A lack of everything

It’s been quite some time… (n’yah, yet again another post that starts with this lame excuse) …but I haven’t actually found the right amount of enthusiasm to write. And last but not least, nothing worth writing about happened.

For the those of you interested in my “sports career” I can tell you, that it is currently not existing. I’m pushing the gym appointment in my schedule from one week to another and it’s frustrating. On the one hand I feel the lust and passion to get to gym again, but on the other side I’m just sick and tired of this stuff. Right now, there’s a massive need to actually do some sports because I – once again – gained a lot of weight and my nutrition in the recent has been more than just wrong. According to my BMI and a look in the mirror I’m obese.

But like I said, it’s some sort of a battle of conscience in my head and I wonder who’s going to win. My next appointment for gym is set for tomorrow afternoon and I’ll tell you in the near future if I made it or dumped it.

Yet another hobby of mine that got a little abandoned is the photography. But that’s basically a problem with everything that I currently have no real drive or creative inspiration to go out and take pictures. Right now it’s just the comic books that give a little bit of satisfaction and enthusiasm.

Well, that’s not the real truth. I’ve bought a new notebook a couple of days ago. Actually it’s a refurbished one – an IBM ThinkPad with Core 2 Duo processor. I’ve added a few more gigs of RAM that I had around and replaced the HDD with a faster model by Western Digital and this baby runs like hell with a Linux Mint installation on it. That’s basically why I bought this notebook, because I felt a little “disconnected” with Linux and everything what’s going on in the scene.

I’ve rented this vServer for TeamSpeak several other net related things, but the maintenance is not that intense, that I’ve to work with Linux on a daily basis. And in my current job I do more IT management that actual IT administration, but hopefully this will change during the next two years.

So as you can see, there isn’t anything special going on at the moment. I’m having this serious issues with my sports activities – or the lack of it. And my creative inspiration is still gone and missing.

SE 3.0 – Interim Report – #10

My personal challenge, formerly known as “Straight Edge 3.0” was interrupted by a back injury. Well, injury may be the wrong word, it’s more an issue. The cause for my back issue was found after several sessions at the physiotherapy. It’s my bloody furniture at work.

I demanded new furniture that will fit much better to my height and habits how I usually sit at a desk. Nothing happened actually and the pain in my back gets a chronic characteristic. I personally think, that this is not fun anymore, that I’ve to suffer by sitting at a fucking desk that is much too low for me and by sitting on a chair that was already outdated twenty sodding years ago. Trust me, I’m really furious about this.

A few weeks ago, it started getting serious by Thursdays or Fridays but these days I already suffer on Mondays. I’m not quite sure for how long I’m willing to take this. I never had problems with my back, because of one simple fact, I always cared about it. And by that I do not mean, that I always trained it or made special exercises. I just mean, I simply cared in daily life and especially at work, which is the major part of my day. The ignorance I currently experience is far beyond any description.

Looking back at the first weeks of SE 3.0 I made a lot of progress. My endurance increased, I lost weight and I was able to improve my strength as well. All this progress is now lost. I’m still able to run on the treadmill for quite some time and I also do not drown in the pool after swimming a couple of lanes, but it could have been much, much better than it is right now.

I’m a little bit confused about what I should do with this whole situation. I want to stick to my project, without a single glimpse of a doubt. And I’m not willing to give the whole thing up, just because my furniture is not correct. My therapist said it very clear, ‘If it hurts and your employer doesn’t change anything, then you’ve to quit your job’

That sounds rude and pretty cynical, but she’s right to a certain degree.

You might have noticed it, swimming is now included in my sports scheduled. One time a week me and a friend of mine make it to the natatorium and swim a few lanes. Well, something about 1,500m or so. Currently it’s more about endurance than technique. But we’ll change the training focus in the future.

I cut down the gym sessions to one or two per week and I plan to include one mountain bike session per week or every second week, depending on the spare time I’ve got left for this. Due to the fact that I’m “slightly handicapped” I avoid doing any sessions at the gym that only consist of strength training. I’ve to see how it all develops in the future and if everything is getting better.

SE 3.0 – Interim Report – #9

Almost two month away from this blog and no report about my current sports activities. And there’s a good reason for that. An injury was the reason for my long time of absence. Everything started very well on the first days of my vacation.

