Time: 6:20 AM
Weight beforehand: 357.4 lbs
Length: 20 minutes
Program: The first 20 minutes of the Pedestal
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 294
Rating: With as hard as it has been to get a workout in, any workout at all is a good thing.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
I'm Not in New York for a Reason
I knew my wife had a doctor's appointment today to discuss some problems she's been having after her hysterectomy. I did not know how scared she was about it until after my trip got canceled. She didn't want me to worry.
Saturday, we had our 8 month old little boy outside a fair amount while doing some yard work. Sunday, he could hardly breathe and had to be taken to the emergency room. He's still struggling today, though not as much as yesterday, and he has an appointment with the doctor this morning before my wife's appointment with the other doctor.
These are the kinds of things that make me glad that I'm not in New York this week for business. There's not a whole lot more that I can do here than I would be able to do from there, but I feel like I can do more being here.
Due to our boy needing breathing treatments every 3 hours during the night, I decided to not try to work out this morning while he and my wife were finally sleeping. I was tired too, but it sounds better if I say it was only my considerate nature. :)
Saturday, we had our 8 month old little boy outside a fair amount while doing some yard work. Sunday, he could hardly breathe and had to be taken to the emergency room. He's still struggling today, though not as much as yesterday, and he has an appointment with the doctor this morning before my wife's appointment with the other doctor.
These are the kinds of things that make me glad that I'm not in New York this week for business. There's not a whole lot more that I can do here than I would be able to do from there, but I feel like I can do more being here.
Due to our boy needing breathing treatments every 3 hours during the night, I decided to not try to work out this morning while he and my wife were finally sleeping. I was tired too, but it sounds better if I say it was only my considerate nature. :)
Friday, May 16, 2008
I Just Saved a Ton of Money by not Switching my TV Provider!
It has been suggested that some might be interested to hear about how we will save over $300 over the next year due to what happened yesterday. I feel blessed that it worked out this way.
We currently get DirecTV bundled with Qwest, which gives us a $5.00 a month discount for bundling. We have been thinking about switching from Qwest to be able to get faster internet and using Voice over IP (internet phone calling) to save money on our phone bill. [Side note - that's probably not going to happen now as I'm hearing that the internet provider I was thinking of using is not the most reliable, and phone service has to be reliable.]
So, here comes the math!
Current DirecTV bill ~ $72
Current Qwest price ~ $67
We had an offer to upgrade our hardware for free from DirecTV if we extended our contract with them for 2 years. I've heard ads on the radio for satellite installers to set us up with a new account that would save us $23 a month on the bill but cost us $100 for the equipment. To skip all the gory details, I called DirecTV and told them what I could save with the local companies, and here is what they did for me.
1) Cancel unneeded protection plan. Savings ~ $5 a month forever, or $60 a year.
2) Give me $10 off per month for the next year. Savings = $120 for the next year.
3) Give me ~$80 lump credit right now to get my average savings up. Savings ~ $80 for the next year.
4) Give me a $20 credit for switching to billing via email rather than paper, even though I ended up not being able to switch since I'm with Qwest. Savings = $20 for the next year.
5) Give me a $200 equipment upgrade with a $200 equipment fee waiver, plus charge me $19.99 for the install. Savings = -$20 for the year, but $80 over going with a local company.
So, here's what it looks like now.
$60 + $120 + $80 + $20 = $280 in savings over the next year. $60 will continue after that. If we take the $19.99 away for the new equipment, that goes to $260 for the year. If we count the $80 saved by not switching, that goes to $360 for the year.
$280 divided by 12 = $23.33 a month, more than what the local companies could provide for the year, plus I still get the Qwest $5 discount. $360 divided by 12 = $30 a month in savings. :)
I expect that, if I could put all of our savings into a monthly bill instead of some of the lump sum credits we are getting, our monthly bill with the Qwest savings would be about $44. Instead, we'll have one month where we don't pay anything, one month where we'll pay about $27 to $47, and then the rest of the year the bill should be around $52.
We currently get DirecTV bundled with Qwest, which gives us a $5.00 a month discount for bundling. We have been thinking about switching from Qwest to be able to get faster internet and using Voice over IP (internet phone calling) to save money on our phone bill. [Side note - that's probably not going to happen now as I'm hearing that the internet provider I was thinking of using is not the most reliable, and phone service has to be reliable.]
So, here comes the math!
