Monday, December 3, 2012

Week 3...oh how I hate you.


 Week 3 Recap:
Man did this week suck. I had my first failure on Thursday (week 3 day 2) and again for week 3 day 3 which I did today (Monday). I basically skipped working out Thursday-Sunday mainly due to being sick and having to work. I really shouldn't let excuses get in the way after I made so much progress during those first 2 weeks but my body just gave out on me. Everything hurt and I felt sick to my stomach and even getting out of bed was a challenge. I literally spent anytime I wasn't at work (I don't have sick time at this new job and with money being tight as it is, I had to suck it up) sleeping. I'm making it a point to re-do week 3 during week 4 because honestly I barely made it through this week, if I try to push ahead I'm only screwing myself over more. You can't build a house on a weak foundation and I'm not going to build walls without getting the fundamentals down first.


 With that said, my results for this week: *Starting stats in parenthesis

Current Weight: 152.2(151.2 lbs)
Waist 31.5 (34 inches)
Hips 35(37 inches)
Biceps 11.65(11 inches)
Legs18.5 (18 inches)
Neck 15(14 inches)
Body Fat  16.7%(21.68%)



Thoughts on week 4:
Week 4 should be re-named week 3 part 2. I'm not happy about my lack of progress this week but I know that to do this properly I'll have to work extra hard on eating properly, getting over my shin pain and just all around being a total badass like Luigi. ^_^


My motivation going forward.


Days remaining: 78

Confused about my fitness challenge? Read this

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Week 2 results


 Week 2 Recap:
So after my little rant on Black Friday, we are back to the MGS challenge! This week was especially challenging not only because of Thanksgiving, working at both jobs for Black Friday, but also the loss of my Uncle Kerry this week. He was a really cool guy and I'll miss him, he's the reason I started watching Red Green and despite all of the crap he gave me I knew deep down he thought I was alright. Overall though, I improved my diet by only going out to eat Friday, otherwise I've been trying to eat healthier meals at home whenever possible and it feels like it's working. Today (Sunday) I took the adult version of the presidential fitness test, I don't feel I did too bad, and by doing it I knocked out my 2 tests for my 100pushups/200 situps plan by doing 1:00 reps as quickly as possible for the test. My results are below:



Congratulations! You scored above average on 1 of the 4 elements of the adult fitness test. Your score was average or below average for your age on 3 of the 4 tests. You may wish to talk with a fitness or exercise professional about activities you can do to improve your performance on these tests. Keep up the good work! Remember to be active every day and work to maintain a healthy weight.
Your aerobic fitness is below what is recommended for good physical health for persons of your age and gender. For health purposes, it is recommended that you increase your physical activity to improve your aerobic capacity.
Fitness Component
Test Event
Your Results
Your Score
Aerobic Fitness*
1.5-Mile Run
17:38
5%ile
Muscular Strength
Half Sit-Ups
35
35%ile

Push-Ups
35
70%ile
Flexibility
Sit-and-Reach
14
40%ile
Overall Score (based on percentile average)
37%ile

Body Composition
BMI:
25.3
Overweight, Increased Risk of Disease
Waist Circumference
32




 With that said, my results for this week: *Starting stats in parenthesis

Current Weight: 152.2(151.2 lbs)
Waist 31.5 (34 inches)
Hips 35(37 inches)
Biceps 11.5(11 inches)
Legs18.5 (18 inches)
Neck 15(14 inches)
Body Fat  16.7%(21.68%)



Thoughts on week 3:
I realize that I'm writing this on a Sunday night which technically could still be considered part of week 2, but I wanted to log in my results so I don't forget to do it. I only work at one job this week so I should be able to get all my workouts in and maybe do a little bit more dependent on how I'm scheduled the rest of the week. I'm hoping to improve on my running speed, I can run for about 3 minutes at 7mph now, which is a huge improvement from when I started, I've found I'm usually gassed by then though so I've been trying to keep it around 6-6.5 when setting a run speed so I can finish the program without taking shortcuts. Here's to a prosperous week 3!

Days remaining: 86

Confused about my fitness challenge? Read this

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Black Friday Rant

WARNING: This particular blog is gonna contain some stuff that might offend some of you, if you are easily offended or have a heart condition, come back in a week when I resume my fitness updates or write about something in a non-ranting format.