I got to jog every second morning and right after that I went to swim in the lake nearby, which was so refreshing. Till that time the only problem I had was this muscular imbalance around the left shinbone. To a certain point I was able to handle it, but on the very last day of my week in the forest that was scheduled for sports I had to cancel during my jog. Mainly because I slipped pretty hard off a stone and was not able to cushion it. Well, another lesson learned.

So that was a minor problem, that wasn’t actually that kind of an issue, because I had planned to rest for three or four days and stay away from sports. During that regeneration period came issue number two. My back – I had this terrible, awkward pain around the right middle of my back. It wasn’t that I couldn’t actually move or something, it was just painful and very disturbing. Vacation 2012 was ruined.

It took just two days and went to my doctor. She ordered me an x-ray to see if there’s anything wrong with my spine or related. It took a couple of days till the statement was done and it says that everything was all right. Well, the pain in my back told me something different. Next conclusion of my doctor was, that it has to be a static problem. By having said that she kept me off vacation and work as well for another couple of weeks. This whole things lasted for five weeks. Only one of my previously planned three weeks of vacation were taken. Serious bullshit.

Especially when you consider that I haven’t had a few weeks off for almost a year and a half. Which leads to the next issue. I already had several problems with my back over the last couple of month. Some minor and through several short periods even some major problems. But nothing that lasted for longer. Me and my therapists did a lot of research (of course) to find out where my problems come from.

We considered sports, some untreated injuries, wrong mattress and last but not least the furniture I got at work. You may guess it, it actually is my office furniture that cause these (meanwhile) serious problems. My desk is too low and my chair is a piece of junk that. Nothing that stabilizes, nothing that’s comfortable and far and beyond from healthy.

I’m a pretty petted person when it comes to comfortable office furniture. My last company had these chairs and desks where you could spent days and days on without getting tired or having any issues. I was complaining a little about the fact, that my desk was around 2-3 cm too low, but I had several tricks at the end of day to compensate this.

My desk and chair at home is basically the same. The desk is custom made and the chair is one of these common, badass comfortable ones. It wasn’t all that expensive, rather than the furniture I had at my last company, but I am able to sit there for hours without getting into any trouble.

Long story short, my therapist gave me the advise to quit my job, because with that in mind the whole therapy would be some sort of a bloody joke. Quitting my job is not the best solution, but it is quite an option. I’ve recently made a request to get a new chair and desk that would fit my needs and do no longer get me into such trouble and pain. I hope there’s a good solution on the way otherwise I take the advise of my therapist… well… maybe… possibly… we’ll see.

Anyhow, this whole thing took me apart from sports and gym and I’m not very happy about it. I would’ve been fine with a simple sports injury, but the fact that wrong furniture at work causes this bloody, damn issue makes me sort of furious.

I’ve planned to get back to gym for the first time at Saturday. I will try the treadmill and the elliptical. I’ve scheduled sports for three times per week, don’t want to exaggerate anything. Hopefully I can finally make it to the natatorium and swim a couple of lanes. I’ll keep you informed.

SE 3.0 – Interim Report – #8

My sports activities do change these days. I’m trying to get a little further away from pure gym sessions and focus more on ‘outside oriented’ activities. By saying that I do also consider swimming in a natatorium as ‘outside’. Nevertheless, the intention should be clear. Avoiding boredom and get more versatility.

To be honest, as much as I like to go to the gym and take it to the next limit, I also feel like I should to something that gives more of a ‘I know why I’m doing this’ feel. My mountain bike trips are one of these activities, because a lot of things come together in this – cardio training, leg training, arm training and strengthen of the my back.

Another thing that I have to mention, despite my many sessions on the treadmill I don’t actually like running. Even though it does blast my brain free and helps me get rid of certain things of my daily life that bother me. My plan is to do more and more jogs outside, especially trail runs. It’s basically the same reason as it is with mountain biking. I hate running/cycling straight ahead. I need some obstacles and several things that I have to ‘master’.

There are a lot of parks in my town and also a lot of nature areas that are mainly untouched inviting to sport them. So I’m gonna use them. Last weekend I had the most unpleasant weather on one of my bike trips. Stormy, soppy and cold. But I like it that way. It gives that kind of feeling that makes me want to say: “Come get some!”

