Christmas is coming, thankfully

I love Christmas. I always have but this year, I'm really looking forward to it. Not because of the gifts, not because I'll get to see the majority of my family, not even all the time I'll get off of work (well, maybe that's some of it). Christmas to me is a joyful time (not to sound all Hallmarky) for me.

People are generally in a better mood (and I hate people). They come together more for this holiday than any others. A lot more people get into the decorations. It might even have to do with the religious aspect of it because of my religious background but I don't really celebrate it that way. Either way, it's just a feeling I get. A feeling of happiness and togetherness. It doesn't hurt that my wife does a lot more baking at this time of the year so I get to come home from a rough day at work and the house smells wonderful.

It's been a rough couple of months for me as my best friend has ceased pretty much all communication with me and won't really tell me why. With most anyone, I could have just walked away and said whatever but she has a lot of her own personal issues and I worry about her. I should be able to step away because half my thoughts go to well she hasn't cared about me at all in that time. Hasn't asked how I was doing, what's going on, ect. It should be easy, but I can't just walk away. She's had a crap life and I just can't put me abandoning her on top of all that. So I jump back and forth between missing her and being angry at her. It's been a rollercoaster of a last couple of months.

Work has been a little rough as well, not only the usual BS that I have to deal with on a daily basis but work was where we met and got to know each other, so it's a daily reminder that she's gone. Although these days, I appreciate going into work a little more because it keeps my mind a lot more occupied to where I don't think about her nearly as much.

So with my rollercoaster of emotions for a little bit now, I'm looking forward to the joyous time of the year. For those that don't know, I have Christmas songs on my playlists that I listen to all the time. They always put me in a good mood when they come on, even in the middle of July. Now when they pop up, I can really use the cheering up and now that we are in November, it just reminds me how close we are. It's also the time of the year that people release new Christmas albums and I go through new releases every weekend so I'm even hearing an album here or there.

To be honest, because I listen to Christmas music all year round, in small doses, I rarely just play all Christmas music. I can see myself listening to my Christmas playlist a lot more this year. I've actually thought about playing it on my way home from work a few times already but I didn't. I didn't break the seal yet. We'll see if I last until after Thanksgiving.

Ho Hum!

I'm still working out. I don't remember if I said before but I've been doing 6 miles after work and 15 miles on my days off. For the most part, I stick with it. I do occasionally just don't because I'm not feeling it. Actually, most of the time, I'm not feeling it but I still force myself. It helps that I have mile goals set it my head depending on the day so I usually get that. I even rode for 20 miles one day last weekend, rode hard too. Cranked on my workout playlist, shut my eyes and rode. It was rather enjoyable, I wish it could be like that every time.

Generally, on Fridays, I listen to New Releases so I don't push as hard but I still put in the 15 miles, usually just a few minutes longer than I usually do.

I finished up the Star Wars challenge sometime since my last post. I received this in the mail yesterday.

It's pretty cool, I really like it. I've been putting all my miles now on the Route 66 one. I think I'm going to put those pages on my side bar somewhere so you can just follow along there.

I mentioned I was listening to my New Releases this morning. Beth Crowley's new album was pretty good, lots of lyrics kind of hit home. I really enjoyed it and added the majority of it to my playlists. Coldplay's new one however, was a waste of my time but I'm not a huge fan of theirs but I do have some of their songs that I like so I'm a lot more critical when listening to them.

Cheri goes for her annual MRI today. I'll be her driver because they have to drug her up to get her in the MRI tube. We're hoping nothing has progressed because she stopped doing the MS drugs awhile back. She still takes LDN which helps with the symptoms but we don't know much about it. The MS drugs side effects were too much for Cheri, she couldn't function doing her daily tasks because of them which is why she quit. I think every MS drug has treated her that way.

Sunday Catch Up

I've gone another week without posting but I promise, I'm still going at it. I haven't been quite as consistent this week but it's been an off week for me. Work is even busier (not production wise, just for me) so I've had to really force myself to do something because most days I just want to go home and chill.

Here's what I accomplished this week.

• Monday (9/9) - 3.12 miles walking
• Tuesday (9/10) - 5.03 miles on the bike
• Wednesday (9/11) - 1.54 miles walking
• Friday (9/13) - 10 miles on the bike
• Saturday (9/14) - off day/show
• Sunday (9/15) - 15.08 miles on the bike

I rode the bike on Tuesday because I had a class at one of the plants closer to me so I wasn't near the park near my work but since I was close to home, I came home and hit the bike. Thursday was the only day that I couldn't just get myself motivated.

