7/52 - Week 1

Not off to a very good start for my Project 7/52. Due to my slackitivity, my seven photos are from two different shoots. It's allowed, of course, but I was hoping for a better mix. We'll see what the next week brings.

Anyway, here we go for this week.

This is me holding my new nephew, Jaxson Edward Wilson; my sister's second child. He was born on January 5th of this year.

Here we have my son holding his new cousin. My son is very unlike me when I was his age. He loves babies and little kids. I guess he gets that from his Mom. :)

My daughter holding her new cousin. She too loves babies. I just hope they remain other people's babies for a long time! :)

My wife, holding her nephew. She commented that he looks so round. Not chubby or fat, just very... roundish. :) He was born via C-section, so his head didn't have a chance to become temporarily deformed like some newborns. His ears are really tiny too. He's a cutie.

I received a few Hot Wheels cars over the Christmas holidays and decided to take photos of them to post in a couple of the Hot Wheels Flickr groups. This, unfortunately, isn't one of them. :) I've had this one for some time. I like it because it's different.

This also isn't one of them, but it's a Mustang and that makes it one of my favourites. I started mostly collecting Mustangs years ago. It has expanded a little to to include cool looking muscle cars or any other car that happens to catch my eye. I don't go crazy buying everything in sight.

This one is one that I got for Christmas, in my stocking. A 2010 Camaro.

And that's that for week 1, with about ten minutes to go. Yeh, technically I'm probably a day late since week 1 ended yesterday, but it's far easier for me to update this and post them all on a Sunday... so there. :) The week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday for this.

Stready as I go - Week 8 progress

I was down to 252½ lbs this past week, but in the last two days I put a couple back on. It's not like I went crazy and over my calorie limit, so I'm not entirely sure what happened. I guess stuff like that will happen anyway. I'm not going to be too concerned about it, for now. :)

My workouts are still once every two days. I find I have way more energy this way. Perhaps that parts of why I put a couple of pounds back on...

I'm still doing the cardio boxing as my main workout, with a 3lb weight in each hand. I'm noticing that they're getting easier than when I first started using weights, which is pretty cool.

I took my measurements a at some point this week and also managed to find the measurements I took in mid-December. Neck, waist, chest and hips were all down anywhere from a ½ inch to 1½ inches. More progress. :)

New Photo Project

I've been toying with the idea of starting a new Project 52, but the fact that I've already done it sort of makes it seem "ho hum". I'm fairly certain that I couldn't handle a Project 365. It takes more commitment than I think I have and I've seen more than a few fail after a few months.

While reading about the return of DaniGirl's Project 365 on her blog, I read a suggestion in the comments about doing a "7/52".

A quick Google search later and I discovered that this might be something I could handle; post 7 photos per week, for 52 weeks. The photos can be taken all in one day, over a couple, or even daily. The only "rule" is that it's 7 photos per week. During my Project 52, on more than one occasion, I had to choose one from many. This makes me a little more confident that this idea could succeed.

Since this is the first full week of the new year and I have half a week to decide. :)

No excuses now - Week 7 progress

I survived the Christmas and New Year indulgences.

Overall, it wasn't anywhere near as evil as I expected it to be and I managed to say somewhat on track. My weight this morning was just under 257 lbs.

I managed to break the 9000 calorie mark at the end of December and I'm just over 500 calories away from reaching 10,000 calories. 10,000 is the last calorie achievement on Xbox Live. When I started this, it seemed so far away.

So anxious to get below 250 lbs. :)

"Out with the old. In with the new"

I had planned to write about this past year, and what I hoped the new year would bring. Like every other blog out there, I guess. After an hour of trying to formulate something that didn't sound corny, I gave up.

Screw it. Keeping it simple always works.

Goodbye 2010; it's been a slice.

Hello 2011.

Resolutions? Who needs them? I quit smoking without one. If you've read any of my previous blog postings, it should be obvious what's next.

Clean slate. New experiences. New goals. New determination to reach those goals. And maybe a little fun thrown in.

I'm ready.

I think.

More than just the turkey got stuffed - Week 6 progress

I should have seen it coming after the Christmas morning breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon and hash browns exceeded half of my daily calorie intake.

Despite switching from working out daily to every two days, I had to work out yesterday to counteract the evil to come in the form of Christmas dinner. On the plus side, the workout yesterday was the biggest calorie-burner for me this month at 459 slayed calories.

Dinner came and went. It was damn good, but I paid for it adding ~2000 calories to the ~1400 I ate at breakfast. And that doesn't even include the 7 or 8 beers later in the evening. It sure adds up quickly. It's no wonder I am the weight I am.

Anyway, the weigh-in this morning turned out to be no worse than yesterday's weigh-in at around 258. This leaves me at around 2lbs over my lowest so far, so all things considered, I'm not in bad shape (no pun intended). Since I'm off work for the Christmas holidays, I have a week to work it off -- again -- before New Years Eve arrives.

My wife bought me some 3 pound weights for Christmas to use with my workouts. I tried them yesterday when I did my YSFE cardio boxing. They even recommend using hand weights with some of the workouts. What a difference. It's too bad that there's no way to account for using weights in the workouts. I'm sure more calories are being burned and not counted.

Christmas Spirit -- it's what you make it

Every year, without fail, some people get offended that they are not wished a "Merry Christmas". Instead, they hear "Happy Holidays", or something else, and this is supposedly very wrong.

I used to hop aboard that same bandwagon. It was almost like... I felt I was being robbed of Christmas spirit, or something. Denied my right to have a Merry Christmas.

Over the years I have come to realize that it doesn't really matter what we say.

We're Canadians. We're multi-cultural. If you want to say Merry Christmas, go ahead. If you want to say Happy Holidays, go ahead. If you want to say Happy Hanukkah, go ahead. If someone gets offended by whatever you choose to say, that's their problem.

Christmas spirit is what you make it. Say whatever makes you happy. If you choose to say nothing at all, that's fine too. Life is too short to be upset over something so trivial, and you do get upset by it, then you are ruining your own Christmas spirit.

When it comes to Christmas, there are no rules... except maybe holding the door open for that person whose arms are full of gifts for their friends and family. :)

Merry Christmas.