That’s this particular point I’m actually missing in gym. You can set certain milestone that you want to reach, but at the end of the day it lacks the bite. It’s always nice to reach a new mark, but on the other hand does it not give the same feel like sports outside. I guess, it got something to do with the circumstances outside and the connections you make between them. Like, ‘hey, it was on this bad, rainy day, where I ran my first 20 km without a single walking break’

Well, I guess, you got my point. Another reason for this whole ‘let’s get away from gym’ thing is, that I now want to know, what do I actually gain from my training sessions. As a short reminder, this whole training is not mainly about losing weight, it’s more about getting into a better shape. The weight loss is a greatly appreciated and welcomed side effect. For this very reason I’m also glad that I finally found someone who is willing to do the swim training with me. It’s perfect for motivation and a great control factor as well.

I’m certain that my technique on some swim strokes is far from perfect and needs a lot of practice. Especially things like the crawl stroke, the dolphin stroke and for instance the quick turn as well will take a huge amount of time of training. Swimming this week is that one thing I’m excited about the most.

And once again and last but not least, for the those of you who like to play with numbers, my current weight is 104,1 kg, which means that I haven’t lost a lot of weight for weeks now. But like I mentioned before in this post, it’s about the shape and not the weight. Well, and the whole “sportability”

SE 3.0 – Interim Report – #7

Summer strikes the land. People were complaining during the last weeks that summer isn’t coming this year, but now is the time where we get all the heat. And this very heat is currently my main problem to actually continue my sports program.

It doesn’t really make sense to be on the treadmill running for like 40 minutes and sweat like halibut. I’ve got this serious heat problem when in motion. It’s also because my blood pressure is still very high and when doing cardio activities I literally start to glow. Another side effect is, that my cooling system is working very well and I do look as though I’ve been swimming fully clothed but rather running on a treadmill or the elliptical.

I guess, it’s quite obvious that I want to avoid such things as much as I can and on the other hand, and due to my high blood pressure, I don’t want to risk a breakdown.

my favourite July

But fortune smiled on me. My plan was to start swimming after a while of being in gym. It’s now almost four month of training and it’s time to reach for something new to prevent from boredom. Swimming has always been a joy for me and I wasn’t swimming since being in school. And by that do I mean a more tournament oriented kind of swimming. Just without an actual tournament.

I’ve been swimming on a lake here and then, but I feel like I should take this a little bit more seriously and go to the natatorium one or two times a week. The new cooling effect while doing sports and being in cool water is another thing that seems quite intriguing to me.

Honestly, it costs a lot of willpower these days to actually go to the gym. My sessions are at no more than three per week and mountain biking is currently cut off the schedule. The plan get below the 100 kg by the end of August draws more and more into a further distance, but it’s way more important to get through this period of heat without giving up the whole sports thing.

No pain – no gain. And it literally is a pain at the gym with 36°C and a humidity that’s almost tropical. I’ve ordered all things necessary for the natatorium and I hope they’ll be in my mailbox by the end of this week, that I can start swimming.

For the those of you who are in love with numbers, my weight is currently at 102 – 104 kg. Depending on what I ate and my whole condition. It’s fluctuating pretty much, but as long as the scale does not deflect I’m fine.

SE 3.0 – Interim Report – #4

Another week has passed and I’m still into the so called “Straight Edge Project 3.0”

Basically, everything has turned out as a fine routine that doesn’t bother me much. To be honest, I do not currently feel like doing anything else than sports. I went to gym four times and I took two one hour rides last week with my bicycle with a distance of 23 km. According to my fitness app did it burn almost 1,700 kcal each. The cardio program over the week burned around 7,000 kcal and I made a distance of almost 90 km. Very exciting numbers that will hopefully get a decent meaning in the future.

Just for comparison, in the week of 25.06. to 01.07. I burned 4,087 kcal. In addition, I do not feel exhausted or anything similar. It was one of my problems the weeks before that I totally needed to rest for some days. But thanks to the diversity of my training schedule I’m able to keep my sports activities up for five to six days a week, without burning out.

This was also one of the main problems I had with my previous projects. It was always the same and it started to feel like Groundhog Day. These days I have all kinds of different sports activities to face during the week and that means a lot of gas. I absolutely enjoy sports and do not see it as a duty or something forced. It costs a lot of my spare time, but I currently do not actually have a problem with that. Week days are mainly dead days when it comes to social interaction.

