Time: 6:20 AM
Weight beforehand: 362.4 lbs
Length: 5 minutes
Program: TPRU
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 90
Rating: I'm glad my weight went down, but I'm not going to feel too confident about anything until I start dropping below the range I've been in. If I can get down below 355 and be consistently below that, I'll start feeling like I'm making real progress again.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Don't Panic
In my studies about financial markets, I've learned many things, and here is one of the most important ones. The greatest buying opportunities are when everyone else is so fearful that they sell everything and leave the market. We are starting to see that happen now, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the markets start to rebound in a significant way over the next 12 months, and possibly sooner, though I'm not going to make predictions. It might take longer to happen, but I'll be able to tell when it does.
There is an easy way to know when the market is officially going down and when it is officially going up. That is to watch the 20 week moving average and the 40 week moving average on a stock chart of a major market index, like the S&P 500 or the NYSE. When the 20 week average is above the 40 week average, the market is going up. When the 20 week average is below the 40 week average, the market is going down.
Want to see? Go to the following link for the S&P 500 and set the parameters I specify below.
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/advchart/frames/frames.asp?symb=SPX
Under the Time Frame area:
Time: 1 Decade
Frequency: Weekly
Under the Indicators area:
Moving Averages: EMA (2-Line) and the next box 20,40 to set it to 20 and 40 weeks
Those are the critical settings. I set other things like the Price Display (under Chart Style) to be Candlestick, but that's not really important. Click the Draw Chart button, and you should end up seeing something like the following, without the circles that I added.
I didn't include the dates in this picture, but you can find them at the bottom of the page when you go to the link. If you look closely, or click on the picture, you can see a brownish line and a blue line. The brown one is the 20 week moving average, and the blue one is the 40 week moving average.
The circles are when the 20 week went from above the 40 week to below (in the last few months of 2000), then from below to above (in the first few months of 2003), then again from above to below (at the very end of 2007). You'll notice that the general trend of the market is up when the brown line is above the blue, and it is down when the brown line is below the blue.
A simple way to use this information is to invest your money in the index you are tracking when the 20 week moving average moves from below the 40 week moving average to above it, then leave it invested there until the 20 week moving average moves below the 40 week moving average. At that point, you take your money out of the index and put it into CDs or bonds or something more stable until you see the 20 week moving average move above the 40 week moving average again.
So, don't panic. This might be close to the bottom, or it might not be there just yet, but the chances are pretty good that we are closer to the bottom than to the top, so if you don't need the money you have in stocks for the next few years, it might be better to hold on to them and wait for the market to go back up than to sell out this far from the top. It can be scary, and it could take a year or more to turn around, but if you have that much time, consider your options. Use the 20 week and 40 week moving averages, and you can know for sure when the index you are tracking is officially moving up again.
There is an easy way to know when the market is officially going down and when it is officially going up. That is to watch the 20 week moving average and the 40 week moving average on a stock chart of a major market index, like the S&P 500 or the NYSE. When the 20 week average is above the 40 week average, the market is going up. When the 20 week average is below the 40 week average, the market is going down.
Want to see? Go to the following link for the S&P 500 and set the parameters I specify below.
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/advchart/frames/frames.asp?symb=SPX
Under the Time Frame area:
Time: 1 Decade
Frequency: Weekly
Under the Indicators area:
Moving Averages: EMA (2-Line) and the next box 20,40 to set it to 20 and 40 weeks
Those are the critical settings. I set other things like the Price Display (under Chart Style) to be Candlestick, but that's not really important. Click the Draw Chart button, and you should end up seeing something like the following, without the circles that I added.
I didn't include the dates in this picture, but you can find them at the bottom of the page when you go to the link. If you look closely, or click on the picture, you can see a brownish line and a blue line. The brown one is the 20 week moving average, and the blue one is the 40 week moving average.
The circles are when the 20 week went from above the 40 week to below (in the last few months of 2000), then from below to above (in the first few months of 2003), then again from above to below (at the very end of 2007). You'll notice that the general trend of the market is up when the brown line is above the blue, and it is down when the brown line is below the blue.
A simple way to use this information is to invest your money in the index you are tracking when the 20 week moving average moves from below the 40 week moving average to above it, then leave it invested there until the 20 week moving average moves below the 40 week moving average. At that point, you take your money out of the index and put it into CDs or bonds or something more stable until you see the 20 week moving average move above the 40 week moving average again.
