William Drew

Better week

This was a much better week for me.  I still worked crazy hours on Wednesday - Friday, but Monday & Tuesday were very short days and the hours I did work at the end of the week were easy hours.  I wasn't being pulled in 14 different directions like I was last week.  As far as BFL, I ate clean all week.  This was my best week eating that I've had in a while.  I need to build on that and keep it going.  But I did not get any workouts in this week.  I was so wiped out after the ungodly work schedule from last week that I used the free-time that I found this week to catch some z's.  Next week I should be able to get to the gym a few times.  I have not worked out since last Monday.  Ugh.  I need to get my butt back in the gym! 

Well, I will find out on Saturday if I get the promotion I interviewed for last week.  I received an email today that said the decisions have been made and calls would be made on Saturday.  Hopefully this Super Bowl weekend will turn into a Super Bill weekend and I can celebrate a new chapter in my life. 

Saturday will also be a big TV day as Prince is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live.  He has completly re-vamped his band again.  Well, at least that is what the rumors are.  It will be good to see what the new band looks like.  That is the one thing that sucks about him being out in LA now.  When he was here in Minneapolis all the time, I got to see most of his parties/performances that he had at his Paisley Park Studios so when he changed a member or two in the band I was usually there for the new musicians first gigs.   

Jumping back to the Super Bowl, I have four invitations for the big game.  I'm really looking forward to this game.  Pittsburgh was one of the two non-Vikings teams that I  have always rooted for (the other being the Broncos, so the AFC Championship game was a great game for me) so I have a team in the big game that I can root for.  But I also think these two teams match up really well and it should make for a great game.  Hopefully.  So, with the four invites I have, I was thinking... should I turn this into an adventure and try making it to each place?  I could spend one quarter of the game at each one and then rush to the next one during the break.  That could be an amazing.... Nah.  That would be dorky even for a my dorky ass.

Anyway, it's Friday again!  Whoot!  Time for another video.  This one is a movie trailer for what is my most anticipated movie for this summer.  This movie was one of my all-time favorite movies when I was a kid, and it's kinda-sorta being re-made.  I've always loved the theme song to the original, and this new version has kept the same music.  The villain in this new version is being played by Kevin Spacey and someone deserves a raise for getting him in this role.  The star of the original was an icon because of this movie.  The star of this new version is a relative un-known.  I've watched this trailer more often than I should probably admit and I get the chills every time I watch it.  Not the "oh-man-that-freaked-me-out" chills, but the "holy-crap-I-can't-wait-for-this" kinda chills.  What movie is it?  Click here to find out.  The link will take you to a page where you can select which version of the movie trailer that you want to see.  I recommend selecting the Full Screen version.  Enjoy!

Challenge #5 off to a bumby start

Alright, so I have started my 5th BFL Challenge this week.  Monday was an utterly fantastic day.  Ate to plan, and now that it's Thursday I still have sore triceps and chest.  But this is when work gets in the way.  With the new training job that I am doing at work, I was at work from 7 AM - 10 PM on Tuesday.  I ate clean, but there was absolutly no way for me to work out after putting in that many hours.  On Wednesday, I worked from 7 AM - 11 PM.  Again, absolutly no chance to get in a workout, and this day the hectic pace and added stress of the day I had one bad meal.

On Wednesday, I was at work for so long because we went live with the new operating software throughout our back office and all of the registers and I am the one there to make sure things go smoothly.  I also had my interview for the promotion that I am hoping to get.  Then at night, in what should have been a smooth and easy system to get us out of there pretty early, I was on the phone with my current boss for two hours to go over a plan to replace a manager at one of our other restaurants.  He's getting the boot to the backside today, and they wanted me to help plan the temporary replacement.

So, the fact that upper-management called me to help workout the coverage of another restaurant was hopefully a good sign that I'm getting the promotion as this was one of the tasks I'd be expected to do if I got the job.  There are two other General Managers in the area that interviewed for the same job, and I was the one they called to work this new issue out.  I felt that the interview went really well.  I did fumble one question, but I have to believe that everyone fumbles at least one question every time they are being interviewed.  I was told they are going to announce who gets the job next week. 

Regardless of if I get the promotion or not, my current training job is going to take six weeks to complete.  I will spend one week in each of our restaurants in the Twin Cities.  Each week, Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be 7 AM - 9 PM or so work days.  There is no way I'll be able to get workouts in on these days.  So, after seeing how things work out this week, I think I'm going to do my Tuesday HIIT on Monday, right after my normal Monday workout.  Then on Thursday, I'll start with Wednesdays workout, and then finish with the Thursday HIIT.  And I think I'll be better off just making Wednesday my free day.