Not a rant about Rebecca Black's song Friday, but seriously don't get me started on that.
Black Friday, or the day after America's Thanksgiving holiday, not to be confused with the Steely Dan song by the same name is the purest form of evil ever created. Known to retailers as the busiest shopping day of the year, retailers use this day to make up sales for the year by "slashing prices" and offering "doorbuster deals!" Basically, it's a bunch of corporate fatcats saying, you know what would get people into our stores? Let's make our employees work at ungodly hours while the consumers being the bunch of cattle that they are trample each other to save a few bucks on crap they don't fucking need! Target and Wal-Mart are the biggest douchebags in all of this, opening at 8pm on Thanksgiving. Yeah, fuck the people that work there, people can't wait a fucking day to go "save" money on "stocking stuffers", they need to go out on a day you're supposed to be celebrating spending time with your families and giving thanks. The only thanks being given that day are by soccer moms and the elderly so they can ditch the Cowboys game and spend their night being a complete dick to other people and retail employees. I used to work at a toy store during black Friday, let me tell you, it was the saddest thing I've ever seen. The store opened at 5am, meaning employees had to be there by 4:30am. No sooner than 5:00am hit my boss tried, and I do mean tried to open the gate to the store, only to be trampled by fucking nut jobs trying to save 10 dollars on a fucking Razor scooter, do kids even ride those things anymore?! I mean seriously, you're gonna run someone over to save 10 fucking dollars? And this was pre-Bush, before the economy hit an all time low and guys like me had to work 2 jobs to pay their bills. Here's what I think all of these ass hats should go do:
All of these people are jackasses. 

Take all the money you "save" and donate to a food shelf, the salvation army, Toys for Tots, something, to make up for the fact you are indeed a worthless piece of crap sucking all the life out of the rest of us and deserve to have those "stocking stuffers" shoved up where the sun don't shine and take your "doorbuster deals" and shine those son of a bitches up real nice, and wait for it...shove them up your ass too! And so help me if you try to wish me a Merry Christmas...

/end rant.


Monday, November 19, 2012

End of week 1


Week 1 Recap:
Today marks the end of my first week of my fitness challenge to pass the FBI physical by February 19th. Honestly the first week wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it'd be. I've made a conscience effort to try to eat better, and while life has been kicking me while I'm down I'm trying to persevere. I've switched my workout schedule up a bit from what I originally planned on doing. I'm going to be doing run5k Tues/Thurs/Sat and the 100pushups/200situp programs on Mon/Wed/Fri in place of the rebel fitness guide, mainly because I hate squats and doing max reps gets boring for me, if I have a structured plan I know what I have to do and am more likely to do not sandbag because I don't want to push myself.


Thoughts on week 2:
This next week is gonna be a nightmare to get through, I just found out today that one of my uncles passed away, he was a pretty cool guy and I'm going to miss him. On top of that, I've been having issues between my 2 jobs with scheduling, Thanksgiving being this week and the whole "Black Friday" mess I'm going to have very little time to get things done.  Regardless of all the setbacks I'm going to have,whether they be emotional, physical,financial and or just overall time I want this more than anything right now, I need this. Accomplishing this goal is keeping me up at night, I wake up in the morning and all I can think is how I'm going to beat yesterday's mileage ran, or push ups/situps completed.

Days remaining: 91

Confused about my fitness challenge? Read this

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Secret Agent...me?

So while paying bills the other day I realized that I had a gym membership that was sadly going to waste, and by going to waste, I mean I maybe go once every 2 weeks and that's when I'm feeling ambitious. After doing some number crunching and a bit of reading I think I found my solution to my problem. I have tried just about every exercise program you can think of, Stronglifts, P90X, Tae Bo, I even bought the perfect pushup! Honestly, I've spent quite a bit of time and money trying stuff that just didn't work for me. So you're asking yourself, how is this going to be different? What's stopping me from quitting after a week this time? This time, I've set a goal for myself. I'm going to work towards passing the requirements to become a FBI special agent. Will I join after reaching these goals? Most likely no, but it'll be a good feeling knowing that I'm going to be in the best physical shape I've ever been in and that alone is saying something.


I'm shooting for this, you know, sans the blonde hair and British charm

To reach a perfect score (40 points) I need to hit the following benchmarks:

1. Over 58 sit-ups in a 1 minute time span (I can currently do 25)
2. 40.9 seconds or below in a timed 300 meter sprint (no clue yet, I'm sure it's not 40.9 seconds though)
3. Over 71 pushups in a row (I'm currently averaging about 12-15 without stopping)
4. Running 1.5 miles in under 8:59 (I can currently run a mile in roughly 11 minutes, I think my best was around 10:34, tacking on the extra half mile we'll say I'm around 16:30 minutes)

While I realize that this isn't going to be something I can accurately set a time frame to, I'm giving myself until February 19th to score at least a 12 (which is passing.). My prize for reaching this milestone? The new Metal Gear Solid Uprising, oh and being in the best shape I've ever been in...or something.

Taken while visualizing Ivan Drago

I took photos and measurements from my first day which was Monday November 12th,2012

Current Weight: 151.2 lbs
Waist 34 inches
Hips 37 inches
Biceps 11 inches
Legs 18 inches
Neck 14 inches
Body Fat % 21.68


I'll post updates either weekly or bi-weekly depending on how much actual time I have. I'm currently keeping an excel spreadsheet with notes regarding my workouts and how I feel overall. Wish me luck guys, because hopefully, we'll be looking at a much better me.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Rox Reviews: Infamous:Festival of Blood (PS3)



(This was a post I was originally going to throw up over at Destructoid but due to the short length I am posting it here...)


