To those of you who consistently read this blog the following is not news. This is just affirmation of some simple facts. Adam’s creativity is very obvious from not only this repeatedly redesigned website but all the icons, logos, and coding. The guy sweats imagination. His sense of humor is like a malignant tumor. Wait, wait, hear me out on this. On the surface it is a whimsical double entendre or turn of phrase that is a symptom of his much larger intelligence.

To say someone is smart is always such a monotonous compliment. With Adam, his smarts can be misleading. He frequently asks questions giving the mistaken appearance of ignorance. His intelligence is based both off the myriad of facts he currently has but most importantly his ability and eagerness to learn new things and to regularly reevaluate the stuff he knows with this new information. This is the very unique and is admirable.

Sure we disagree on some things. We have fantastic debates about things we both know to be boloney, yet continue to argue their cases anyway. I find in Adam a kindred spirit. And as an egotist myself, the highest compliment I can give him is that we’re so similar (not just in our first names… and middle initials).

Adam, I’m really sorry this illness kept me from being there on your wedding day. When I get over this crap (and when you get back) we’ll go for beers and you can tell me all about it. I’m sure you would’ve been too busy to notice, anyway. Congratulations.

ajp

Walking doesn’t sound like all that much fun, especially when you compare it to other activities that you could be doing for 30 minutes.  But it has become alot of fun  for me.  With my diet in full swing of week 2 I am trying to get out and walk for 30 minutes at least 3-4 times a week as well as continuing my push up and squat routine until I start going to the gym to get the full body workout that I need.

Walking has become fun because it has allowed me to get outside with my fiance and spend some time together that we normally would have spent doing dishes, watching tv, or reading, or some other chore . And I love that.  We don’t often get time to just talk and when we are walking we get to catch up with each other about how our day was and what is new in our lives and what are plans are for the week and I really enjoy it.  Another reason I love to walk is that I live in a really old neighborhood and get to see a ton of great architecture and unique houses that I probably would have just driven past and never noticed without taking the time to get outside.

So get outside and get stepping, you will be healthier, you will become leaner, you might find something beautiful, or it might just be what a relationship needs to get a little better.

Day 9 June 17th, 2008

Age: 25

Height 5′11″

Weight: 213 lbs

Body Fat: 23.5%

You will notice that my weight and body fat counts will not change during the week. I will weigh in on Mondays.

Breakfast:

1 Cup Kashi Healthy Heart Cereal

1 Cup Skim Milk

Snack 1

1 Banana

2 Tablespoons All Natural Peanut Butter

Lunch

Sandwich - Turkey, Spinach Leaves, Mustard, Whole Wheat Bread

1 Apple

Snack 2

Pistachios

Dinner

Spaghetti - Lean Ground Beef, All Natural Tomato Sauce, Green Pepper, Onion, Whole Wheat Pasta

1 Serving of Green Beans

1 Piece Garlic Bread (Not Good For Me, But I needed it)

Snack 3

1 Smoothie - Strawberries, Banana, Whey Protein, Vanilla Yogurt, Skim Milk, Ice

Excercise Routine

15 Pushups

20 Squats

30 Minutes of Brisk Walking

My plan is to keep going with my daily log and to provide weekly weigh ins, and progress pics. So if you want the quickest updates be sure to subscribe to the blog. You can subscribe via an rss reader or by subscribe by email. Oh and don’t forget to post your log and tell me if you are working out as well.

Make Jamba Juice jealous with the great smoothies that the Abs Diet provides you.

Smoothies are my favorite part of the Abs Diet, and from reading the forums it seems that it is many people’s favorite part as well. Who doesn’t like a good smoothie. Smoothies make excellent snacks as they are not overly filling, they are extremely good for you, and well they just taste good.

You can mix and match recipes, you can create your own recipes, simply put you get to experiment to find what you like best while being healthy and enjoying it. Last night I made a smoothie that consisted of high fiber cereal, low fat vanilla yogurt, skim milk, raspberries, orange juice from concentrate, and vanilla whey powder. A concoction from my own head that tasted fantastic and contained 4 power foods which all help in their own way to lose you weight.

