Some Like it HOT!

GOAL UPDATE (10 weeks down, 3 to go)

Today is Sunday, a rest day …day 70 of 90

1. BMI = Normal : ACCOMPLISHED! (wt 168)
2. 32” jeans : ACCOMPLISHED!, I can wear 29’s.
3. 30 Push Ups : ACCOMPLISHED! ** completed 35 today with Tammy as my witness.
   
   Up from 32 last week!!!!
4. Beat sons in Basketball : ACCOMPLISHED!
   
   
5. 7 Minute Mile – Last week I ran an 8:19 mile, my back is still bothering me, did not attempt to run a mile today. It has now been a week since I’ve done the Tabata sprints.
   
   
   

Some Like it HOT! …some do not.

Facts:

1) Tammy (my wife) does not like spicy hot foods.

2) Tammy is well aware that I cook spicy hot foods including chili on a regular basis.

3) She knows that we are growing Chili plants.

Situation:

Given the facts above…if you were Tammy, would you walk into the kitchen in the middle of meal preparation and pop one of these into your mouth????

I wouldn't either....and do you know what?

Tammy won't do it again! :)

These are Hababero Peppers...they rank between 100,000 to 300,000 on the Scoville Scale.

Just for a frame of reference Jalepenos top out @ 8,000 Scoville units and Cayennes @ 50,000... SO THESE ARE HOT PEPPERS!

The peppers stayed in her mouth for only a second, still Tammy whined and her eyes teared up...she started drinking water...like a rookie. She should know that drinking will not do the trick. In this case, you should eat bread or other food that will "soak" up the plant oils.

Thirty minutes later she was still complaining about the pain. LOL! ... I mean, bless her heart.

FYI - I put the tip of a pepper to my tongue...it was pretty extreme.

Max the Magnificent

Max provides me with amusement and entertainment on a daily basis. This is a picture of Max on our bed. If you knew the ins, outs and what-have-yous, this picture would tell you that Tammy is NOT in the house.

If Tammy is in the house...he will not jump up on our bed under ANY circumstances.

When the cat's away...the mice will play.

I guess he figures...what she doesn't know...won't hurt HIM! :)

Take Care,

Steve

Max's High Fiber Diet....no he didn't eat my weed salad.

Max went High Fiber …could be trouble?

Last night I ended up running 6 miles and when I got closer to home I became concerned. Typically Max starts barking and jumping up and down when he sees me coming. Last night there was no bark, no problem it happens some times. Usually the only time he doesn't bark...if he has done something bad....

I open the door, he’s doesn’t even jump up to greet me…now I know he's done something he thinks is bad.

In Max’s world that can be something like taking a pillow off the bed or it can be taking the trash can and spreading the contents all over the house.

I look over to my left and see Max laying on the floor. He's doing his equivalent of, “Hey dad, just laying here…nothing much going on.” Or it could be the old, “If I lay here quietly, maybe he won’t notice.” approach.

I say, "hello Max"...he doesn't budge. This isn't a good sign, he's really thinking he did something bad. I'm thinking a trash can's contents will soon be visible and I'll have to clean it up....late at night after running 6 miles...I am NOT a happy camper.

I look at Max and ask him again...softly, "Max what did you do?"....he doesn't flinch. This can't be good.

I walk into the kitchen and I see it….Max REALLY cheated on his diet! I had bought this loaf of bread yesterday and I had eaten one….(1) piece of bread….Max ate practically the entire loaf….at least it was whole wheat.

For humans, 25g of dietary fiber is plenty…max had 40g in one sitting.

From a "mess" standpoint I was relieved but I have heard of dogs being diagnosed with Diabetes so I was concerned about him eating an entire loaf of bread. It is now evening the day after and Max seems to be doing fine.

P90X

I feel like a kid who receives a cone of ice cream everyday and each day it is a different flavor. When asked what his favorite flavor is…he answers "this one".

By design, each of the P90X workouts are different and while I may not always enjoying them while I am performing the workouts, afterwards I really do like them all.

You know the old saying, no pain no gain….if you do these workouts with intensity, you will be sore. So, when you wake up sore in the morning…you know you are making progress.