Now that I have separated both of my challenges, I don't get too far each week on the Star Wars one.

I am over half way complete now though so there's that. The only thing I unlocked this week was this.

I unlocked it earlier in the week. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue doing the Star Wars challenges or not. I like them but I'm liking the Route 66 one as well.

Of course, the Route 66 one is huge so it feels like I make very little progress but I knew that going in. I might do a city like Paris or maybe even Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon after the Star Wars one for my walking.

Here's where I am on the map, I'm just outside Pontiac, IL. The red balloon thingy is a pace marker which I haven't really investigated into what that really is. 

There's also this.

I didn't mark down a specific weight to start at but I was just over 300 lbs. I know it really doesn't seem like much but I haven't really changed my eating habits. I still eat out a lot so just adding some motion in my life is helping, even if it's slowly.

Sunday Catch-up

I'm still working out. I wasn't as great this past week but I did alright.

Monday (Labor Day) - Road the bike for 15.04 miles

Tuesday - Walked 3.05 miles

Wednesday - Walked 1.55 miles

Thursday - Day off, rain

Friday - Walked 1.54 miles

Saturday - Day off, show day.

Sunday - Biked for 15.07 miles

So not too shabby. I should have walked on Thursday. It rained really hard but it was finished by the time I left work. I was afraid I'd end up on the other side of the lake when it started again and I would have been screwed. Hind Sight says I probably would have been ok.

I unlocked this earlier in the week from the Star Wars Conqueror's Challenge.

Other than that, those have been quiet. Now that I'm doing the biking on the Route 66 one, the Star Wars one has slowed down.

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I started a new blog for myself. I titled it Mental Health. It's a private blog so there won't be an address or anything but it's a place to put my private thoughts about my Mental Health. I've struggled with a few things recently so it's a place for me to unload my feelings.

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Not looking forward to work tomorrow. My partner in crime there has left. She did a lot for me, work and personally. She took a lot of stuff off my plate which allowed me to get a lot of stuff done that I didn't have time for and we made a great team and I'm going to miss that. She was also very good for my head because she was very good at getting me out of bad moods which work tends to put me in. I'd like to think that we were both good for each other in that aspect. So tomorrow starts work life without Lex and I am not looking forward to it.

the Weekend

I had a good weekend, exercise wise. I rode the bike 3 times. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I put up 7.5 miles on Friday, 10 miles on Saturday and then on Sunday I was wore out and was only going to do a couple of miles but I got on and started to think about work and got annoyed and ended up cranking out 6 miles in 25 minutes which is definitely faster than usual. 

I've gone almost 24 miles across Chicago which is barely 1% of the journey. Yikes!

I'm loving the maps on these real locations. It gets the map nerd in me excited.

At the end of the weekend, I have exercised either walking or biking for 8 straight days and I plan on walking all week. Even though it's supposed to be in the 90's

2 Challenges

 If you've been following, you know I've been doing the Conqueror's Challenge. Well, I went ahead and joined a 2nd one. I'm still continuing to do the Star Wars one but now I just add my walking to it and the new one I'm doing the biking. I did all 4 days of hiking this week. 1 day I did a lap (1.5 miles), 2 days I did 2 miles and yesterday, I knocked about 2 laps (3 miles) so I'm definitely making progress. I unlocked a few things earlier in the week.

I unlocked the next card as well as this description card.

I like cards better because this stuff I know from the films but I do still get excited when I unlock things.

Here's how I'm doing at the end of this week.

You can ignore the time goal, I wasn't really sure what to put when I signed up. I am 39% complete though so I'm slowly getting there. Now that I'm taking the biking out of it (from here on out) it'll go even slower.

I mentioned I joined a new one for my biking. Here it is.

Yep, that's right. Route 66. It's 2279.31 miles. This will take me a long time to complete but I'm going to enjoy the postcards. Like the one I received today after putting 7.5 miles in on the bike.

I kind of already know Chicago a little bit considering I live less than a couple of hours from here. I've been up the Sears Tower a bunch when I was a kid, but it's been a really long time.

I'm looking forward to this one but it might take a long time.