Take some time to find your favorite smoothie and post it here so I can try it.

Day 8 June 16th, 2008

Age: 25

Height 5′11″

Weight: 213 lbs

Body Fat: 23.5%

You will notice that my weight and body fat counts will not change during the week. I will weigh in on Mondays.

Breakfast:

1 Whole Wheat Eggo Waffle

2 Tablespoons All Natural Peanut Butter

Snack 1

1 Cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal

1 Cup Skim Milk

Lunch

Spaghetti - All Natural Grass Feed Beef, All Natural Tomato Sauce, Low Carb Noodle ( Left Over from Dr. Atkins Diet Stepmom)
Snack 2

25 Almonds - 1 Recommend Serving

1 Apple

Dinner

1 8oz. Chicken Breast Sauteed with Onion, Green Pepper, & Artichoke Hearts

Snack 3

1 Smoothie listed in description

Excercise Routine

15 Pushups

20 Squats

30 Minutes of Brisk Walking

My plan is to keep going with my daily log and to provide weekly weigh ins, and progress pics. So if you want the quickest updates be sure to subscribe to the blog. You can subscribe via an rss reader or by subscribe by email. Oh and don’t forget to post your log and tell me if you are working out as well.

The Abs Diet stresses clean eating, but they don’t want you to go insane so they stress that you allow yourself one meal for cheating which I used Saturday night for pizza and beer with my friends. I didn’t keep track of my food intake this weekend because, well, I have better things to do than sit and detail my menu on the weekends. Sorry for those who might be using this as a guide for what to eat. But I will let you know that I had a bit of a falter on Sunday.

Father’s Day was Sunday and being a dad means I was treated to a glorious day of gluttony, which is fun, but isn’t what a man like myself needs at the moment. My excursions for the day included ribs, ribs, and more ribs. At both my dad’s house and my in-laws house we had ribs. I guess it is the food of choice for dads. Ribs are high in protein which is good, but they are covered in our high fructose corn syrup friend bbq sauce which is horrible for you.

So with the weekend out of the way it is back to business for my goal of weight loss. But I thought I might first fill you in with my new stats for the week.

Day 7 June 16th, 2008

Age: 25

Height: 5′11″

Weight: 213lbs

Body Fat: 23.5%

Progress Pick 2

That’s right I lost 5 lbs and .5% body fat in my first week and that includes 1 cheat meal of pizza and beer, and a day that I fell of the wagon. Results I am pretty happy with. Hopefully next weekend I can manage to stay clear of some of the stuff I did this weekend and make my results even better.

My plan is to keep going with my daily log and to provide weekly weigh ins, and progress picks. So if you want the quickest updates be sure to subscribe to the blog. You can subscribe via an rss reader or  subscribe by email. Oh and don’t forget to post your log and tell me if you are working out as well.

For the last few days I have been writing about the correct ways to eat, and how by simply changing your diet your body will become a fat burning machine, but it is now time to focus on what you are drinking. What you put in your body in the form of a liquid is just as important as what you put in your body as a solid.

Water - Drink lots of water. Everybody knows how much water you are supposed to take in on a daily basis and yet almost nobody actually does it. This is one of the hardest parts because unless you are really hot or really thirsty water just doesn’t taste all that good. It has no taste so why would it. But your body needs water so drink as much as you can.

Tea - Green tea is one of the healthiest drinks on the planet if you can get your hands on some put it in your stomach.

Coffee - Let’s not be crazy you can’t cut out the morning cup of Joe and guess what you don’t have to. Coffee isn’t “good” for you but it isn’t bad either. With no calories in it being basically water you can still enjoy that cup of coffee just leave the sugar at home.

