Tuesday, April 6, 2010

We've moved.

The Countdown blog is moving; it will now be a part of the new HottJava blog and include my other 3 blogs:


Our new address: www.hottjava.com

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

170 - and St. Pattys day

Right,
So my posting has been a touch infrequent to say the least, but I have no real excuses. Business as usual here. Spoke to the DJ the other night for the wedding, he sounds really cool. Figured we'll get out and get some corned beef this evening and get prepped for all the wedding stuff we need to do this weekend. I've had the good fortune to hit my goal (with minor fluctuation) so I'm in a maintenance mode; just continuing to run and get ready for the pig.

Cheers, Happy Irish New Year.

Friday, March 5, 2010

182 kids

So I've not been quite as regular in my posting as I might have liked with this blog, so I'd like to apologize for that. That said; we're 182 days away (6 months as of yesterday) and I was .2 lbs away from my goal weight after my run yesterday. Odd, because my run times aren't getting better yet, they're getting worse. I guess you'll have that as you add distance, but I was hoping for better. Guess it will come in time. Anyhow; I guess the name of the game now should be to add a little more in the way of definition. Might be nice to have some of that when we hit the beaches on the honeymoon, eh? All I can say that I did differently from what I've done every other time I've incorporated an exercise regimen into my life is to keep all the indicators in front of me; kept constant watch on food impact through livestrong, kept running goals up with nike plus, I still drank but not as much and we got a scale in the bathroom. Those were really the only changes I've made. Now I might be an exception, Julie tells me I have a "Miraculous metabolism" and I guess I'm in no position to argue. I started this little project 51 days ago according to my math, and here I've hit the goal. Not too shabby.

Friday, February 26, 2010

You don't have to cook it all yourself.

Last night Julie and I went out to celebrate her birthday; to do this, we went to the Sanford near downtown, the menu was the same as they have online (listed as a sample menu). I had the Scottish salmon, and Julie had the scallops & lobster. Incredible food, absolutely remarkable. And while perhaps a tad pricey, it was really nice for a special occasion; just the thing really. And the nice thing was that the food we got wasn't horrible for us. I guess my point is that we often get into this routine where we feel like we always have to eat at home, but there are responsible choices that you can make even away from the house. It's easy to get caught up in the routines and forget that.

Have a nice weekend.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

mmmm, salmon.

So here we sit at 192 and Julie and I sampled one of Tom Douglas' rubs last night; this particular rub is specific to salmon and we have tried it before, just not with the fresh salmon we used last night. It's great, a little sweet and a little savory, we simple coated the salmon filets and pan fried them; served with steamed rice and steamed asparagus.
I'm telling you, you need to get a steamer. Julie and I got one last year and it's been one of the greatest aides to making nearly any meal. It handles both rice and veggies with ease, and it's nearly impossible to mess up. Last night it did the Asparagus perfectly as well as the rice. Sticky and perfect. Yum.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

192 and still training

So, not that I get asked about all this a lot, but I think it's always good to be accountable for both failures and successes. The purple line shows my weight progress since I started this little experiments, and the green line shows my net caloric intake (apprx).
The thing I take away from this chart is that progress will ebb and flow, and I can't speak for anyone else but for me at least, success is not a straight line. It takes constant work and the ability to deal with setbacks handily and keep driving for your goal. I'm nowhere near finished running, but I do believe that due to muscle weight, I may not hit the 195 mark (which is my goal). I'm ok with that, but I still want to keep driving for it, keep eating healthy because I believe that there are additional benefits (which I won't detail here) that come with the increased health.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Heyoo - 197 to go.

So, maybe this fits in nicely with my other blog (bjgreviews) but I'm trying to come up with an appropriate song for our first dance; and to me this is a big deal right because I love music. What sends the right message? What's meaningful? What's going to make people go "awe"? So we've probably had a list of a dozen of them that we've just suggested, but eventually we want to narrow that down and maybe even set up a poll. Who knows. Anyhow; the training is coming along. We both did three miles yesterday which wasn't too bad, but I do feel like I need to get faster. What's more, Julie made a good point last night that treadmill training doesn't exactly allow you to understand how to set your own pace, so now we're on a hunt for ways to do that.

any suggestions out there?

~Brian