I am also going to start switching my food list every two weeks.  I'll do two weeks of eating from the original BFL list, and then two weeks eating from the EFL Cookbook. 

Alright, it's off to work I go....         

Light 'em up boys!

Alright, so it's Saturday already.  And a Friday slipped by without a Friday Night Video!?!?  Just what the heck is going on here?  Man, somebody in the video department is getting fired tonight.  Wait, I am the video department.  Alright, I gave it my best shot, I tried posting this incredible video of the New Years Eve Fireworks from London.  They have this huge 480-foot Ferris Wheel type thing called the London Eye in London that they also used in the fireworks show.  The show was simply amazing, and I kept having technical difficulties getting the thing to work.  Oh well. 

And another thing, just what the heck have I been doing for the past couple of weeks?  Man, I've been everywhere but here keepin' my blog up to date.  So, to catch up, Dallas was OK.  It could have been better, but I never left the airport!  How crazy is that?  The hotel was right smack dab in the middle of the airport.  I got to my room, heard this incredibly loud noise, looked out my patio window, and saw the airport!  There were runways on both sides of the hotel.  Jets landing and taking off all day and all night long.  Oh well, it wasn't a vacation, it was a business trip.  And the new software and systems we were introduced to are going to be an amazing upgrade over the current 1980's version of software we currently use.  Getting my job done will be so much easier now, so I'm very happy I was able to see what we are getting.  I did my best to keep up with my BFL ways while down there, but since I was bound to the airport my choices were very limited.  There was a work out room, but it only had cardio equipment and 5 & 10 pound dumbells.  Yeah, ok, a year ago a 10 pound dumbell would kick my ass.  Now it would take 140-some-odd reps before I hit exhaustion using a 10# weight.  So I did cardio each day.  But food wise?  Yeah, we had breakfast and lunch brought to us during the meetings.  My choices were food that could make me fat again, or food that would make me really fat again.   I made my best choices, and then just made sure I had my bars and shakes ready for the breaks. 

Now, this week, my work schedule has been easy this week.  I had figured that when I got back from Dallas that I would start rolling out the new systems right away, so I did our managers schedule without me being on it.  Well, I don't start rolling out the new systems until next week.  So this week I started making my restaurant ready to go on without me.  As I roll out this new system, I won't be in my restaurant for six weeks.  And considering I have been the one doing basically 100% of the admin work in the restaurant, I  had to spend this week getting my managers ready to start doing my job.  And I have just this one week to do it.  I also had to button down and polish up the place as the corporate big wigs will be in town next week doing interviews for the promotion that I am going for, so I need the place looking fantastic.   I have it about as ready as it will ever be.  Now I have to look forward to an insanely busy week.  I'll be training my restaurant on the new system starting Monday.  It will require me to be at work basically from 8 AM - to - 10 PM Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday & Friday I'll be there from 11 AM -11 PM.  Crazy hours.  Then throw in that I have my interview for the promotion on Wednesday (which just happens to be the day that my restaurant goes live with the new system, hopefully I won't be distracted and I'll be able to focus on the interview and not worry about how things are back at the restaurant).  The good news is I'll then have the weekend off.  It's been so incredibly long since I've had a weekend off.  And I'll get six weekends off in a row while I go around and install the new system in the other restaurants here in the Twin Cities.  And if the interview goes well, I'll get the promotion and the next time I step foot in what is currently my restaurant, I'll be the District Operator and not just the General Manager.

The week I spent in Dallas was the last week of my 4th challenge.  Not exactly the way you want to close out a challenge.  Especially since I let the holiday season go straight to my belly (oooooh cookies!).  I didn't do any final weights or measurements.  I'll wait until I start up again this week to get my measurements.  I'm sure there will be gains in my muscle mass, and in my belly mass.  I took this week partially off (I still got to the gym four times, and 90% of my meals were clean) and I'll be starting challenge #5 on Monday.  Challenge Number Five.  This ain't a diet folks, it becomes a way of life.  This will also almost mark 1 year of doing BFL.  I bought the book on January 20th of last year and started my 1st challenge on February 7th.  Now I'll be starting my fifth challenge.  There's been a LOT of change in one year,  and there's also been a lot I could have done better.  But, um, yeah... starting a challenge when I'll be at work for 14 hours a day will make things interesting, that's for sure.  I'll have to bring plenty of pre-made meals with, or make sure I have a boat load of bars and shakes.

What else have I been up to this week?  I started taking Spanish lessons at home.  I know a lot of Spanish at work, where I am able to give directions in Spanish, but I fail miserably when I need to talk about out-of-work things with my Spanish speaking staff.  I also started reading The DaVinci Code.  I'm about 1/4th of the way into it and so far it is a fantastic and addicting book.  And I've watched this weeks 'Lost' three times.  This show is so amazing.  I can't believe how often they are able to surprise the crap out of you with how the plot twists and turns.  The show was ticking me off a little bit with their 4-week hiatus during   December, but these two weeks since they have been back agian... WOW!           