One of the most important numbers people are interesting in, when talking about fitness programs is the loss of weight. In my case, I started back in May with something around 110 to 112 kg with a height of 188 cm. My body mass index was scratching the 31. Currently my weight is around 104 to 106 kg with a BMI of something around 29.5, which is still obese. Luckily, one does not recognize me as an obese person. Mother nature gifted me a fine figure, that still suffers from tons of unwanted fat packages, but in the end I don’t look like a typical burger-fast-food-victim.

My plan, or first milestone I want to reach, is to get below the 100 kg. Hopefully it will happen by the end of August. I don’t want to lose weight to fast, because I think, and know, that this is not healthy. I also plan to start a jog outside in free nature by the end of August. I’m not on a rush. And I don’t want to lose the fun for sports by being impatient.

SE 3.0 – Interim Report – #3

Another week, another sports report. In case you’ve missed it, Spain is the old and new European Champion in football. But that’s not what this post is actually about. The last week wasn’t a very successful one. I’ve managed to do what I wanted to, but it felt kinda hard and tough.

The weather is currently very warm and I’m that kind of person that heats up very quick. One of my main problems on the treadmill is the heat I produce. I sweat like a waterfall without actually getting any cooling. I’ve to do several breaks during a run on the treadmill. Not because I’m getting tired or something, I’m getting too warm. Like I said before, the weather is also a reason.

I’ve been in a great condition on Saturday, where I managed to stay almost three hours in the gym doing my strength program followed by endurance/cardio training. I spent only thirty minutes on the treadmill. I felt great and like I could run for hours, but I ran into another overheating problem. The rest of my gym session was spent on the elliptical. Always a good way to cool down a little bit while also burning calories.

Apart from that fact that everything felt a little bit like chewing gum, I’ve to say, that I’m getting better. I’m no longer that exhausted during the week as I was weeks before. Sports finally turns into a part of my daily living and it also doesn’t bother me, that there’s such a great loss of spare time, that I could use for other things as well. It does no longer feel like a duty, it’s more a hobby that I totally enjoy. I hope that this condition will last.

My weight decreased a tiny little bit, but not that much. Which is good actually. I don’t want to see the value on the scale to drop in an enormous speed. Which is, logically, quite unhealthy. I still stick to my nutrition plan, if one can call this a nutrition plan. Exceptions are set for the weekends. But it does not end in excessive gluttony. One pizza or something similar has to be enough and it actually does the job and calms my lust for anything else pretty well.

These are the key data for the last week of my straight ede 3.0 project. Stay tuned!

A penis out of sight

The summer draws near. A lot of my trousers do no longer fit. Wide shirts currently feel like slim shirts. I can’t see my penis while having a piss. I’m out of breath when running around from point A to point B, no matter how far they are away from each other.

Basically, these are some of the problems, that I’ve to face at the moment and once again, it’s all my sodding fault and I’ve to get rid of these problems. The solution is quite easy to tell, but hard to turn into a reality. Sports. To be honest, it’s not that hard to turn this into a reality, the odd thing about it is to make the right decision between the good and evil conscience representatives sitting on my shoulder.

I’ve followed the advise of the good representative and took a sneak peak preview by wandering back into gym. Without a doubt, something has to happen and this is sports and a frigging healthier way of life. So I entered the treadmill and ran. So I entered the cross-trainer and crossed? Whatever, I went to gym for three days, just to get an impression, if I can handle it with my tight schedule. But, for the love of God, what else can I lose during a week, where almost all time of the day gets soaked up by sodding commuting?

 

A two hour attendance at the gym does not hurt and my social life and everything that stands in relation with it is ruined to death anyway. So here I am, the lonesome rider, doing workouts. The underdog running in the treadmill. The fatty bum-bum crossing the cross trainer. The first milestone I want to reach is to simply fit in my old sports outfits. I currently have this clothes size does not really match the body size problem.

The schedule that I have in mind will dictate that I’ve to go to the gym at least four times a week. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. That’s the plan until 27th of July. My current weight is about 110 kg and I plan to reach 95 kg, but not in July. This would be unhealthy and unrealistic. The end of August or the beginning of September sounds quite good and not too dramatically unhealthy. My goal in a distant future is to level off at something between 85 to 90 kg. The last value will probably be the one that may be the more realistic one. 85 kg would be some sort of too skinny for me, as a person that is 188 cm tall.