Alcohol - This guy here is the toughest. I generally drank 1 to 2 drinks a day and I have not had one in 6 days. Alcohol contains antioxidants and some other beneficial substances that your body could use, but it is not the best way to get them. Eat right and limit the drinking. If you truly want to get in shape you can make this commitment. Don’t stop drinking forever just realize that intoxication is not a good reason to be fat. Limit yourself to 3 drinks a week.

Soda - If you have to drink it limit yourself to 1 or 2 Diet Cokes a week. I said Diet Coke specifically because it is the only soda that still has some flavor and isn’t terrible for you.

Milk - Drink low fat 1% or skim milk. You need the calcium but not the fat.

Smoothies - Drink smoothies as snacks. They are delicious and you can add fresh fruits, yogurt, milk, whey protein, and juices until you find the one you like best and the whole time you will be getting healthier and thinner.

Day 4 June 12th, 2008

Age: 25

Height: 6′11″

Weight: 218lbs

Body Fat: 24%

You will notice that my weight and body fat counts will not change during the week. I will weigh in on Mondays and you will see the updates on Tuesday.

Breakfast:

Sandwich - 1 Egg, Egg White, 1 Low Fat Cheese, 2 Slices Canadian Bacon, 1 Whole Wheat Roll

Cup Coffee Black

Snack 1

1 Cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch

1 Cup Milk

Lunch

Sandwich - 4 Slices Turkey, 1 Slice Low Fat Cheese, Spinach Leaves, Mustard, Whole Wheat Bread

1 Apple

Snack 2

1 Cup Raisins

Dinner

1 ?oz. Grilled Chicken Breast Mccormick’s Grill Mates Seasoning

Salad - Romaine Lettuce, Cucumber, Shredded Parmesian, Balsamic Vinegrette

Grapes

Snack 3

3 Slices of Turkey
Excercise Routine

15 Pushups

20 Squats

My plan is to keep going with my daily log and to provide weekly weigh ins, and progress picks. So if you want the quickest updates be sure to subscribe to the blog. You can subscribe via an rss reader or by subscribe by email. Oh and don’t forget to post your log and tell me if you are working out as well.

Yesterday, I introduced you to the diet that I use when trying to lose wait,  The Abs Diet by Men’s Health editor Dave Zinczenko, and told  you some of the reasons why it is the best diet on the market.  One of those reasons was the easy to manage work out / exercise plan.  During the first two weeks of the Abs Diet Dave (We’re on a first name basis now) suggests focusing on healthy eating and not on exercise, but he doesn’t want you to let that go by the wayside either.  He suggests that if you haven’t been working out on a regular basis to start small.  Which is exactly what I have been doing.

You may have noticed the only exercise I got on Day 1 was 10 push ups and 20 squats.  This took about 3 minutes to do and wasn’t hard at all, but it is the building block to working my way up to a full body workout when the time comes.  I did those two exercises with no weight, well actually a lot of weight my own body weight that is.  For day 2 I stepped it up a notch and spent a horrifying 30 minutes walking outside in the beautiful sunshine along with the squats and push ups.  So now with 2 diet days down I have spent 36 minutes working out and didn’t have to worry about routines, machines, or everything involved with dieting.

The Abs Diet is set up to help you succeed by making food and exercise fit into your busy schedule without to much effort.  Remember when you start that you need to focus on food and although exercise is important don’t put to much pressure on yourself.  Pressure causes stress, stress makes you unhealthy and that is not our goal.  As the days go on my workout/exercise plan is going to get more details and target my whole body, but as I get accustomed to my new eating habits I am going to follow the old adage of keep it simple stupid and you should to.

Day 2

Age: 25

Height: 6′11″

Weight: 218lbs

Body Fat: 24%

You will notice that my weight and body fat counts will not change during the week.  I will weigh in on Monday’s and you will see the updates on Tuesday.