8 days in

 It's been 5 days since I posted, don't worry, I haven't stopped. I went and walked on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I was having issues with my SI Joint on Tuesday. About half way through the day it started hurting. I took some Ibuprofen which usually makes it go away but it didn't even make it better so I took the day off. It was still hurting on Wednesday but not nearly as bad so I still made the walk. Just a little slower. I also unlocked this from the challenge.

I like these virtual cards. I'm crossing my fingers that I actually get the cards when I finish the challenge but I'm pretty sure I don't. I also unlocked this today.

This is the 2nd postcard that I've received. They are alright but nothing special. Just a glimpse into the story basically. I also unlocked this today, not even sure what they are. Kind of a glossary to the rebellion.

It comes with 4 pics attached.

So, as you can tell by what I said above, I did climb on the bike again this morning. I did another 6 miles. Tomorrow is a show day so I probably won't do anything. We'll see if I do the bike again on Sunday.

I weight myself this morning as well, 294.6.

6 of 7

I took off yesterday from exercising, as I said I was going to. I got up this morning and figured I'd get on the bike. I wasn't really feeling it so I only went 3 miles. I did go faster than I did on Friday. The reason I went 3 miles was that I needed 2.8 miles for my 1st postcard on the Conquerers challenge that I mentioned in my last post.

Pretty cool, kind of a storyline postcard. I wasn't sure what to expect since this isn't an actual place. This also popped up saying I unlocked it as well.

For informational purposes apparently.

I'm enjoying it, and hey, it motivated me to do something today. So there's that. 

I go back to work tomorrow so the plan is to walk at the pond for the next 4 days.

6 out of 7 days last week I exercised. I credit that to the fact that I'm not overdoing it and only doing a few miles at a time. Usually I get all gung ho and do too much and burn out quickly. 

So far so good.

5 Straight Days

For those that don't know, I work 4 10 hour days so I work Monday thru Thursday. I said in my last post that I walk close to work because I get really lazy after a 40 minute drive home. Well, I did great this week at walking. Had a couple of days where I really didn't want to and ran through excuse after excuse in my head not too, but ended up going anyways. I walked all 4 days which is a great start, especially for me.

The trick was, motivating myself to walk on the weekends. I got up this morning and it dawned on me, why do I need to walk. I have an elliptical bike in the basement. So I hopped on it and rode a little over 6 miles. I had to push myself, I've been having some back pain since yesterdays walk so I didn't push myself real hard. I just kept a slow and steady pace and rode for half an hour, which is what I usually walk.

I also found a site that is really cool, if you can afford it that is. They have all these challenges. You pick a challenge and then can track where you are in the challenge. They have a ton of cities that they actually place you on a street map. You can unlock postcards of points of interests when you pass places. 

They also do fictional places so I chose a Star Wars themed one. (Race bib pictured above). They have 6. With my 6 miles today and a couple of walks in the last couple of days. I unlocked this stuff.

The first is a virtual card, which if you know me, I love cards. I just wish it was a real one. The second is part of the story of the challenge I'm on. The challenge that I'm on is 87 miles and once I've completed it, they send you an actual medal with the challenge design on it.

I do plan on taking tomorrow off from exercising. We are setting up at a card show, which I do most weekends these days so I figured that will be my 1 day off a week.

So far so good.

Here we go again

I started working out again, I know, you've heard it all before. I've started blogging multiple times because I started working out so like I said, we've all heard it before.

The issue I've always had is I get off work at 4. It takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to get home. Which means I'm sitting down all the time so by the time I get home, I don't want to exercise. There's a county park just down the road from work that has a path around a lake (pond) but getting off at 4, I was afraid I'd walk and then by the time I get home, shower and eat that it would take up my whole evening.

I googled the pond and the path around it and it's only a mile and a half so I decided to try it out last week. Just do 1 quick lap and be on my way so I didn't feel like I was getting home so late. It's only a mile and a half but I figured it was better than nothing.

So on Monday last week, I hit it on my way home and it was kind of nice. I do the lap in just under 30 minutes and get on the road to get home so it's definitely doable. I was going to do it Tuesday but I ended up not leaving work until almost 5:30 then the same on Wednesday but I did hit it on Thursday. The weekend I planned on going out in the morning around the neighborhood but I never did. This is where I usually sluff off and just stop going but after work yesterday, I walked it again and then today happened. 

I wasn't feeling it at work today, my legs were tired and I was already pretty hot and sweaty just didn't want to go but I made myself. That was already not my norm. On the way, it looked like it was going to rain so again, I was thinking maybe I shouldn't go, but I did it anyways. Yeah me!

