Escapade
Saturday, June 17, 2023
Budgetman and His Sidekick, Mac!
I just finished up creating a supplemental spreadsheet to the family budget. Honestly, all of those hours I spent in accounting coursework both on the undergrad and graduate levels makes my fiddlings rather paltry. I spent the majority of my time in those classes drumming up the ways I could build a Mr. T Table to debit relieved hoorays to the besiedged towspeople and credit cackling laughter from the multi-toned-aviators-wearing villains that just came off the set of Dallas.
(Pity the fool: I was the Walter Mitty of accounting.)
The Upcoming Expedition
I gotta admit: I have been the most excited about a coming Expedition. I've got half the mind to make a countdown timer like I do for a new year.
33rd. It is remarkable. There have been 32 "six-week" stints that came before. Yes, totally got the air quotes with that for those 5-6 Expeditions that got lost. But, I always came back.
While I definitely highlight the weightloss these things pull off—it is a relatable construct—I am finding value to define them further as as agents of change. Workouts are all about the mind. The physical components are merely the meeples.
I look forward to unveiling what I have as my targets for The 33rd to catalyze. Coming this Monday!
The Competition.
And thus, a weigh-in follows. You'll recall my Competition: The Keto/Carnivore vs. HFC, how I am competitng against my 42-year-old, 2020 self. He was the one who started on keto and stumbled onto carnivore. At 44, my adoption of a high-fat carnivore diet seems to have given me a lead so far. That said, I have GOT to lose more than TWO lbs to not be tied after 210 days!
The suspense!
OK, so I may be more jazzed up with a slim hope that I can best The 17th: The Carnivore's weightloss of 14 lbs (5.9%), but it may be more realistic to expect something in the 4.5% to 5% range, or, 10 to 11.25 lbs. BUT, if I pull even that off, if I can continue the unmatched streak and earn a DOUBLE-DIGIT WEIGHTLOSS for the fifth Expedition in a row, well, BACON stays in my diet, proving once again, the superfood it is!
Shall I be lauded with Greek laurels atop my head or will I drop my head with street urchins' spittle rolling down my face? Stay tuned!
"You Make Me Sweat, You Turn Me ‘Round"
Friday, June 16, 2023
Yesterday, I received that bundle of items from Amazon. The initial, WAY-too-early-say favorite? My clipboard with the storage? My cheap shelving solution for tabletop games? My lead spinnin' pencil? The other, anti-break pencil? Even the laptop ledge? Who knows how I'll feel later about that DnD module or Dead of Winter. I do know that $200 went WAY too fast.
This morning was the last workout of The 32nd Expedition: On This Day. Again, I ran supersets and was left with a lot of time on my hands. It was surreal to recognize that it was the last time I would listen to that playlist in this Expedition. This span of six weeks was an emotional, night cruise in the DeLorean, down empty avenues of the past while forging ahead toward shaping that which lies ahead. Man, I missed out on adding an end credits to this movie!
My last set for this Expedition was an impromptu set of 1-minute's worth of crunches with my legs propped up on the bench. Honestly, I just wanted to see where I am with them for there was once a time it was a staple of my workout. Then again, there was once a time I wore bangs down to my mouth.
My only regret is that I didn't do more of them! I suspect it will become a pivotal threshold I will have crossed...
Announcing the Next Expedition!
Coming this summer...
June 19 - July 30
Hey Daddy-O, Let’s Cruise Down to the Malt Shop!
Thursday, June 15, 2023
Kicking my workout off at 3:58 AM this morning, I had a FANTASTIC performance. Not only did I check everything off, but I also added an additional exercise of 5 sets! But, here is the kicker: I did it in 2/3's of the time!
What, did I pop back Pervitin, the secret sauce of the Nazi blitzkrieg? Did I drive my Chevy to Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets on the radio and swing by my local Walgreens to snag a bottle off the shelf as I danced my way back to the checkout?
Here's a The More You Know Bit 💫 on Germany's economic recovery and war mobilization:
...the population welcomed the energising substance with open arms. It was cheap, helped people work, spread euphoria through the country and was not considered a drug. Basically, it only seemed to have beneficial effects. Sometimes even mixed with chocolate, pervitin appeared as harmless.
...Otto Ranke, director of the Institute for General and Defense Physiology at Berlin's Academy of Military Medicine, suggested that methamphetamine compounds could improve the soldiers’ performance. Introduced in the daily rations and consumed up to twice a day, the drug gave the soldiers supernatural capabilities. Fearless and cheerful, they could spend more than three days without sleeping and walk up to 60 kilometres without interruption. This allowed for the fast invasion of Poland in 1939, the Blitzkrieg through the French Ardennes in 1940, and the Balkan Campaign of 1941, fought without rest for 11 days.
You're tellin' me we ought to trust doctors? Interestingly enough, meth wasn't banned in the United States until 1970—not so fast...
Today, doctors prescribe Desoxyn® to "treat" "ADHD" (and the DEA adds that it is used to treat obesity). I am not making this up: doctors LITERALLY prescribe meth. TODAY.
I mean, if I had to go with an "expert" practitioner for my health...
That just makes me giggle. Ah yes, trust doctors and their silly, arbitrary numbers to fit their worksheet when they literally prescribe meth; trust the government to do what is right as they say 65% of our dietary intake ought to come from sugars.
No wonder there's an opioid issue with our country. This didn't start out in high school parking lots, but the backdrop of Kenny G waiting rooms. Puts a dark spin on terminal degrees.
OK, slide off all of that to the side. If the Faustian handiwork of doctors did not speed me up by 50% while adding 25% more content, what in the world happened?!
After mining Arnold Schwarzenegger's The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, last night, I finally decided to superset things. I did a 15-rep set of seated lateral raises and immediately followed it with a 15-rep set of upright rows. Then I took my standard 1-minute break. I ran this combo 5 times.
Now, with my Arnold press, I dropped the target weight because I really wanted to focus on using my tools to develop my musculature. Can you tell I just don't care about arbitrary numbers?
I want to work on my form. Arnold suggests that we do not lock out our arms when at the top of the Arnold press—isn't that rest a tendency of ours even when its just for a couple of heartbeats worth?
Speaking of rest, I did superset that exercise as well. After the first set, I benchpressed, but after sets 2,3,4,5, I used the 1-minute "rest" to crank out situps until it was time to lift again (after the final set, I just matched what I did in the preceding sets).
Clearly, I can free up ample time in the morning. How will it shape Week 9?
Next month's 45? Just another arbitrary number.