easy. Are they worth the investment? I don’t know. Jay is working on my Farrow for the foreseeable future. I’ve already bought the next 2 waves of models for him to work on—so I’m at least six weeks ahead of the game there, probably more like 8. So with minis, I have ideas but no available production capacity unless I want to lay out a sizeable chunk of change and go the btp route—and with how little I’ve been playing lately that just doesn’t feel like a good use of my limited funds. I could buy out the rest of the Farrow models I’m planning on Jay building; but experience has taught me that you don’t want to get too far ahead on the miniature supply wagon. The minute you do, your painter leaves or the game ends or Murphy comes gunning for you.
That leaves me looking at reloading and guns. I’ve taken a crash reloading course over the last 3 months by virtue of the internet and talking to a few friends. What I’ve come up with is that while reloading metallic cartridges is technically possible it’s not practical. There are precise measurements required such as when one trims the case, checks crimp, and measures powder weight. In order to make the process worthwhile I would need to reload in bulk. That would require a lot of help—help that friends might be willing to provide, but for which the asking would take the joy out of the experience. Shotgun reloading looks viable—you don’t have to trim the hulls, loadings are set in stone, and you can measure powder with a scoop. I did the math and I can’t build 00 or 000 buck loadings in 12 gage for less than market value. I can load .410 for a decent discount—which is where I’m looking now. Reloading is a big responsibility; one that I’m not entirely sure I want to get into yet. It’s on the radar as I look to the future.
I spend all year reviewing firearms anticipating tax return season. My choices change depending on new offerings and personal experience. This year I’ve been focused on filling practical gaps in my collection. My current contenders in no particular order:
• 7.62x54r VEPR. This would give me a 10 round magazine designated marksman rifle that fires the same cartridge as my mosin nagant. I’d have a battle rifle in a large plentiful caliber that’s already in my collection.
• Benelli vinci tactical with the upgraded pistol grip stock. I have this thing about semiautomatic shotguns. I just love them. This is one of the easiest fixed magazine versions to clean due to its modular construction. Plus, Benelli rocks.
• A paired set of Ruger single action revolvers in .22lr and a convertible Blackhawk in .45acp/.45lc. This would let me practice with cheap .22 but get relevant practice on a larger caliber frame. It’s really a nice set up for practice/fun and is probably the most cost effective choice long-term.
• A 45-70 Magnum research BFR. This is just a fun purchase in an existing caliber. I do love my big bore revolvers.
My plan is to hold off making any final commitments for a couple weeks till I determine if I’m selling any other items. I’m hoping to sell Duffy’s my Mec Tec carbine upper. With that gone and the possibility that a friend will pick up my .22 bolt action, I will have room in my case, cash on hand, and the time to make the right decision. So it’s back to the drawing table for now.
One of my 2015 goals is to close out projects. Some of these include finishing the man cave, upgrading certain firearms, working on our preparedness gear, finishing up my warmachine model selection, working on my EDC gear, cleaning out unwanted firearms, building a reloading set up, clearing out old games, and generally getting “stuff” down to a manageable level. So I’ve been busy.
A couple weeks ago Squish drove me out to Duffy’s where I dropped off my 10/22 takedown for smithing. Part of my return went to a Kidd custom trigger which was the final component of my modular takedown build. While I was there I sold my Colt 1903. It suffered its first strike when it started rusting after only a week in the safe. The second strike came when the rear sight fell off. The final strike came when I started consolidating calibers and platforms—mainly focusing on the 1911 for magazine fed pistols. So it’s out. I miss the little pocket hammerless in the way you miss anything once loved and now departed. Even so, it’s a relief to not have to worry about refinishing the new rear sight, getting it installed, and finishing up the upgrade process. I got word yesterday that the smithing on the .22 project is done; I just need to get out to Duffy’s to pick up the completed package.