So that's 4 times in 2 weeks. and 2 days in a row this week. We'll see if the trend continues.

Getting better

I did a little better this week as far as working out some. Here's a little look into last week.

Monday I had over 10k steps and 10 zone minutes, all at work and I didn't do anything when I got home other than get up and move every hour when my watch told me I needed to.

Tuesday I had 12.5k steps and 32 zone minutes. Most of the 12.5k steps were at work but 30 of the zone minutes were on the bike. I ended up riding 7.24 miles. It was a nice day out and I had the playlist that I crank up when I have the windows down on the way home. After I got home, I still had the playlist going so I stayed on the bike until it was finished.

Wednesday I had 10.5k steps but only 2 zone minutes, that was all at work as well. I got annoyed with a 1 on 1 with my boss so I wasn't in the mood when I got home.

Thursday I had 11.3k steps and 6 zone minutes, again, all at work. We went out for supper when I got home and I didn't do anything after that.

You can see my work week is where I struggle, I knew I would. I did get 1 day in on the bike so it was better. We'll see if I can get better this week.

Friday I had 3.2k steps and 1 zone minute. I did ride the bike for an hour but apparently I didn't register any zone minutes for it. I just went a steady pace and sidetracked myself with going through my New Release playlist which lasted just over an hour so that worked out. I did do 13.15 miles on the bike which is the farthest I've gone this year. Not only all that but I made sure I didn't just ride the bike and sit down. I ended up being on my feet for most of the afternoon while working on my cards. At one point, I even squatted down to grab a book without realizing it. I ended up coming right back up which I couldn't tell you the last time I was able to do that without screaming in pain when I got up.

Today, we got up and went out for breakfast and ran a couple of errands which is usually my downfall but I forced myself to get on my bike when I got home. I was going to listen to my New to Me playlist but I noticed more songs on my New Release playlist so I went through those and a couple of artists on the New to Me before calling it quits. It ended up being around 48 minutes and for 10.27 miles.

My mom stopped by to drop off a couple of things and I told her what was going on and I told her to hit me up if she was going to go walking so hopefully that will help me do something else other than biking.

Tomorrow we have a show so I doubt I'll get on the bike, although it is the local show, maybe I'll get home in time to ride some. That's also the reason I'm posting on Saturday instead of Sunday. I knew I wouldn't be home much tomorrow.

Motivation

I've been trying to motivate myself to do something, just get off my ass and move some. I do ok on the weekends because I get up, throw on a work shirt (why dirty a good one) and go downstairs and hop on the bike. Notice I didn't say put on some shorts, I do it in my boxers. Again, why dirty a pair of shorts. I did this once last weekend and had planned on getting on the bike after work during the week. That didn't work out. I work 10 hours, 1 1/2 in the car and by the time I get home, I just want to sit on my ass, there lies where I need the most motivation. Work days.

I just hate to exercise, it's not my favorite thing to do and I'm all about doing things you enjoy and not doing things I don't so it's extremely hard to get motivated. Part of my motivation is I topped 300 pounds a couple of weeks ago (2/16). I usually go up and down in the 285-295 pound range but I hadn't logged in over 300 until then. I've been weighing myself once a week since November of 2022, mainly just to make sure I didn't top that 300 pound mark and I hadn't even though I wasn't doing anything to prevent it.

I see extremely obese people (not hard, they have their own shows) and my thought was always how do they get themselves that far. Well, I think I have that part figured out. Lack of motivation. So I'm trying not to get that bad.

You would think that be enough motivation, sadly, it's not.

On Friday when I got up, I went downstairs and did 11.3 miles in around 45 minutes. That's the most this year (haven't been doing it long) but my previous high was only 6.5 miles but I haven't really done it much at all, then proceeded to sit on my ass most of the day, which is my typical weekend. Although, the wife and I did load a dresser, desk and 3 nightstands in the car so there's a little bit more exercise.

Saturday, we had a card show in Fort Wayne so I get a little bit of exercise. My cousin and I carry everything in from the car and set up. He usually pulls the cart so he only goes to the car twice where as I bring all the stuff that doesn't fit in the cart. The showcases and boxes of wax so I make multiple trips to the car and back. Once inside we set up, I usually set up the newer wax while he sets up the boxes and the cheap wax. So I get a little exercise, nothing terribly exciting but it does get the heart rate up (according to my Fitbit) for 10 minutes or so. During the show, I sit and I stand. I occasionally walk around but not a whole lot. I prefer the shows where they are so busy that I don't have a chance to sit or shop but it's rare to never have a chance to sit. After the show, we pack up and load the car back up so again, 10 minutes or so of accelerated heart rate. After that I went to my sons and unloaded all the stuff we loaded up the previous day so a little bit of movement.