Day 2 - June 10th, 2008

Breakfast

1 Whole Grain Eggo Waffle

2 Tablespoons All Natural Peanut Butter

Snack 1

1  cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal

1 cup Skim Milk

Lunch

8 0z. Chicken Fillet cook in Olive Oil

Brown Rice

Brocolli

Snack 2

3 Slices of Turkey

1  Banana

Dinner

Sandwich - 1 Egg, 1 Egg White, 2 slices Canadian Bacon, 1 Low-Fat Cheese Slice, Whole Grain Bun

1 Tablespoon All Natural Peanut Butter

Celery (AYCE)

Snack 3

Smoothie - Orange Juice From Concentrate,  Low-Fat Vanilla Yogurt, Skim Milk

 Excercise Routine

10 Pushups

20  Squats

30 Minutes of Brisk Walking (1.5 miles)

My plan is to keep going with my daily log and to provide weekly weigh ins, and progress picks.  So if you want the quickest updates be sure to subscribe to the blog.  Oh and don’t forget to post your log and tell me if you are working out as well.

My life is very good right now.  I am happy with my job, my house is transforming into a “livable” and beautiful place and I am getting married in 5 weeks.  So what else do I need?

That answer is to get back in shape.  About a 2 years ago I read The Abs Diet book by Mens Health editor David Zinczenko  it was a truly inspiring book that got me off my butt, into a gym, and most importantly into the grocery store and away from McDonald’s.  In my first attempt at the abs diet I lost 20-some pounds and became the healthiest I had been in my entire life, but somewhere along the course of the next two years I got comfortable at home, at work, and at the fast food joint again and started packing the fat back on.

Now I am 25 years old, 6′11″, 218lbs, and 24% body fat but that is about to change once again (my weight, that is the diet can’t change my age or height).  I have started re-reading the book and am going to transform my life once more.

The book details a basic 6 week plan to become healthier and lose some of that much hated body fat.  But it is really a life style change rather than a diet. Once you have completed your six weeks you have the opportunity to stay fit for life because the abs diet book will teach you what to eat forever, not tell you what not to eat.  The abs diet will work around your schedule with light quick work outs that you can do at home or the gym so you always have time to stay fit.  The first to weeks of the diet call for very little exercise while you adjust to your new nutrition plan, so don’t fret about trying to do to much at once. The book will teach you how to burn calories the way your body was meant to.  The best part is you get to eat more to do it.  Based on 12 “power foods” the abs diet works by eating 6 well planned and well balanced meals a day kicking your metabolism in the but and providing your body with the nutrients it needs to build new muscle, eliminate fat, and be healthy.

I invite you to give the diet a shot with me.  Go pick up the book and start “dieting” today.

Yesterday was my first day back and in order to keep myself motivated I am going to be posting a log of my daily diet and exercise plan.

Day 1 - June 9th, 2008

Breakfast

Smoothie - High Fiber Cereal, Low-Fat Vanilla Yogurt, Blue Berries, Skim Milk, Ice

Snack 1

2  tsp  All Natural Peanut Butter

Celery (AYCE)

Lunch

1 Sandwhich - Turkey Breast, Whole Grain Bread, Low-Fat Cheese, Mustard

1 Apple

Snack 2

1.5 Cups Blueberries

Dinner

6 oz. Salmon Filet - Baked with Lemon, Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil, Garlic

Brocolli

Brown Rice

Snack 3

Smoothie - Orange Juice From Concentrate, Strawberries, Low-Fat Vanilla Yogurt, Skim Milk

 Excercise Routine

10 Pushups

20  Squats

My plan is to keep going with my daily log and to provide weekly weigh ins, and progress picks.  So if you want the quickest updates be sure to subscribe to the blog.  Oh and don’t forget to post your log and tell me if you are working out as well.

You can find my first progress pic here.

www.creadiv.com/adam/Adam_Day1.gif

Every writer on the blogosphere has their very own motives for blogging, some people write to become famous, others write to get across a message, many write to make money. I was the latter. I say “was” because I haven’t written a blog post in several weeks now. I have lost my motivation, my mojo if you will.