The man cave boasts a role-top desk, new shelving, and functional lighting now. To that, I’m considering adding a full sized project table. Working with firearms and related products means I’m often handling chemicals, large pieces of metal, and lots of “parts.” I could really use a dedicated work surface to keep everything straight. The one I saw at office depot is $500ish—which is a lot of money. I’m caught between the desire to buy something strong and functional and the desire to get something economical that I can live with. It’s a more challenging choice than one might think because as the brunette constantly reminds me I need to make sure this is something I’m not going to switch out in 6 months—Plus, it isn’t like I’m going to have $500 all in one place later if the cheapo route goes South.
That’s a big factor—rarely will I have this much money in one place to complete projects for the rest of the year. That being the case, most of my energy goes toward reviewing miniatures and firearms. Those categories are my most expensive draws by an order of magnitude. Board games, RPGs, and EDC gear can all usually be had for $150 or less—which is within my monthly budget. There are some exceptions—I can always find something more to drop cash on—but those are the big two.
For miniatures, I have a couple more Khador models I’d like to grab to round out my case. Painting and assembly are up in the air sadly. Deathquaker has other personal commitments which limit her capacity. Corc has been working on my legion beasts for months with no end in sight. I don’t expect either of them to be available for additional work any time soon. Blue table is—well—blue table. They handled my original butcher battle group, so I’d love to have them round out my collection with a matching paint job. If I’m going to do that though, I really should wait till Butcher’s character jack comes out. Plus, they never make things easy. Are they worth the investment? I don’t know. Jay is working on my Farrow for the foreseeable future. I’ve already bought the next 2 waves of models for him to work on—so I’m at least six weeks ahead of the game there, probably more like 8. So with minis, I have ideas but no available production capacity unless I want to lay out a sizeable chunk of change and go the btp route—and with how little I’ve been playing lately that just doesn’t feel like a good use of my limited funds. I could buy out the rest of the Farrow models I’m planning on Jay building; but experience has taught me that you don’t want to get too far ahead on the miniature supply wagon. The minute you do, your painter leaves or the game ends or Murphy comes gunning for you.
That leaves me looking at reloading and guns. I’ve taken a crash reloading course over the last 3 months by virtue of the internet and talking to a few friends. What I’ve come up with is that while reloading metallic cartridges is technically possible it’s not practical. There are precise measurements required such as when one trims the case, checks crimp, and measures powder weight. In order to make the process worthwhile I would need to reload in bulk. That would require a lot of help—help that friends might be willing to provide, but for which the asking would take the joy out of the experience. Shotgun reloading looks viable—you don’t have to trim the hulls, loadings are set in stone, and you can measure powder with a scoop. I did the math and I can’t build 00 or 000 buck loadings in 12 gage for less than market value. I can load .410 for a decent discount—which is where I’m looking now. Reloading is a big responsibility; one that I’m not entirely sure I want to get into yet. It’s on the radar as I look to the future.
I spend all year reviewing firearms anticipating tax return season. My choices change depending on new offerings and personal experience. This year I’ve been focused on filling practical gaps in my collection. My current contenders in no particular order:
• 7.62x54r VEPR. This would give me a 10 round magazine designated marksman rifle that fires the same cartridge as my mosin nagant. I’d have a battle rifle in a large plentiful caliber that’s already in my collection.
• Benelli vinci tactical with the upgraded pistol grip stock. I have this thing about semiautomatic shotguns. I just love them. This is one of the easiest fixed magazine versions to clean due to its modular construction. Plus, Benelli rocks.
• A paired set of Ruger single action revolvers in .22lr and a convertible Blackhawk in .45acp/.45lc. This would let me practice with cheap .22 but get relevant practice on a larger caliber frame. It’s really a nice set up for practice/fun and is probably the most cost effective choice long-term.
• A 45-70 Magnum research BFR. This is just a fun purchase in an existing caliber. I do love my big bore revolvers.
My plan is to hold off making any final commitments for a couple weeks till I determine if I’m selling any other items. I’m hoping to sell Duffy’s my Mec Tec carbine upper. With that gone and the possibility that a friend will pick up my .22 bolt action, I will have room in my case, cash on hand, and the time to make the right decision. So it’s back to the drawing table for now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)