This morning, I did the same thing as Friday, got up, threw on a work shirt and got on the bike. I did 13.34 miles in an hour but instead of going and sitting at my laptop like I normally do, I walked around my basement for 5 minutes or so just to get the stiffness out of my legs from being on the bike. Then I went into my Card Room and stacked up some boxes on my desk so now I've been at least standing while on my laptop. When I stop typing to think about what I'm going to say, I wander around my room. It's now been 45 minutes or so since I got off the bike and I still haven't sat down. The wife got out of bed so I went upstairs to talk to her for a few and started my laundry as well so we'll see if I can sustain the movement. I don't really have much planned today so I'm not sure how long it will last. At least I'll be heading for the shower soon so there's more not sitting on my ass time.

The real purpose behind this blog post is possible motivation to keep going as well. There's a girl at work who's trying to improve her life and part of that is physical so she's been trying to push me some as well. My wife pushes some and I could get my mom too as she's is always trying to stay physical. I need to reach out because I obviously can't motivate myself. The problem with other people doing it is I tend to do my own thing so I don't necessary listen to other people either.

We'll see, I'll try to keep going on here about my fat ass. I'm pretty sure I have a tag over there called fat ass that I used years ago when I tried to work out.

Eating Stats

I know, I'm never here anymore but I figured I should at least give you a stats post as I have most every other year. I would love to tell you that I'm going to use this blog more but I say that every year and it doesn't happen. I did make it to February last year before quitting. Sadly, that was my last post of the year. I truly just don't have much to say, I lead a pretty boring life of working and sitting in front of the TV.

I'm actually think about breaking these stats posts to multiple posts and do 1 stat a post since I've been keeping stats for awhile now and can probably make a whole post of each one since I have a bunch of years to talk about now but I don't know if that's what I'll do.

Today, I'm going to knock out restaurant stats for me.

1 time - 35th Street Red Hots, Applebees, Buffalo Wild Wings, CBP Smoke Barbque, Chick-Fil-A, Coney Express, Costco, Cristo's, Dog LB, Dominos, El Trejo, Gerace's Pizza, Hacienda, Hungry Howies, Italian Village, Krispy Kream, Mandarin Kitchen, Margaritas Mexican, Pizza Hut, Roma's Pizza & Wings ect.

2 times - 7-Eleven, Happy's Kountry Kitchen, IHOP, Jimmie Johns, Party on the Patio, Portillo's, Puerta Vallarta, Red Lobster, Smith's Food Mart & Subway, 

3 times - Arby's, Bravo Cafe & Mandarin House

4 times - Martin's Deli & Trinity UM

5 times - Brunos, Dairy Queen, Firehouse Subs & Long John Silvers

6 times - 5 Guys, Chili's & Dunkin

7 times - Copper Creek Cafe

8 times - Barnaby's & Little Caesar's

That's everything in the single digits, now we get to the double digits. and a countdown to the most.

#7 -  (10 times) Last Year - 8th place (8 times). This year was the highest since tracking began in 2013.

#6 -  (13 times) Last Year - 7th place (11 times). This year tied the high with 2020 since tracking began in 2013.

#5 -  (17 times) Last Year - 4th place (22 times). Last year was the high since tracking began in 2013.

#4 -  (19 times) Last Year - 3rd place (25 times). The high was 28 times in 2021 since tracking began in 2013.

#3 -  (25 times) Last Year - 6th place (15 times). Last year was the highest since tracking began in 2013.

#2 -  (35 times) Last Year - 2nd place (26 times). 2013 was the highest at 68 times since tracking began in 2013.

#1 -  (52 times) Last Year - 1st place (50 times). 2014 was the highest at 54 times since tracking began in 2013.

We ate out quite a bit at the beginning of the year but it got cut back quite a bit the last few months due to my hours being tighter at work. These are also my stats as if they were my wife's, Burger King would be lower because I ate breakfast there a bunch at work and Sonic would be higher because she grabs lunch there a lot after doctor's appointments.