Today I had Chest/Shoulders/Triceps…if you “bring” the intensity…you will get a serious workout and I did….so I should be sore tomorrow. :) Speaking of tomorrow I have Plyometrics, there is a lot of cardio work with squats, lunges and actual jumping in the workout. To vary the intensity, you can perform most of these with or without weights.

Cya,

Steve

XXX ... maX’s p90X piX

I know I'm reaching here with the title...but as we all know, the writing in this blog isn't very good and some of you won't read unless it's a "catchy" title. :)

Just a quick note, each day I typically have a topic in mind for my blog post before I begin to write it. So I open up my word processor and usually before I have written a couple of sentences…the topic has changed.

Today is no different; my topic initially was going to be about recent studies on obesity in US. Did you know that approximately 36% of Americans are now OBESE! That will lead to ever higher healthcare costs PER PERSON not just in total spending. You see, not only will poor health affect you individually, (longevity, quality of life, increased costs etc) but it will affect the nation as a whole…..I was going to talk about that but decided not to…..instead I got side tracked. :)

Max was acting more reserved than normal this morning, as you can see by the pic and he didn’t want to talk about it...at first.

FYI - I was going to use the word melancholy because ...I think that word is more accurate, but I thought I might lose some readers if I used it. It's just not a word used "around here". :)

Back to maX, as the morning wore on, he acted like something was bothering him but if I asked him he said, 'oh nothing, don't worry about it'. I finally figured it out...he was upset because I had posted my pics on the blog but did not post his. I had to do something...just look at him. SO, to smooth things over…here are the overdue P90X 30 day pics for Max.

Taking pictures of Max isn't easy. He doesn’t like to have his picture taken. Yet, he wants them posted…dogs…go figure…can’t live with them, can’t live without them....or is that women...?

WHAT WAS THAT!
I swear I didn’t see this in real time…did he lick is lips or is he eating a purple onion skin??

LOL! I've never seen a pic like this...it's kind of odd looking....isn't it? Doesn't look like a dog licking his lips or nose or whatever the heck he was licking at the time.

Max thinks this is his best “side”. He tucked in his tail due to privacy issues, not to mention possible TOS violations. (terms of service…no porn in other words…)

You can’t count ribs on Max….yet. A few more Yoga Relaxation Therapies and he should be getting close.

Have a great day!

Steve

Updates P90X and Stuff.

My youngest son graduated HS Saturday, it was a happy yet sad day. Saturday was the last public school graduation that I will attend for a son. I know what you are thinking…”but what about Max?”….I DID NOT FORGET ABOUT MAX!!…he’s home schooled.

Speaking of Max…he got really mad one time, I wouldn’t feed him and it was past his scheduled feeding time.…

...the next thing I knew the room started shaking and then Max started glowing a bright red…since that day, Max is fed on schedule.

P90X - Week 3 is History! It was a tough week to get through; the primary reason for this I believe is the adding of running to my routine about 10 days ago. I ended up running 17.5 miles this week.

Week 4 starts tomorrow and they call it Recovery Week – It’s not an easy week, there will be more cardio and less weight / resistance training. The purpose is to allow your muscle to re-cooperate and get ready for another (3) week block of weight training.

I TRY not to do any physical training on Sundays (my rest day)…but to be honest it’s difficult to do nothing. If I do nothing, I feel like I am falling behind… So, I did what I did last Sunday and that is perform some tests to see how my goals are coming along.

Goal Updates (with 3 weeks down and 10 to go) :

1) Goal to stay within “normal” BMI Rating. Weighed 176 lbs this morning so my BMI range is still “normal”.

2) Goal of 30 push ups – completed 16 Push Ups this morning, this was a pleasant surprise. I had done 13 last week and 7 before I started P90X.

3) Goal: Running 7 minute mile: Last week I ran a sub-9 minute mile, I didn’t use a stop watch so I didn’t know if it was an 8:01 or an 8:59 minute mile. Today I used a stop watch and this was an UN-pleasant surprise. Today I ran an 8:53 minute mile….not bad I guess for a 48 yr old man who had the body shape of a lima bean a few months ago….BUT I was hoping to be closer to 8:00. To run a 7 minute mile, I will have to shave almost 2 minutes off my mile time…that will be tough to do.