Infamous: Festival of Blood


With Halloween nearly here  the Playstation Store has decided to put a number of their horror themed genre games on sale this month, one of which was Infamous: Festival of Blood. For those who aren’t familiar with the franchise,  the main character Cole McGrath, is given super human powers that allow him to harness the power of electricity after an earthquake hits his town.  Festival of Blood stars the hero Cole, getting bit by a vampire named Bloody Mary, yes, the same Bloody Mary the drink is named after. 

Rather than give away the whole story I’ll dive right into the gameplay. Overall, the game controls quite nicely just like the other Infamous titles did, this one doesn’t use the karma system which was a main factor in the other titles, which I guess is alright since your goal is to find Mary. My one main complaint about this game is that is very short. I finished the main story in just under 4 hours, getting all the trophies unlocked took maybe another hour to an hour and a half tops.  If you are still craving more content from this game, the developers did put in a level editor and the ability to play user created levels to add some much needed replay ability to an otherwise short title.   As mentioned earlier in my review the game is currently on sale for $5.00 when it is normally $15.00. I suggest you pick it up if you have a free night or want an easy 100% completion to fill out your trophy collection.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

My Top 5 MST3k Movies



A few weeks ago I was sitting at home and while browsing through the selection of movies on netflix, I noticed they had "Monster A- Go-Go" as a film, little did I know, watching that would bring me back to a place I hadn't been since I was around 10 years old. It brought me back to the world of MST3k...
For those of you not familiar with MST3k, or Mystery Science Theatre 3000,


The greatest group of robots ever assembled, you know, besides Johnny 5 and Robocop


it's a show about a guy named Joel (later replaced in the series by Mike) who is trapped in space on the Satellite of Love with his robot friends Cambot, Gypsy, Crow, and my personal favorite Tom Servo. The cast is forced to watch terrible movies as part of a science experiment and have no control over when the movies begin nor end.  While I have by no means seen all of the episodes I do have a few favorites that I will discuss in briefly below. ( Should also note, that while Gamera had one of my favorite songs of all time, it didn't make my list because I honestly just don't remember anything else besides the song)


Warrior of the Lost World: More like, Warrior of the Lost Plot



Number 5. "Warrior of the Lost World"
This movie was pretty difficult to sit through, it ranked in my top 5 though due to the amount of funny jokes that were laced throughout the episode, mainly them cheering on Megaweapon and celebrating the annoying bike in the movie being destroyed. The plot of the movie involves a biker in the time after the apocalypse and his really cheesy motorcycle trying to save this woman's father, I missed half the plot because the wife got home during that part and talked through a lot of it. ^_^

My favorite quote(s): "This isn't Mad Max it's Sad Max." "The only thing keeping this from being Cannonball Run is Dom Deluise."

Soultaker: Pretty decent name for a movie that took about an hour and a half of my life. 
Number 4. "Soultaker"
This movie wasn't half bad for what it was, it reeked of cheesy 80's cliches, and had one of my favorite lines ever at the beginning of the movie. Basically these whacky teenagers get into a car accident are tracked down by the "Soultaker" played by Joe Estevez. Yes, the younger brother of Martin Sheen and uncle to Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen. I really don't want to go too much more into the plot details because frankly you'd just have to watch it to really get any enjoyment out of it.

My favorite quote(s): " Bet you can never get the smell of Hardee's outta that car."  "The Soooooullll-taker!"
"Don't tounge the reaper!"

Mitchell: The movie that probably ruined or made Joe Don Baker's career
Number 3. "Mitchell"
A lot of people rank this as their favorite episode ever, it is definitely an important one in the MST3K series as it sees Joel leaving the show and Mike being brought in as the new host. I really can't say which host I like better as I think they both were okay, my favorite character on the show will always be Tom Servo followed very closely by Crow. I honestly don't even remember the plot of the movie, I think it's a renegade cop flick that was the style for the timeframe that this came out in, I was too busy laughing my ass off about the film ranked #1.
Favorite Quote(s): "I've seen faster chases in funeral processions." "This makes Driving Miss Daisy look like Bullit!" "Baby oil?! NOOOOOOO!"

2."The Puma Man"
The Puma Man: AKA Greatest American Hero starring a giant aztec guy! 
The most blatant rip off of "The Greatest American Hero" ever, this one almost took number 1 for me, mainly because "Puma, Man, he flies like a moron!" "Soundtrack by my little brother's Casio." The film is about a guy who comes from a long line of "Puma Men" from space that can fly and are apparently terrible at fighting. I never knew Pumas could fly before watching this movie, but hey, you learn something new everyday right?
Favorite quote(s): "Believe it or not, this movie's still on, it should've ended 2 hours ago." "When, you want, the flavor of bacon in a dip!" "Take that members of Boston!"

Final Justice: Most confusing ending to a movie ever, but man gotta love that theme song.
1."Final Justice"
Rather than go even bothering to tell you about this film, or picking out my favorite lines (which I definitely had a few)  just watch the end credits which I've linked here. (song starts about :22 seconds in)
 Greatest thing ever.