Depending on how well everything will make progress I may go for diet as well. I don’t need to ban cigarettes anymore, because after my very first straight edge period, I kept being a non-smoker and I’m so totally happy with that. I would be even more happy, when I’ll finally manage it to have sports as a common part of my daily schedule and not as something that has to happen just because for a particular reason. Fun is the keyword.

And of course one important reason would also be that I can see my penis again when I piss. That would be awesome.

Like I did in previous “projects”, I will report progress and will also post about certain events that I’ll find important or interesting. You’ll get to read the change of numbers regularly, but I’m not currently certain on what day this is going to happen. Anyhow, you’ll get something to feed your statistic charts or whatever you want to do with these numbers. But in the end, every good sports event comes with some nicely investigated statistics.

Now you know what my current plan is and what my first goals are. I’ll keep you informed and welcome to “Straight Edge 3.0”

Outta shape, dude!

After having celebrated the couch potatoe-esque way of life for quite a while I’m finally tired of it. Over and over again do I reach a point I feel like “Hey, now it’s getting seriously out of control.

I’m not announcing a big program, like I did in the past, here but right now I’m at a point where it is time to get a little bit more healthier and find a way back on regular track. This is also because I found that I’ve finally reached an age where the “DeLorean is far beyond the point of no return”

I’ll maybe explain this in a later post but not right now. Anyhow, my bag is finally packed for gym tomorrow and I also have to say that this time I feel a little bit afraid. I’ve gained massive, massive, massive overweight and I also feel a little ashamed about me BUT it’s no condition that cannot be changed. My daily schedule leaves enough room for fitness once again and one slightly set goal is go for a jog by the beginning of November that will last for about half an hour or more. Till now I’m only used to these machines in the gym but I feel more like getting out a little bit more.

Another urgency, it’s getting colder and colder and the point where I HAVE to wear long pants draws near. Actually, I won’t fit in one of those at my certain condition, or I simply die of frost this winter 🙂

I’ll keep you informed and wish me luck…

Time to waste

Changes, man, changes! I’ve got two days left at work and then I’ll enter a longer period of free time. Almost the whole August is free. I’ve got a job offer that I finally couldn’t resist in a company that captured my entire sympathy within a couple of moments and that looks very promising. My new life starts on 1st September. In the meantime I’ll try to use my free time to get a little bit more time with photography and learn my new lenses. On the other hand I plan to get back to sports. As mentioned before, I’ve got a lot of free time and want to use it as useful as I possibly can.

I gained several pounds during the last few weeks and I want to get rid of them as soon as I can. The answer is simple, lots of sports is the solution. I’m really excited about this, because I never had a training period like this before. It’s just me and my free time without getting distracted by work issues or everything else that might bother you in daily life. Right now, my weight is something around 108kg and I want to push it down to at least 100kg. I personally think that this is possible within four weeks and a half.

Besides this stands my second ego, the gamer. I’ve got so many games that I haven’t already that deserve a play through that I’ll jump on these, too. My fave at the moment is the absolutely brilliant “DiRT 3”. One of the best racing games for years and as addictive as the all time classic “Colin McRae Rally 2.0”

“Colin McRae Rally 2.0” sucked hours and hours of my weekends and free time and there wasn’t a single moment where I got bored. “DiRT 3” is actually the same, very motivating and entertaining for every single moment. The only thing that bothers me a little are the DLCs. I bought Monte Carlo and Japan, but they could have made into the final retail game, too. These two DLCs cost me around 15 Euros and you have to keep in your mind, that you can get a great budget title for that money, too. Hopefully, this rip off will have an end in the near future.

Finally, and I hope the weather god is good to me. I’ll go out in my town and probably Berlin and do some photos. I’ve got this new fish eye lens that deserves a little more attention. Anyhow, I wanted to go out for pictures for such a long time, but I felt really exhausted and stressed by nearly everything over the last few weeks that I actually haven’t found the time and intention to do so.

Whatever the case, a new job starts on September and I’ve got a lot of free time in the meantime. I’ll try to use it to recharge and to get back into shape. I’ll keep you informed.