Blogging for money is dangerous. If you are becoming a blogger for money beware because it can ruin your hobbies. I took blogging to the next level for a few months with this site. It went from a laid back place to find some free stuff and get a few decent articles to a factory that pumped out generic competitions and daily articles whether they were good or bad. This site was becoming a well oiled machine but it was losing it’s soul in the process. Feed reader stats were going up, bounce rates where going down and simply stated revenues where beginning to take off. I am certain you are saying what is the problem.

The problem is that I no longer enjoyed writing for the blog. It was my hobby, but instead of writing when I felt like writing I was creating a giant research project for myself. I went from writing articles about things that I wanted to 1 or 2 times a week to regularly researching and reading and sweating over what to write about next so that I could see that simple increase in feed readers and the extra .25 cents in clicks. I took the heart out of what I was doing and turned it into another job.

I don’t need another job. I have enough stress and responsibility at work, so from now on look for this site to be more of a journal and less of a machine. I am not going to remove the ads from my site so don’t get your hopes too high, because if I can make money blogging without stressing about it I am sure as hell going to try.

So until next time.

Adam

Especially when you win for multiple reasons.

Today is the day that I divide up the prizes for my charity contest.  I would like to start by again thanking all of you that were willing or able to donate to the March For Babies fundraiser held by the March of Dimes.  Because of these donations your are already all winners, however that isn’t the only thing that you won.

With the small audience that I have I didn’t expect great numbers, but when you , my readers, came through and donated $80.00 to the cause I was amazed and delighted to know that people from all over the country where willing to help myself and my fiance fight for this charity.  So thank you all very much.

Now on to the prizes.

I used list randomizer to sort the order in which the prizes were to be distributed and to whom they should be given.  So without futher ado here is what you won.

1. Custom Wordpress Theme Created by Theme Cannon — Meaghan
2. Optin Comments Wordpress Plugin — Gino Orlandi
3. Review on theuniversitykid.com — Jason Carpentier

Congratulations to all of you.  You Deserve your prizes and more.   Please contact me to arrage for acquiring your prize.  Any Prizes that are not claimed within 30 days of this post will be retained by me and will be given out in some other fashion in the future.

This was a great contest with great results and I hope to do more for both you my readers and this charity organization in the future.

 Thanks

Adam

You know the commercials, in fact whether you are a Mac fan or not you probably like the commercials. They are funny, but are they true? Are PC users stuffy overweight dorks while the Apple user is a hip youngsters with a sharp wit? Well Popular Mechanics put the issue to the test. Not only did they test the performance of the machines but they tested what type of people preferred what type of machine as well.

The results of the test may shock you a little as PC held it’s own weight when it came to the which system was preferred by users. The user ratings came back with Mac only scoring a half a star higher than the PC. Mac’s “famously friendly” user interface ended edging out Microsoft’s Vista in the end but all users found both operating systems to be easy to use and enjoyed them as well. Oh and it wasn’t only stuffy fatties that liked the PC while not all of the hipsters preferred the Mac. So maybe the commercials don’t exactly reflect the truth.

The results of the speed tests, well those are a different story, Mac crushed Vista in the important categories such as startup and shutdown and launching the browsers. Vista did alright on installation times and program launching by keeping up and even beating Mac in a few categories. But when again it came time to test the heavy duty stuff Mac pulled ahead by taking about half the time to launch CS3 with a high stress level on the processors.

So I guess Macs can be considered the better computer. The results of both speed and user performance came back favoring the Mac. If you would like to see the exact stats go grab yourself the May 2008 copy of Poplular Mechanics. They also have the benchmarking software available for download on their site so if you want to perform the test yourself go out and grab the software.

In the meantime tell me what you prefer and why. Because I am a PC guy and Mac users often rub me the wrong way. Pretentious is generally what comes to mind. However it seems like that stereotype may be just as wrong as the commercials.

If you are awesome subscribe to my rss feed. If you like emails subscribe via email. Remember only you can prevent forest fires help me achieve my goal of 100 subscribers by June.