London, My board, Diet, and Movies.

by Phil

1 Comments

I have not blogged in a long while.  Sorry about that.  A lot has happened since I last dropped in.

1) London

2) My surf board

3) Diet changes

4) Movies I recently saw

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1) London.  Went there about a week ago and it was cold.  The hotel I stayed in was good and bad.  (No. 5 Cavendish Square.)

    Good stuff.  Room was Red.  (I like red)  The style of the room was what you imagine a vampire would have in his room.  Velvet reds etc.  Awesome.

                      Building was funky - sort of a converted old type of building and they kept nearly all of the original charm.  (Old stuff rules).  Super cool.

                      Internet - wifi - etc... all state of the art and no problem setting up the thing.  Nothing worse than internet hicups on the road.

                      Close to the Vic.  I only played one time the whole week... but since I had planned on more drop ins I still give it a plus for locale.

                      One minute walk to a very good gym, lap pool included. (At the Langham Hotel - Expensive as all get out.. but worth it.)

    Bad stuff     Cavendish Square (location):  This locale is a bad place for late night eats.  Being part vampire this is impt to me.

                      The house cleaning people left at 4 pm (ish).  Huh?  There are times where I want the room cleaned after this.  (Small minus)

                      One time I lost my key, and they were not able to hand me a new one.  This was semi perplexing as it was only a key CARD, and not an actual key.  One of the staff had to go up to the room with me each time to let me in.  It took them about a day to sort this key thing out for me.

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2) My surf board. 

           It is in the garage.  And I am sad to report that it has not been in the water yet.  This is not due to me being lazy.  Just doing diff stuff and have not got to it yet.

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3) Diet changes.

           On Jan 1 I weighed myself and did not believe the scale.  Going to a different scale I discovered that in fact I had reached my all time highest weight of my entire life.  216.  I was stunned.  About 3 times in the last 5 or so years I noticed that I got to 210.  Each time it happened I got sort of back into eating semi right, and sort of started going to the gym a bit.  And all three times I got my weight down to 195 or so and then sort of let myself slip again.

           Not this time.  This will be the last time.  My goal is 190.  And when I get there I plan on staying there or very close to there for a LONG time coming.  If I get my way it will hover in that range til I die.

           216.?? I decided that until I get to 190 I was going to eat as close to optimal as possible and become friends with the gym to the tune of 5 or 6 days a week.  It is working.  Things are going in the right direction.  (By the way, when I arrive at 190 I plan on keeping on track, but am looking forward to the occasional cheat.  Diet wise that is.)

          Until that day here are some of the more substantial changes that I have been consistent with since Jan 1.  (40 days now).  And plan on sticking with til I am 190.  (then I will still stay true, but will allow myself the occasional cheat... ie popcorn shrimp, mint chocolate ice cream, and the occasional bit of cheese.)

No fried food.  Yes, true.  For 40 days now I have not had a french fry, shrimp tempura roll, potatoe chip, or for that matter ANYTHING fried.

No ice cream and no cheese.

Nearly no pasta, white rice or white bread.

Lots of fish, veges, and chicken.  And lots of green tea.

And I have been a gym rat for 30 mins to 120 mins a day / 5 to 6 days

Currently I am at 198.8 (yes, I love that my scale is digital and can do the decimal stuff.)  

The toughest part about losing weight is two fold. 

        No matter how focused and determined you are it is not a one day thing.  It is a the sort of thing that has to blend into your entire life for you to have a shot at it.  This is a bitch.  I am generally good at starting things, and historically not as good at following thru.  To be honest, I am a bit worried for me.  There are so many ways for this to go wrong and only one way for it to go right.   When I get to 195, and then 190 I will let you all know.

        The other tough part is that my right knee has this thing were it is rarely happy when I run.  A long while back I used to be a nutso runner guy.  Multiple 10ks (10 kilometers, not 10 thousand... lol).  One marathon.  And just a mish mash of stuff here and there.  Somewhere in there I messed up my knee.  Not totally messed up, but just enough to make running for exercise a delicate game of cat and mouse with the pain stuff.

        Luckily for me I like to swim (a lot).  But unlucky for me I have to drive somewhere first to do it.

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4) Movies that I saw in the last month or two. (I try to see a movie a week.  I like to see movies.)

       Breach.  This was lame.  I think it meant to be a gripping true story spy thing.  But instead it was boring and it looked like the main guy played by Chris Cooper was wearing makeup.  There is no way his lips had that color red. 

      Fantastic Mr Fox.  Cute, but from all the loving reviews I heard about it I thought I was going to like it more.

      Avatar.  This was the coolest flick I have seen in a LONG LONG time.  Wow.  I wanted to be there.  I wanted to run thru that forrest and be flying around on those funky creatures.

      Sherlock Holmes.  Huh?  It had its moments but it seemed to zig zag all over the place and to be honest.  I had a hard time following whatever I was meant to be following.

     Nine.  The musical.  I think they had the wrong guy (Daniel Day-Lewis) playing the lead.  (I didn't believe that he was Italian for one thing).  However.  I liked this flick A LOT.  Some of the musical numbers (especially the one Kate Hudson did) were great.  I think it got lame reviews... can't recall.  But I liked it.

     Youth in Revolt.  Holy Cow.  This was fantastic.  This is one I would see again.  Pure gold this movie.  Pure gold.

     Daybreakers.  I have not seen this one yet, hopefully this week.  I love vampire movies.  I am going out on a branch and I am going to predict that I will like this movie.

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Ok, later.

Phil