The Transformation Journals

Changes

raeast — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:19:59 +0000

Trying to make some changes that will allow me a better chance to get to the gym when it is not overcrowded. It is a small one and at times it is almost to much work to get in a worthwhile session. Spend way too much time waiting to get to the equipment. I have resigned my position as a Field Supervisor and gone back to the streets fulltime. A lot less stress there and returning to the clinical setting will have a lot of benefits toward school. I will be changing shifts soon as well to a one that will accomodate school and my gym time. More later when the schedule is finalized. Until then Be well and safe. ~!~

Beginning Progress Photos

raeast — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:08:16 +0000

Some of you have inguired so I posted some pics of what I will use for the starting point. They are are not from the very beginning but as my workouts have not been what I wanted, or needed, them to be they will do. In a lot of them you cannot see much except the excess skin and the fact that I really need some sun. I am not sure how much definition will be evident but overall mass should show as it improves. Come next summer when school finishes I will give serious thought to having the skin removed. Just have to wait and see how work, school, finances, insurance, etc plays out. I put up some measurements from the same day as well. More later.

Be well and safe. ~!~

Quotes

raeast — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:56:34 +0000

I have heard some of these before and have seen one of them used a lot in chat/blog/email signitures but either didn’t know or had forgotten who that one was by.

Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never
been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching.

You win a few, you lose a few. Some get rained out. But you
got to dress for all of them.

Ain’t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain’t no
man got to be common.

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.
Leroy "Satchel" Paige, 1906 - 1982

and a side note. I made a reference to the Waffle House calender in the office and their scattered etc hashbrowns. Well guess what happens to be the food item pictured for July. The WH food and fitness "expert" is making comments about simple and complex carbs. Okay, potatos fit there, but what about all the cheese and chilli on top of them in the picture? Frying them?

Hope those that celebrate it had a happy 4th. Be well and safe. ~!~

ps: um?…pettifogger…A lawyer who deals in petty cases; an attorney whose methods are mean and tricky; an inferior lawyer. There is a word for this? Who knew?

(disclaimer) This is not directed at any specific lawyer or lawyers in general and that is not the only use of that word, just the one I find most humerous.

Quotes - Happy Father’s Day

raeast — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:16:11 +0000

A fool despiseth his father’s instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.
Proverbs 15:5

The more people have studied different methods of bringing up
children the more they have come to the conclusion that what
good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for
their babies is the best after all.
Benjamin McLane Spock, 1903 - 1998

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right,
he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.
Charles Wadsworth My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
Clarence Buddinton Kelland John Elway is a great football player. He used to be my son. Now I’m his father.
Jack Elway

In the next year or so, my signature will appear on $60 billion of United States currency.
More important to me, however, is the signature that appears on my life
the strong, proud, assertive handwriting of a loving father and mother.
Katherine D. Ortega, Treasurer of the US 1983 - 1989

The father is always a Republican toward his son, and his mother’s always a Democrat.
Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

Excerpts from Mark’s Musing

raeast — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:27:54 +0000

I had to

REJECTED SLOGANS FOR FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS

McDonald’s - Still The Best Choice When You Haven’t Got Time for Anything Better!

Starbucks - Now with 0.9% Financing on a Tall Frappucino!

KFC - Open to Suggestions on Keeping the Word "Fried" Out of Our Name.

Burger King - Ask for it Your Way and Get it Any Way We Make it.

Jack-in-the-Box - We put the dot in E.Coli!

Wendy’s - Hey, if Dave Didn’t Care About His Cholesterol, Why Should You?

Taco Bell - Working Around the Clock to Invent New Ways to Combine the Same Five Ingredients.

all from Mark Raymond’s Humor http://mrhumor.net/

And a bonus quote

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Be Well and Safe ~!~

Excerpt From Dave Draper Newsletter.

raeast — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:28:13 +0000

Here is an excerpt from Dave’s newsletter on 05Mar2008

Crimes against one’s self, sins against man.

Take pride in your weighty endeavor, your iron diversion, your steely
sport or heavy pastime, whether you’re an aspiring fireman, policeman,
taxman, doctor, lawyer or Indian chief. What you do is good…
brilliant, perhaps. Go. Aspire.

Before moving on, you must face the four naked truths: discipline and
perseverance, courage and forbearance. These are prerequisites and
byproducts of building muscle, might and brights. Ya gotta have them,
or, at least, be ready, willing and able to develop them. Be prepared.

The Break

raeast — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:46:09 +0000

Well here it is. The week I have been waiting for. Headed out of town to Atlanta for four days of R and R, or debauchery if you prefer. No school. No work. School starts back the first week of June and along with it a better mindset and focus on trainig and diet. I really have been on the edge of burnout with all the things going on at work and the heavy load at school. Again, not blaming it all on those but that did contribute to the stress. There just was not enough time and unfortunately gym time took a back seat to school and study time. I feel the effects of that and if I had done things differently I may have been able to arrange things better. I didn’t and it is behind me now. No regrets and time to move forward. This almost feels like a New Year’s resolution and in a way I suppose it is. The course of study I am about to start is 12 months long. Two nights a week with lab/clinicals every other weekend. Still working 12 hour shifts and working every other weekend. Yes weekends are going to be non existent for a while.

I haven’t mentioned it anywhere in my blog about my course of study. For all my healthcare friends and visitors, or anyone who stops by that might be interested, it is a bridge program to RN. The course was initially designed for LPN transition to RN but this year the school is allowing Paramedics and Respiratory Therapists to enter. There is a class that we had to take before hand that dealt mostly with nursing theory, skills validation, and nursing thinking (insert nursing diagnosis and care plans here). Along with a few prereqs I had to retake because they were too old, A&P I and II, Microbiology, with Human Growth and Developement tossed in on top. So, if all goes well 12 months from now I will have my ADN and be getting ready to sit for boards.

Thats all for now. Time to finish packing and head out. More later.
As always, be well and safe.

QOTD

raeast — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:21:20 +0000

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it. Arnold Toynbee

Latest Weight

raeast — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:55:43 +0000

Weight is up about ten pounds. I know all of this is not muscle. Some of it is I am sure. I also know that the last several weeks my training has not been what I want it to be and my diet has not been as clean as it should be. School is part of the cause, but I can’t blame it all on that. I have just been tired and stressed and apathetic. It is a circle that I am trying to not let become too vicious. A couple more weeks and then a break. I will get things back on track then.

More later. Be well and safe. ~!~

Word of The Day

raeast — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:39:34 +0000

Yes I get these too…

idee fixe (noun) [ee-day-FEEKS]

A fixed idea that becomes an obsession.

Too much of a good thing?…as usual early morning random ponderings…Be well and safe. ~!~