Well, I saved this weeks Friday Night, er, Saturday Afternoon video for the end.  I've given up trying that fireworks video.  Instead you get to see a monkey.  Enjoy!  Seriously.  The video is about a monkey.  A Tiger Tormenting Monkey. 

Click here to see the video: Monkey vs. Tiger   

I can feel it... I'm back on track!

"ALL-ABOARD!" It's been a LONG few months.  Yeah, that um, "unofficial" Bulking-phase I was on has finally been kicked to the curb.   I honestly can't remember the last time I put 2 clean days together, much less even have A clean day.  Especially at work.  Work was a temptation I couldn't eat enough of.  Baking brownies and cookies all day long has helped build my sales, but it also helped build my belly.  When I 1st started BFL, something just clicked in me.  I had absolutely no desire at all for anything I shouldn't eat.  OK, free days were friggin hog wild in the beginning, but my clean days were clean.  Somewhere along the way, whatever had clicked on for me suddenly clicked off and there was no stopping me when the thought of a cookie entered my head.  I still ate clean meals, I just couldn't stop myself from rushing to the bakery on a whim. 

But now it's back.  It is SO back.  It is now Thursday, and I have not once thought of grabbing a little brownie or cookie.  Just the thought of something from the bakery makes me cringe.  I even spent some quality time looking over our bakery display case today.  I was literally leaning over the case, arms resting on the top of it, and all I did was give those fat-makers that little grin you give when you know you've won.  I have ate to plan all week long.  I have kicked ass in the gym.  I am once again kicking fat to the curb. 

C4 W1 D1

Today I started my 4th challenge in Body-for-LIFE.  It was good to get back into it again.  Last week I took a free week, and half-way through the week I really found myself missing the structure BFL brings.  Getting hungry and not knowing when or what I was going to eat sucked.  The week before I was in Florida, so I had that week off too.  And the last two weeks of my 3rd challenge saw me missing more than I made.  I missed workouts, I cheated with some bad food pretty much every day.  So, I've basically gone a month without doing the things that have helped me get back in shape.  Surprisingly, in this month of not doing things right, I only put on five pounds.  I'm starting this challenge at 219.

I have made a couple of changes to help me get going again with this 4th challenge.  The 1st is I am mixing in some BFFM with my BFL.  BFFM is Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, a book/system written by Tom Venuto.  The biggest thing I am getting from BFFM is carb cycling.  I'll be limiting my carbs for three days, and then going carb heavy on the 4th day.  I'll also be managing my carbs better as to which ones I eat early in the day and which ones are better for late in the day.  Making these adjustments will hopefully help me turn my metabolism up a notch or two.

The other change is I have joined a gym.  I have basically reached my limit in what I could do at home without spending a ton of money on new equipment.  I had my first workout this afternoon and I had one heck of a workout.  My arms were shaking for a couple of hours after leaving the gym. 

So, I started off with a very good workout, and I've followed my eating plan to a 'T'.  I have one meal left and it will put me right at my goals for the day.  Hopefully by the time New Years rolls along, I'll be bringing a six-pack to the New Years Eve bash. 

Another Day, Another Pound

Wow, I'm now half excited and half angry at the same time.  I'm excited because I've now dropped four pounds so far this week!  I'm blown away at how fast the blubber is melting away.  But I'm angry because all I'm doing is re-focusing on my plan and sticking to it.  I've been doing the BFL thing for seven+ months now, but the past few months have been more hit or miss than what I should have been doing.  I was still seeing small changes, but now that I've re-focused, I'm losing weight again like I did back in February and March.  I know that the scale isn't everything, and they can be pretty damn evil sometimes, but the weight loss is a BIG boost to my moral and my commitment. 

The most amazing thing about this week is I've cut 500-600 calories out of what I was eating a week ago, and I'm never hungry!  How does that work?  The past few weeks have seen me eat clean meals, but cheat at work by grabbing some M&M's here or some Reese's peanut butter cups there.  I was snacking because I was always hungry.  It was driving me nuts because since I've been doing bfl, I noticed I never really got hungry anymore.  Then the last few weeks hit and WHAM!  Hunger rumblin' in my belly.  Now this week, I cut way down on my calories, and not only am I not ever hungry, I'm usually still feeling full when my next meal time comes around.  It's been a weird change, but right now it's working, so I'm going keep riding it.   