So, don't panic. This might be close to the bottom, or it might not be there just yet, but the chances are pretty good that we are closer to the bottom than to the top, so if you don't need the money you have in stocks for the next few years, it might be better to hold on to them and wait for the market to go back up than to sell out this far from the top. It can be scary, and it could take a year or more to turn around, but if you have that much time, consider your options. Use the 20 week and 40 week moving averages, and you can know for sure when the index you are tracking is officially moving up again.
10 October 2008 Workout
Time: 6:30 AM
Weight beforehand: 365.4 lbs
Length: 10 minutes
Program: TPRU
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 200
Rating: It sure doesn't feel like this is helping, but it's got to be good for me to be working out, doesn't it?!
Weight beforehand: 365.4 lbs
Length: 10 minutes
Program: TPRU
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 200
Rating: It sure doesn't feel like this is helping, but it's got to be good for me to be working out, doesn't it?!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
9 October Weight Update
I was feeling pretty bad last night, so I went to bed around 9:00. I tried to sleep in a little bit today too, so I didn't do a workout. I did weigh myself, and I came in at 364.7.
My wife has been feeling very ill recently, and we think it might be due to some pills she has been taking to try and assist her own weight loss. She's run out of pills, so we're watching to see if she stops feeling so poorly going forward. Other women she knows have had great success with this particular formula so we were surprised to realize that her sickness seemed to coincide with when she started taking it.
My wife has been feeling very ill recently, and we think it might be due to some pills she has been taking to try and assist her own weight loss. She's run out of pills, so we're watching to see if she stops feeling so poorly going forward. Other women she knows have had great success with this particular formula so we were surprised to realize that her sickness seemed to coincide with when she started taking it.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
8 October 2008 Workout
Time: 6:25 AM
Weight beforehand: 365 lbs
Length: 5 minutes
Program: TPRU
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 84
Rating: I think the medicine helped me drop some water weight. I am getting pretty tired now, and I didn't want to get out of bed today. However, I DID get up, and I wimped my way through a little-bitty workout, but at least I did something.
Weight beforehand: 365 lbs
Length: 5 minutes
Program: TPRU
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 84
Rating: I think the medicine helped me drop some water weight. I am getting pretty tired now, and I didn't want to get out of bed today. However, I DID get up, and I wimped my way through a little-bitty workout, but at least I did something.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
7 October 2008 Workout
Time: 6:35 AM
Weight beforehand: 367 lbs
Length: 5 minutes
Program: TPRU
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 109
Rating: I take some blood pressure medication that also acts as a diuretic (meaning it makes me have to go #1 a lot). I have missed a few days on that for various reasons, and today I started taking it again. My weight was up yet again this morning, so I worked out a little harder for the 5 minutes that I did, and I'm hoping that the water weight I expect to lose today coupled with the increased heart rate from the workout will help me drop some weight on tomorrow's reading.
Weight beforehand: 367 lbs
Length: 5 minutes
Program: TPRU
Elliptical Reported Calories Burned: 109
Rating: I take some blood pressure medication that also acts as a diuretic (meaning it makes me have to go #1 a lot). I have missed a few days on that for various reasons, and today I started taking it again. My weight was up yet again this morning, so I worked out a little harder for the 5 minutes that I did, and I'm hoping that the water weight I expect to lose today coupled with the increased heart rate from the workout will help me drop some weight on tomorrow's reading.
Monday, October 6, 2008
General Conference
My wife and I had decided a long time ago that we would try to take our children to experience a General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in person after they turned 8 years old. My oldest has just passed that mark, and so we were in attendance Saturday morning.
We were a little worried about how he would handle the two hour meeting since he can't sit still for it at home and watch on TV, but he was interested and attentive much of the time. We had brought some papers to do word games on to help with the other times, and he told us that he really enjoyed it. It made me feel good to share that experience with him, and to have him be in the same room with a prophet.
We were a little worried about how he would handle the two hour meeting since he can't sit still for it at home and watch on TV, but he was interested and attentive much of the time. We had brought some papers to do word games on to help with the other times, and he told us that he really enjoyed it. It made me feel good to share that experience with him, and to have him be in the same room with a prophet.
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