Ok let’s talk about me, my favorite subject.  I guess if you looked at my progress page you’ll see that I haven’t been focused on my goals much the last few months.  I worked hard the first two weeks of June.  Then my daughter came to visit, she just turned 13 so I got to hear "I’m a teenager now".  Blah blah blah.  She lives about 6 hrs away so I don’t get to see her a whole lot so I took time off from the gym to spend with her.  Naturally that time is spent doing and eating things that don’t help me achieve the goals I have set for myself but I can set new goals she’s only here for a short time before she goes home.  Then we went of vacation to St. John USVI.  If you have never been there or to the Carribean, put it on your list of things to do before you die.  My wife and I got married there 4 yrs ago and this is the 3rd time back and each time I am in awe of how beautiful that place is.  Anyway vacation wasn’t good for the goals either but give me credit, I did work out 3 times at the westin’s "gym".  I guess for a resort it wasn’t bad but come on.  Dumbells went all the way up to 65lbs.  No free weights and the machines were old.  I was told they are getting ready to remodel.  So maybe next time we go it will be better.

So we have about 2 months left of summer.  Usually labor day weekend is the last hurra for summer.  Just so happens we are going to the beach that weekend so I’m going to get re-focused on my goals. The only thing I know of between now and then is our company fishing trip the 3rd weekend in july.  So I should be able to stick to my diet and exercise routine pretty much for the next 2 months.  We’ll see how it goes and I’ll try to update my bodyspace more then I have been, keeps me focused.

This month I don’t think I have any plans until the last week when we go on vacation so I’m going to bust my a$$ before then.  Softball is about over and I think I’m going to retire.  This season has sucked and my shoulder feels like it’s going to fall off.  You could say that’s effecting my lifting too.  I’m not sure when fall league starts but as of right now I’m not going to play.  That will probably change once the season gets here.

I get past all that and then the wife pulls out the wife card and makes me go back home to louisanna for a long weekend.  Usually I don’t complain cause they got goooood food but that’s what I’m trying to avoid.  Anyway I didn’t do terrible there but I didn’t do good either.  Oh well another month and this is going to be a good one.  My last 3-4 workouts have really been good so I’m looking forward to May.

I’ve set new goals for myself since summertime is here.  June 24th we go on vacation to St. John, USVI.  So for that I want to look decent on the beach since I’ll have to walk around with no shirt.  Don’t want to scare the little kids ya know.  So over the next 8 weeks I’ll be busting my ass to make my goals.

Softball has kinda sucked but I think we’ve got our act together. We lost our first 3 games and one of them 20 to 0.  Yes we got shut out in a softball game.  But we rebounded from that embarrassing lose to win out last 3.  Even beating the team that shut us out.  They weren’t happy!!  So now it’s on to the second half of the season.  Wish us luck.

This softball season hasn’t gone the way I had hoped.  Last year fall season we were runner up with only one loss.  So far this year we have lost all 3 games with a combined total of 11 runs.  I mean we have the same guys as last year but nobody, including me, is playing worth a crap.  Well maybe this week we’ll turn it around.  I will say this, I can’t throw the ball because my shoulder is screwed up so it’s making my lifting weaker especially in bench and shoulder press.  This may be my last year for softball.  Either that or shoulder surgery and I don’t want that. 

We had our first softball game last Wednesday and I’m glad it was an exibition cause we were sucking it up.  Couldn’t hit, couldn’t field.  To say we were rusty would be an understatement, corroded is more like it.  The real season starts this coming Wednesday so we’ll see how we do then. 

March comes in with some of it’s own challanges.  I’ve got to go to Louisianna at some point I think to visit my wife’s family.  That will be time away from the gym and more than likely some bad eat’n.  Gotta enjoy it while I’m there.  Plus softball starts on the 14th.  We’ll be defending our championship title.  Well not really, we moved up a division from the Rec league to Competative.  Or D to C in most softball leagues.  I’ll keep posting the a$$ whoopin’s we hand out.  If we loose, I might even post those….maybe.

 Man, I thought I’d be closer to 260 by now………..:( 

Well lets see, so far this month I’ve lost 6 lbs for a total of 23 since the new year.  Not bad I guess.  I really can’t tell much.  It’s funny on some people if they gain 5 lbs it’s noticable but I lose 23 and can only tell a little.  I guess I have a vision of myself and it differs from what other people see.  Like back in the day when I wasn’t a disgusting fat body and people would say “do you play football” ya know and crap like that, I never got it.  I never considered myself “big”.  Heck even when I was pushing 300 I didn’t think I looked like i weighed that much.  I saw a guy on tv, I think it was an MMA fight or something and he weighed 295 and was a big fat a$$.  I ask my wife if I looked like that, of course she said “not that bad” but still.  Anyway 23 down another 50 or so to go.  I will say it’s coming off alot faster then I could have hoped.  I just hope it keeps coming off. 

Since it has been going so well I figured I’d change my goals around a bit.  We’re suppose to go whitewater rafting in WV the first weekend in May.  I’d like to be in the 240 range by then.  I’ll keep training hard and just maybe I’ll get there. 

Also so far I’ve been able to keep muscle and get stronger while on a restricted diet.  If I can keep that up I’ll be in good shape.

 I want to talk about BF% for a moment.  I have a digital caliper thing, I can’t remember the name of it, I think it’s accucheck or something.  Anyway, I’m not really sure how accurate it really is on me.  I read somewhere that If you’re in the mid teens or less in BF than they are pretty accurate.  Well I’m not there yet so who knows.  If I did the math right last month I lost 20 lbs of fat and gained 3 lbs of muscle.  Well that sounds a little hard to believe really.  I mean I have dieted and all that good stuff but I think that’s a bit extreme.  I guess we’ll see at the first of march, if I can duplicate the loss I’ll be freaking stoked!!  Right now I’m going for 265 come march 1st.  If anyone has used these tell me what you think. 

 Oh yesterday I found out there is a pro wrestler that works out at the same gym as me.  Cool guy, I just find it funny that he works out at the small gym I do. And yeah he’s pretty big!!!

 This month I haven’t been lifting too heavy, just trying to get back in the habit of going to the gym.  Plus I don’t need to hurt myself right at the beginning.  I’m trying to be real gentle with my back so anything that compresses the spine like squats is on hold for a while.  In Feb. I plan on doing more core exercises and cardio.  Today I worked out chest and was probably the best I’ve done since I’ve been back.  It’s all about getting better.