4) 32” jeans – no change

5) Beating my sons in basketball – no update. I did go to a court and shoot some today. Tammy, my wife took the pictures. As you can plainly see…”I still got it”, if somebody wants some…. Bring it! :)

I do want to point out a couple of things...notice the muscular arm and delts....uh huh. LOL! However, THE MOST important thing I want to point out....the perfect form. If you could bottle this...well, I don't even want to think about it.

Max the Magnificent!

In doing market analysis of my page CTRs and eCPMs, I noted an incremental variance in click-thru rates on the days I have digital images of Max.

….or to put it another way, people like to see pictures of MAXIMUS!

Therefore…I bring you “Max the Magnificent”.

To the left, is Max waiting for me to fix him breakfast. Usually, a couple of days each week I clean out the refrigerator. I take out some of the food that is getting older and I add it to Max’s dogfood.

NO I DO NOT FEED MAX OLD & SPOILED FOOD!!

I do however, feed the spoiled dog, “older” food.

You know, food that has "some age" but doesn't yet have the bacterial levels high enough to make them visible to the naked eye. (ok, I'll leave this alone now).

Wait a minute….I think I have the pics mixed up.

I do have the pics mixed up, the first picture is actually Max performing another Yoga Relaxation Therapy Session, I get these confused!!!

The second picture (to the right) is Max waiting for breakfast. (I have to keep these organized better.)

If you look closely you can see the difference.

In the first pic, he is about to start panting from the strain of the Yoga Relaxation Therapy Session. Actually, he started panting immediately after the picture was taken.

In the pic to the right, you can clearly see that his eyes are laser focused on the food handler, he's attempting to discern any movements that might suggest a meal or snack may be forthcoming.

Then....BAM! He's "on location" and as you can see in the picture to the left, he means business.

If you look closely, you'll notice that drool has formed on the left side of his jaw, it can form quickly and in seemingly endless supplies.

BTW, I sent NASA an email about using Max's drool as a jet propulsion lubricant. The day after the email, these black helicopters started flying over my house...I wonder if it has anything to do with the email???

Enough about Max ALREADY!

I have actually lost another pound... "and another one bites the dust."

To the right is a picture of my scale this morning, 174 lbs! A NEW LOW has been reached. I really don't mind losing another pound, but I don't want to lose any more weight. I want to maintain and turn remaining fat into muscle.

I honestly feel that I am eating a “ton” of food…I eat 4-6 meals a day. Granted they are smaller meals BUT I do NOT feel hungry, when I feel hungry….I eat. I may have to eat more....

Caloric Expenditures – in addition to my P90X workouts 6 days a week, I’ve started adding in some jogging. I was hesitant at first but after talking with some folks online who do P90X and run, I’ve added it back in to my routine. One lady in particular was very helpful, she is and has done P90X as part of her marathon training...very impressive woman. She says that P90X gives her added strength and flexibility which assists with her running but it also reduces the odds of injuries.

On top of all of the benefits, I truly do enjoy running/jogging. I started out jogging …only recently could what I do be called “running”. I am sure there are “speed walkers” who have better mile times than I do…or did.

Miles Last 7 days:

Wednesday 5.6 miles (this was my “punishment” run, after eating pizza)
Saturday 5.6 miles
Sunday 1 mile
Monday 2 miles
Tuesday 5.6 miles

My plan is to maintain 15-20 miles per week but only run when my body feels like it. This is still a decent number of miles but down from the 30 - 40 miles I was running before the P90X workouts.

Until we meet again,

Steve

Totally Nude Before and After Pics

I promised Bryan (a former co-worker) that I would post some “totally nude” Before and After pictures today. When I mentioned this to Bryan, he seemed overly excited about the pictures, which I thought was odd at the time, apparently he assumed they would be of me. :)

Soooo without further delay, here are the Totally Nude Before and After Pics.

Before After

Max, didn’t lose much weight...to be honest, he didn’t lose any. He does fine with the prepared meals but tends to eat a lot of snacks between meals.

Max didn’t help his cause with a less than enthusiastic work out regimen. He does excel in the Yoga Relaxation Therapy Sessions, I'm timing him now while I write this blog.

What's that Max? Yes Max, in 5 seconds it will be time to roll over, 5-4-3-2-1, GO!

Publish Post

Max's legal name is Cooksey's King Maximus, he's an AKC registered Yellow Lab and our youngest son. If you enjoy this post, let Max know about it.