Union Underground - Across the Nation

I just stumbled across this today and thought that it should be a nice addition to my collection. I listen to this music while I am at work and it is a nice change of pace.

Disturbed - Land of Confusion (Genesis Remake)

This song is awesome and the video is pretty cool too.

Disturbed - Stupify

This songs always gets me going for lifting or even cardio.

Partners for Cardio.....

In the day and age that people are busy with their lives, we find ourselves to busy to follow through on previous engagements or start engagements because we don't know if something else will be scheduled and more enjoyable. This will interfere with the exercise schedule that you are trying to get into or keep up with.

I have been trying to get into racquetball and I want to play with a co-worker but he is single and not able to commit to this sport because he wants to explore more options and "play." I don't blame him, I would do that to if I was single and did not have kids.

I have no solution besides the fact that if you want to do something then you have to know what to give up in order to get it done.

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Racquetball Rules!

Turn Me On Mr. Deadman

The Union Underground is responsible for a sweet song that gets my heart pumping when I lift. I wanted to share this with others to suggest music for the lifter of running junky.

"The Union Underground - Turn Me On Mr. Deadman"

Lift or Talk....not both.

Have you ever come across those lifters and exercise enthusiasts that will stand in the gym and just talk and have a towel wrapped around their neck. I usually don't talk to anyone for the simple fact that I don't want to waste time talking when I can spend that time burning calories; but for some reason these guys just don't understand the code of conduct for a lifter who really wants to get something out of their workout.

I might be over reacting about this but I do not see the benefit in just coming into the gym and talk the entire time instead of lifting and getting something out from the money that you spend in membership.

This aint a scene, it's a arms race

I heard this song on the radio and I can't stop playing it inside my head. I am getting the song so I can add it to my collection of tunes to lift to.

This song is by Fall Out Boy. Great fast beat.

I am still trying to figure out how I can place my play list on the site that everyone can benefit from. Does anyone have any ideas?

Whole Foods Diet

My wife is currently on a diet that was needed because our new daughter, Kiana. She is having allergies which are related to foods that my wife is eating. My wife is nursing so that means what she eats passes to my daughter as-well. The diet that we are on (my own choice) is an elimination diet. The foods that we can eat are potatoes, rice, turkey, and one or two different fruits. The full diet after the elimination phase (2 weeks) consists of adding two different foods every week and see if a allergy breaks out. If it does then you have to start all over again, and that sucks. I am doing this because I want to try to eat more whole foods which ultimately means less chemicals in my body.

My wife has allowed me to go outside the diets specs, just for the fact that I need more protein than she does and in order to stay within our budget I am eating a lot of tuna.......a lot...I like tuna.....a lot. :)

Racquetball Rules!

Today was the first day in a long time that I played racquetball. I was able to win the first game as 15:10, but the next I lost 13:15. It was a great game and I was glad that I was able to find someone to play racquetball with. I wanted to get some cardio into my work out and was able to find something that is going to stimulate my mind but also give me a hell of a cardio run. You know it was a great workout when your right rib is hurting.

Under the Weather Sucks!

I have not made a single post in the last week. I had some kind of illness that kept me dehydrated and also very weak. It started with me on Monday and it was not until Friday (today) that I felt better.

This thing hit me hard. I mean my burps smelt like rotten eggs and if I thought I was going to sneeze or pass gas, I ran to the bathroom. I could not do any lifting at all because I was worried about the effects. So I stayed away from the gym and I tried to go to bed early every night. It is sometimes hard to because I have kids and I try to keep up with my chores around the house.

Some of the other symptoms were gas and a poor appetite. Like I said, this thing sucked.

Don't Skimp Out On The Work

The title should say it all. The one thing that I see in the gym that people lack in is, work. I see people on the elliptical machine going at a relatively slow pace. Then I see others on the tread mill just walking the entire time at, again, a slow pace. In order for your body to actually burn fat and calories, the person needs to actually perform some harder work in order to get the heart rate up. If you are not getting the heart rate up, then you might as well just stay home and sit on the couch.

I caught myself starting to take the easy way out and just do some little walking here and there and also do some lifting at a relatively slow pace. Last Monday, I started to kick it back in gear again and I actually feel pretty good from it. I have a pain in my right heal so I am not able to get back into jogging but I can still do cardio on the elliptical machine.

Just remember, do the work and the rewards will be overwhelming.


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3. What Is The Point
4. Glycemic Index
5. Spoil Yourself

Succeed through substitution

I have been having a hell of a time trying to stay away from sugary foods like ice cream or candy or anything else that you can think of. Whenever the situation arises or the item is placed in front of me, I cannot help myself and I indulge in the treat. I know this is no excuse but my wife is pregnant and we both saw a commercial of McDonalds and we started talk about the French fries. I love the things and so does my pregnant wife. So what do we do about it? I hop into the van and drive over to the fast food establishment and buy two orders of medium French fries and one medium chocolate shake (I dip my fries into the shake…very good.). In the hope of dumping some but not all of the calories, my wife suggested to have half, or so, of my shake. Granted I was not very happy about that but in the end, it was for the best.

So what do I have for a suggestion in trying to stay away from crap like that? Substitution! Whenever you have the urge to indulge your taste buds, try to find something else that you like very much and eat or drink that instead. My substitution is coffee instead of a sugary treat. I love coffee, one would think that I would have a blog on that instead of losing weight and gaining muscle. Every time at work that we have donuts or some sort of treat, I will make a cup or two of coffee with my French press mug. I have come to own a French press mug so I can make my own cup of coffee and not have to worry about the crap that they serve at work.