Current DirecTV bill ~ $72
Current Qwest price ~ $67
We had an offer to upgrade our hardware for free from DirecTV if we extended our contract with them for 2 years. I've heard ads on the radio for satellite installers to set us up with a new account that would save us $23 a month on the bill but cost us $100 for the equipment. To skip all the gory details, I called DirecTV and told them what I could save with the local companies, and here is what they did for me.
1) Cancel unneeded protection plan. Savings ~ $5 a month forever, or $60 a year.
2) Give me $10 off per month for the next year. Savings = $120 for the next year.
3) Give me ~$80 lump credit right now to get my average savings up. Savings ~ $80 for the next year.
4) Give me a $20 credit for switching to billing via email rather than paper, even though I ended up not being able to switch since I'm with Qwest. Savings = $20 for the next year.
5) Give me a $200 equipment upgrade with a $200 equipment fee waiver, plus charge me $19.99 for the install. Savings = -$20 for the year, but $80 over going with a local company.
So, here's what it looks like now.
$60 + $120 + $80 + $20 = $280 in savings over the next year. $60 will continue after that. If we take the $19.99 away for the new equipment, that goes to $260 for the year. If we count the $80 saved by not switching, that goes to $360 for the year.
$280 divided by 12 = $23.33 a month, more than what the local companies could provide for the year, plus I still get the Qwest $5 discount. $360 divided by 12 = $30 a month in savings. :)
I expect that, if I could put all of our savings into a monthly bill instead of some of the lump sum credits we are getting, our monthly bill with the Qwest savings would be about $44. Instead, we'll have one month where we don't pay anything, one month where we'll pay about $27 to $47, and then the rest of the year the bill should be around $52.
16 May 2008 workout
Time: 6:15 AM
Weight beforehand: 359.1 lbs
Length: 20 minutes
Program: The first 20 minutes of the Pedestal
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 313
Rating: It was the best I could do for now.
Weight beforehand: 359.1 lbs
Length: 20 minutes
Program: The first 20 minutes of the Pedestal
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 313
Rating: It was the best I could do for now.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
And the Band Played On...
We tried to go to bed early last night. It was fortunate that we did, because we were able to hear our 8 month old boy have a big vomiting episode and be right there to help him. We're trying to get him to put on a little more weight because he is very skinny, and now we're thinking maybe we should have a doctor check him as well.
Anyway, sleep didn't come any earlier, I was still too tired to get up and work out, but I felt better about why I was up late. :)
Anyway, sleep didn't come any earlier, I was still too tired to get up and work out, but I felt better about why I was up late. :)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This
Tired, and my wife is sick. Kids went to bed at 7:30 because they were tired and grumpy. I didn't sleep so well. No work out today.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
13 May 2008 workout - New Program
Time: 5:45 AM
Weight beforehand: 358.2 lbs
Length: 40 minutes
Program: The Hill. See below. Here's the visual.
333334444456789 10 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 11 10 987654444433333
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 554
Rating: I modified the Train program so much that I decided to rename the new program to the Hill. I tried to combine the getting up to speed portion of the Train with the strength training portion of the Pedestal and TPRU. Click here to see an explanation of the other programs.
Doing the harder programs has made me stronger as it doesn't hurt as much to do them now. The Train didn't really seem to be meeting my needs anymore, especially since I'm trying to make my workouts harder in order to start losing weight again.
Here are some comparisons of the Hill to the other programs.
Finally, some pictures to wrap it all up. Note the symmetry I put into my programs - yet another of my OCD tendencies.
Weight beforehand: 358.2 lbs
Length: 40 minutes
Program: The Hill. See below. Here's the visual.
333334444456789 10 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 11 10 987654444433333
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 554
Rating: I modified the Train program so much that I decided to rename the new program to the Hill. I tried to combine the getting up to speed portion of the Train with the strength training portion of the Pedestal and TPRU. Click here to see an explanation of the other programs.
Doing the harder programs has made me stronger as it doesn't hurt as much to do them now. The Train didn't really seem to be meeting my needs anymore, especially since I'm trying to make my workouts harder in order to start losing weight again.
Here are some comparisons of the Hill to the other programs.
| Program | Resistance Units (RU) | Percent of Total Possible RU |
|---|---|---|
| TPRU | 480 | 100% |
| Pedestal | 289 | 60.21% |
| Hill | 254 | 52.92% |
| Train | 150 | 31.25% |
Finally, some pictures to wrap it all up. Note the symmetry I put into my programs - yet another of my OCD tendencies.
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