Western Arab

The past week or so …

My youngest sister is now engaged. She had her party this weekend. Everything worked out well with all that. Obviously the talk of me getting married is now on everyone’s mind since she was the last in line to get engaged/married which leaves just me now. So everyone gives their hint here and there that it is time for me to get hitched. Congratulations to her.

So it has been pretty cool, not so bad. Seven kids six and under running around the house, opening doors that they never close after themselves, leaving trails of food, spilling drinks, poop time alarms going off, diapers changing, screaming and yelling, crying … the WHOLE kid package multiplied by seven. But really it has been cool, not as crazy as it should be I suppose.

I finally can complain about the new mac book not having firewire. It really is odd that they left it out. I didn’t think it was a big deal cause I didn’t really need it, until I wanted to transfer the mini-dv recording of the engagement to the computer to do some editing. Yah that was problematic. Luckily what became my gaming machine after getting the mac book, has 4 gigs or ram and I was able to transfer the video file to the windows machine and then copy it over to the mac. I suppose it is like some have said, they needed to remove the firewire so that they can justify their hefty price tag on the mac book pro, or maybe firewire will be dying out slowly as floppy disk drives did. Who knows but it was annoying not having the port.

Other than that, I have been missing my work outs and eating a lot more then I should, including lots and lots of junk food. I need to get back on schedule. Family get together usually meaning gaining a few pounds. At least that is what Arab families do, eat and eat, and complain about the weight we gain afterward. Complaining is usually done while eating more. What can we do? We love to eat! And the best tasting food is always that unhealthy fattening food like the lamb we had on the weekend. Delicious!

Treadmill

My workout routine as of now goes like this. I go to the gym atleast three times a week, that is every other day, which sometimes can be four times a week. At the gym I do pull ups, the amount I can do, pretty much two. Very pathetic I know, I used to do 15 easy but I was also 150lbs. Now I can only do two, but a few months back I only did one . So I do this so I can strength myself in that again, and get a stretch a bit before I get on the treadmill.

I set the treadmill to random so it inclines and declines randomly.  The level setting I put on four, I enter my weight, the time to 30 minutes, and I set my starting speed to 3.5. I walk to warm up at this speed for two minutes, then I increase it to 4.7. I jog/run at 4.7 for 20 minutes, decrease it to 3 for next 4 minutes and then increase it to 4.7 again for final 4 minutes. The machine then has a 5 minute cool down which I keep between 3 and 3.5. So I end up with a total of 35 minutes including the cool down, 400 calories burned and a total of 2.4 miles.

I have also been doing 60 crunches daily and have added 10 declined pushups as well. I do the crunhes sometime in the afternoon, and I have been doing the pushups at night time before going to bed. And that is my workout routine for now, it will probably change as I improve and I will add/subtract as needed.

Workout schedule is way off track, but with reason. I have been busy with family events the past week and have not gone to the gym. Normally this would be a big indicator of intention to quit the workout routine, setting off alarms. But that isn’t the case, I will be back at the gym tomorrow. Further I have started to doing 60 crunches everyday and that has been going on for probably a week, maybe more, so I am still getting something in. This is by no means a replacement to the workout, but an addition, the workout is the main activity. In order to burn calories and burn fat, I need to sweat, and I only do that running on the treadmill. The crunches are just to help shape up a bit.

Which leaves me still in the 200-204lb range. Must break 200 again. Must continue.  Flex!

199.5lbs

I finally started working on this site. It has almost been a year with this domain ready, and finally a start. What can I say, better late than never. February 2009. A start. I have been going to the gym routinely for the past few months, atleast three times a week. with one exception that I recall being one week when I was sick. Yes you can get sick in Florida and it does get cold, it was mid 40s at most and can’t be compared to the freezing days of New York City with below zero degree temperatures. I can’t stand the cold weather, even mid 40s. On January 28th, for the first time in a long time, my scale said 200lbs. That is right, I did lose weight, in fact this digital scale never read 200 or less with me on it since I got it four years ago. Even more, four days later the scale read 199.5lbs, the first time below 200!!! This all just means that I am working toward my goal and have made good progress. My overall goal is reaching 185-190lbs, preferably 185. Not that I was ever extremely overweight or obese, but I am still over weight.

The old days without responsibility, allowed for daily workouts, basketball, and hanging out. Being a computer programmer (mainly web programming, not that it matters, just like web stuff more ), means you sit all day as you would expect. And that is why I have taken on working out at least three times a week. That and health issues that arise from lack of movement. For now, it is running on a treadmill for 35 minutes. When I reach my goal, I will incorporate weight lifting like I used to do when I was fit .

What is this site going to be about? Obviously me, what I am thinking, feeling, not feeling, making, working, breaking, repairing, editing, changing … anything. A personal blog like everyone else, I know.