I have already used the substitution method earlier today. I had two cups of coffee today because someone brought in some candy which ended up in the possession of a coworker. I have to say that the new method of substitution really worked nicely.

5 Related Articles:

1. Devotion To The Need.html
2. Ma Huang What's The Deal
3. What Is The Point
4. Glycemic Index
5. Spoil Yourself

Counting Calories

I had a hit to my ego yesterday. I have been lifting for along time and have had some results to losing body fat. The only thing that I have not done to lose weight is to count calories. I know that calories can prevent, lower, or increase weight. This is one avenue that I have not yet tried so I am going to try this and see what happens. I hope it will allow for my stomach to shrink a little bit because I can eat a lot of food and not gain any weight...as long as I hit the gym every other day of the week. I will keep you posted on the subject.

5 Related Articles:

1. Devotion To The Need.html
2. Ma Huang What's The Deal
3. What Is The Point
4. Glycemic Index
5. Spoil Yourself

Workout Music

This is another ring on music that I wanted to bring up again. I wanted to create a website that has music linked to iTunes and/or another music supplier to common music that other people use for their work out. But once I got into it again, I lost motivation. I have several lists of songs that other people use to workout too and I need to find a better way to display them. I am thinking about using Google spreadsheet to achieve this because I can then transform my spread sheet to that and also include the links. I think that would work.

To Much Water Can Kill

How in the hell can the giver of live, found in all living things, be able able to kill a person because they drank a lot of it. You would think that it would simply just go through your system and come out in your urine....kinda. The body can only get rid of the water at such a rate. Please review this link for water intoxication.

The reason why this post has come about is because a local radio station had a test for the listeners and that was to drink two gallons of water the quickest. A nurse called the radio station to warn them of this terrible challenge and how deadly it was. They said that they were legally secure so the person can perform this challenge. The lady was married and had children and once she got started on the challenge and was almost done, she died of water intoxication. I guess the story of too much of a good thing is not good...actually pertains to this person.

For the pregnant women

I have a friend who is currently pregnant and she was wondering about exercising. Her question was, "Can I still exercise now that I am pregnant?" With all of the doctors that I have talked to and all of the documents that I have read, the answer is yes. You can still exercise but you will start slowing down as you get bigger. One exercise that a pregnant women should stop doing is jogging, because the jaring might hurt the baby. Otherwise exercise equipment that is low impact on the body will be low impact on the baby.

I have read that most women who used to exercise a lot move down to walking a lot. They will try to walk the same length of time as they would jogging or biking. Others want to walk a slow rate but at a longer distance. I would suggest any women to move down to long distance walking at a slow rate. This way you will insure that you are not harming the baby by jogging or anything that jar the body. Increasing the distance and slowing down the speed will also allow you to still burn the calories but doing it at a gentle rate.

MOST IMPORTANTLY! Drink a lot of water during this. You do not want to get dehydrated because that will cause false labor which happened to my wife once. If you have any questions on this please let me know and I can direct you to the right people or site some resources.

Devotion To The Need

I went to the gym yesterday for my back and tricep workout. I noticed about half the total of people were at the gym from Wednesday. These resoluters already gave up or at least didn't have a very aggressive workout schedule. I lift and do cardio every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. My legs were really sore from Wednesday so I only did lifting, but at least I was in the gym doing something.

I, myself, have not been doing the best as far as watching what I eat. It is hard to do so when people bring in donuts and other treats to start off the new year. My department is really bad about it because we just got two new hires and they have to bring in donuts or something as a treat for of the people within the department.

I have still noticed that I have been doing better with my lifts and also with my cardio still. I look at myself in the mirror and I see me still losing the weight and toning up.

Ma Huang - What's the deal?

Is it legal or illegal? Here is where it gets sticky. Ma Huang (Ephedrine) is illegal for dietary use. But is legal for other uses outside of dietary supplements. Though the purchase of the the stuff is monitored very well by the laws that are different from state to state. The one other kicker about Ma Huang (Ephedrine) is the use of the supplement to make methamphetamine. After the "Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005" was approved, the government ordered that all products that contain ephedrine to be monitored and tracked because they could be used to created methamphetamine.

This is another example of Americans being stupid again. We have creatine on the market and people have used and abused that which have related to deaths in the states. Many of the cases are with wrestlers in high school and college using creatine and not drinking enough water so they can make weight. They end up dieing due to dehydration. Creatine pushes the water in your body towards you muscles which them makes you dehydrated. You have to drink more water to equalize the effects of creatine. This is a warning on the bottle which we typically ignore.

I can see the government wanting to get involved and say that we can't eat beef anymore.

New Years Resoluters

I went to the gym tonight and the parking lot was completely filled up. When I saw that I completely laughed my butt off. If this is anything like last year, then we will see this as a common thing for the first two months and at the end of February once the lover has rejected the other partner because they were not able to lose the weight that they set out to, it will all come to an end and the normal regulars will still be their.

There might be a few people that stay on and become the new regulars, but a very small percentage will actually do that.

Losing weight is hard and sometimes the butt of the doer can be kicked to lose the weight because of the new years resolution, but most of the time, it is the people who really want it will start and do it with out a new of a new year.

Start the year off to a funny start.

I saw this clip from Dilbert and being an engineer in a corporate world and also trying to lose body fat I new everyone else would like this clip to.

Monday(1-1-07) post from Dilbert.com.



Tuesday(1-2-07) post from Dilber.com.