Running Man

I added another new wrinkle to my workout on Thursday.  Instead of either riding my exercise bike, or going out and jogging for my HIIT, I went out and RAN.  I did the 1st ten minutes of my HIIT workout on my exercises bike, and then I went outside and KILLED it!  I wasn't just doing a little 'let's see how far we can go' slow speed jog, I ran like I was running a 400 yard dash when you're going as hard as you can while trying to save some juice for the final stretch.  MAN, DID THIS EVER FEEL GOOOOD!  I still had my form down from my track days, and that felt good too.  My knees were up high, and my feet were kicking my butt.  I did two laps around my block, and I couldn't walk another step when I finished the 2ND lap.  Now, I didn't race the whole two laps, I ran about 70% of the time and caught my breath a couple of times.

Work was a good day on Thursday.  It was a close to a perfect day as we could get.  It was busy enough to keep everyone on their toes, but not so busy to bury us.  And I was able to get all of my crap done and got out of there with just a short 8 hour shift.  Ahhh... it was nice to get out of there like that.

I'm getting excited about the new season of 'Lost'.  I saw an ad for the new season last night and it had a website listed at the end of the ad.  www.oceanic-air.com.  The site is set up as one big puzzle.  There are clues/games all over the site, and if you figure them out, it gives you video clips, and opens up other parts of the web site.  Just like the show itself, the web site is trying to keep us guessing.  They are also changing things as people figure out the new tricks.  After I finished figuring out some of the tricks on the web site, it brought me to a 'Lost' message board, where they had listings of all of the info that has been on, and removed from the oceanic-air web site.  They also had a LOT of debate about what different things from last seasons shows meant, which was very fun to read.  But it also had people talking about what is going to happen this upcoming season.  I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY OF THAT YET!!!  I want the shows to surprise me when they or on TV, and reading about what is going to happen ahead of time would take away one of my favorite things about this show, it's mystery.  I also found out that September 6Th is going to be a very good day.  It's the day the complete 1st season of 'Lost' comes out on DVD.  I still have not seen the 1st episode, and I missed most of the 2ND-4Th episodes.  So, yeah, after September 6Th, my butt is going to be glued to my TV as I get caught up on the shows again anticipating the 2ND season starting on Sept. 21st!

BEST WORKOUT EVER

That's all I have to say. Best Workout Ever.

OK, I lied, I do have more to say. I changed up my routine today as I do every four weeks, but this time I did a 100% change to all new excercises that I have never done before. Sure, some of them are just little modifications to other workouts I have done. But they were all new movements affecting new muscles. And to top it off, I started off with higher weights than I usually would have. My arms, chest and back are PUMPED!!! I LOVE the feeling of the burn after a good workout!!!

Today starts week four of my 3rd BFL challenge.  Last week was a pretty pathetic week.  I got my cardio HIIT's in, but I didn't get a single weight lifting session in.  NOT Good!!!  You can't burn fat if you're not building muscle. 

I've also put a few new motivational quotes up on my workout wall to help keep me focused and motivaded.  Here they are:

"Pain is weakness leaving your body"

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career.  I've lost almost 300 games.  26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and I missed.  I've failed over and over and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed" - Michael Jordan

"This is my body.  I can do whatever I want with it.  I can push it.  Study it.  Tweak it.  Listen to it.  Everybody wants to know what I am on.  What am I on?  I'm on my bike 6 hours a day busting my ass.  What are you on?" - Lance Armstrong

Team Challenge!!

I have joined a Team Challenge on the Bodyforlife-Tracker web site.  It is a four week challenge that is designed for nothing more than giving us extra motivation to stick to our plans.  Right now there are seven teams competing against each other.  We score points by following our daily goals.  We score all of our points by drinking enough water, doing our scheduled workouts, and eating our plan meals for the day.  We are also tracking weight and body fat progress for the four weeks.  I was already motivated for this challenge, this will just be an extra incentive to get everything done!  It also makes the message boards on the tracker web site more lively as everyone is challenging the other teams.  I'm starting this four week challenge with a weight of 219 and bf% of 18.6. 

In my own 12 week challenge, I just completed week two.  My Body-fat% is down 1.6%, and I have lost and increadible total of seven inches total from my chest, waist, hips, biceps, thighs and calves!  But, I weight one pound more.  It's strange how all of my numbers keep getting better, except for my weight.  So far in these two weeks, I have put on 4.3 pounds of muscle, and lost 3.3 pounds of fat.  I think I am going to start adding some extra cardio workouts and hopefully that will help lower the body weight. 

Upper Body Work Out!

Oh man, what a workout!!!  I increased the weights on all of my exercises today, and my body is pumped after that great workout!  I did bench press, bench flyes, shoulder press, shoulder extensions, one-armed rows, tricep extensions, and hammer curls and I pushed to fatigue on the last set of each exercises.  I might not be able to move much when I get to work, but damn, I feel good now!