respect

Lord, help me to be thankful every day
For the "little things" that come my way.
The early morning sunrise at the crack of dawn;
The dew and the mist that cover my lawn;
My health that permits me to arise
Each morning to cook breakfast, and as I surmise
The various chores of the day ahead
Help me to view them with zeal, not dread.

Lord, help me to see your view of life,
To be more helpful to others in the daily strife
Of survival to the end in this temporary place
To love so that I may come face to face
with You forever in Paradise, the home of the soul
When in death I close my eyes and reach my goal.

Edelle Falkner 1916-2009

Visceral Chubby

OK. OK. Meg snapped the pics tonight. They 're disgusting. However, I forgot that I lost the cable to upload to my puter at home so I'll havta do it tomorrow at work. She did take measurments though....ew.

OK. it must be re-stated that thesea are non-flexing and non-sucking-in. I expect all parties involved to follow the same rigi standards. or lie. doesn't really matter to me.

shoulders: 50.75"

neck: 17"

chest: 43.5"

Belly: 39.5"

waist: 37" (this is bullshit)

Upper Arm right: 15.75"

Upper Arm left: 15.75"

Upper Leg right: 24.75"

Upper Leg left: 24.5"

After this is all over with, I gotta recommend Platte Valley 100% CORN WHISKEY (McCormick distilling CO., Weston, MO, - since 1856!) Comes in a mason jar. this shit would strip the paint stripes off an interstate highway.

Holy crap, I really need to pick something heavy up right now.

Cheers. It's on in the morning.

Ketch-up

OK. Just wanted to quickly post the high points of my last week on the 5/3/1 program I've been doing. Mostly to show that I haven't totaly been slacking off.

Incline bench:
245lbs x 5
255lbs x 3
275lbs x 0 (hungover, tired, and pissed off)
Not my best session

Rack Pulls:
425 x 5
475 x 3
505 x 4 (good one)
Felt so good on these I unloaded the bar and re-loaded to 505 on the floor. Pulled it to the bottem of my knee caps and stalled. Held it for about three really slow second and dropped it. I was disappointed, but it's still forward progress.

Two board press:
295 x 5
345 x 3
385 x 1 (I fought this one to the end and nailed it. Felt pretty good about that.)

Parallel box squat:
385 x 5
425 x 3
475 x 2 (Very heavy, but not everything I had. I've got more in me.)
That was on 4.5 hours of sleep and 100 degrees in the garage. Now that's healthy living!

Cheers.

Meat For the Beast

So here's what a $600 menu looks like.

Ammendment

After some careful consideration I've decided to stick to the workouts prescribed with the V-diet. As much as I'm enjoying the program I'm doing now, my progress has stalled. I've been pushing super heavy for a long time now and my shoulders and hips are starting to tell me they need a break as much as my liver. I'm going to do the advanced training program and try to be very strict about tempo and rest times. This whole thing is, after all, a form of "bodybuilding". When in hell, do what the banana-hammock clad grape smugglers do to get lean! Don't get me wrong, I don't think this will be an easy out. The programs look challenging enough. It'll just be a really different kind of session than I'm used to. Oh well. Let the burn begin!

Also

I've been thinking about this next month dieting. I've got roughly a decade of garbage to blow out of my system, but on top of that I've got change some bad habits over the course of the month or the results will be very short lived. Obviously, not drinking for 30 days should curtail my current desire to drink on a daily basis. Bad eating habits will go as well. But there are other things that I need to purge from myself. I've gotten to where I cuss like a sailor. Interestingly, I've noticed that the worse my language gets, the worse my attitude about life in general becomes, and my health has begun to decline in a seemingly direct relation. I was reading James this morning and came across this statement that I'd never really paid much attention to: "We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." (James 3:2 NIV) and "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." (James 3:6 NIV). It appears to me that the half-brother of Jesus saw a correlation between what comes out of our mouth and our well being.
I've always wanted to do a fast, but I've managed to find an excuse not to every time its come up. I suggest that we treat this diet like a month long fast. When it sucks and when I'm hungry I want to commit to praying and leaning on you guys rather than projecting my struggles onto my wife and kids, essentially breaking another bad habit and becoming a better husband and dad at the same time. Of course, this would mean that we're going to have to hold each other accountable for more than just eating and drinking. What do you guys think?

It's officially official.

I ordered my V-Diet kit today! Hooray! Let the suffering begin.
Well it went like this: I just lived through one of the most unhealthy extended weekends of my life. I woke up this morning exhausted, weak, and struggling to get my jeans buttonted. Meg called me this morning and told me that we got our tax return. At the same time I was handed a healthy expense check for the traveling I've been doing and I'll get another one in a couple of days. Just those two expense checks will almost cover the whole cost. I figured I'd better jump on it while I got it. Anyhow, now that I've been liberated from nearly 600 bones I'm ready to beat myself into healthy submission. I'm sick of being fat. I'm sick of feeling like shit. And I'm sick of being weaker in every area of my life than I have the potential for.

Blah!

Happy Friday (technically)

Oh boy. I feel like dookie. Went to bed at 9:30 last night cuz i couldna keep my eyes open. woke up at 11:00 and laid in bed staring into the dark until 4:00. I don't know what the heck was up with that, but I feel like I was in a train wreck. m gonna try to get through a workout this afternoon, go home, and pass out.

B- Here's the link to the V-Diet

VD

(not to be confused with venereal disease) It's almost time for the velocity diet! Yee-Haww! So, I'm wondering how we want to coordinate this? May 1st is a Friday. I suggest we start on Sat. the 2nd. Not that it matters, but I don't like starting things (with the exception of a case of beer) on Friday. Also, by then I should have the funds to go on this little journey of pain, suffering, and sobriety.

Back to the grind

Seems like I haven't been in the gym in over a year. I guess it's just been since last week, but already I feel like I've lost everything and become a normal 30-something butterball. It hasn't all just been laziness. I thought I had ruptured a portion of my hamstring on my right leg from doing hamstring curls (of all things) last week. A couple days after the workout I had a nice big feverish knot behind my knee and it killed me to move my leg. Then Monday night I destroyed my right ankle while cleaning out my barn. Turns out it's difficult to do squats or dead lifts when one whole leg is useless. I'm going in for a bench workout this afternoon. I think by Friday I'll be healed up enough to pull again.
After my workout I'm going to attend my first Colonial Hill Baptist Church Men's shooting club. some guys put it together last year, but I knew nothing about it. today is the first day for this season. apparently, it's a group of guys that get together once a month, pray, and have contests shooting 22 cal. pistols. could be interesting. The really funny thing is that within the last year I've owned two of the best target 22's you can buy. the Walther P22 and the Ruger charger. Now I'm down to a 1953 H&R 22 revolver and a High Standard H-D Military that belonged to our grandmother. The revolver works well but it's not exactly a target gun. The other one is much more interesting. I haven't shot in since I was in high school and I remember it jamming pretty bad then. I did a little research on it and it turns out it is a great target gun and supposedly very reliable. I'm going to give it a good stripping and cleaning at lunch today. could be all it needs to work like a champ. I don't expect to win any medals. I think there will be a couple of ex-cops and a retired Texas Ranger. Despite those egos, I'm sure it will be a good time.

As far as hunting the land around my house: I just got permission on Tuesday to annihilate the herd of pigs on the property. You need to come down and bag some pork.