Refinancing

Interest rates are crazy low so I'm thinking about refinancing.  Unfortunately, my loan-to-value is pretty high so I don't have much equity.  I don't think closing costs would be more than the equity I do have and I have an FHA loan which has a streamlined refinancing option.  I think I might be able to save roughly $200 a month which isn't anything to sneeze at given I live paycheck to paycheck.

Thanksgiving 2010

You might be wondering where I've been. Well, I flew out to Portland and then we drove up to Bellevue, WA for Thanksgiving. I took a bunch of crappy photos with my Droid, but Blogger wouldn't let me upload them en masse so I put them in a Picasa album:


I'm not sure how well it'll work, but it was easier than bringing in each picture separately. The locations aren't quite right, but they're close enough.

Anyhow, I had a great trip - my brother got married since his now-wife's visa status is/was iffy and I got stuck in Chicago last night. Good times.

I did go bowling so I am a small step closer to polishing off another challenge.

Fitness update

For various reasons, I choose not to take my measurements tomorrow so I did them this morning.  I know it may sound like wishful thinking, but I do not believe the body fat readings from this morning.  I can't see how I gained two pounds of fat this week by eating better and exercising more.  This reading also doesn't jive with the jiggle and flab grab tests.  Maybe it's because it's cold and dry.  I don't know.  It's just one reading and isn't that important because it's pretty easy to tell if you're in shape - just look in the mirror.  Of course, being a big ol' dork, I like to have a way to quantify my fitness.  I could also use navel circumference since it picks up the love handles.  When it hits 32", I'll know I'm ripped.

I did a full week of exercises from Lauren's book and I know it's working because I have more energy, I've been in a better mood and I'm horny as all get up (local ladies, help me out!).  Heh.  It sounds strange, but I can almost feel my metabolism shifting.  The good news is I haven't been stuffing my face with bad food.  I went out to eat with my dad and his coworker yesterday for lunch, but we had Indian food which is pretty healthy for sure.  My dad and his coworker were out here for a work trip so I got to see him twice - once when he came over to check out my place and then at lunch.

Anyhow, I think this new exercise scheme is working well and I'll definitely be able to stick with it because nearly all the exercises require just your body.  Thanksgiving is coming up, though, so I'll need to be careful about my eating.  My parents also tend to have a lot of snacks around as well, but I think my discipline has improved greatly.

My previous goal was to drop ten pounds of fat, but if I can't trust my scale, then I'll revise the goal to drop four inches off my navel circumference.  Then, my navel circumference would match my waist which is what should happen when you're in shape.

Sweet and sour meatballs

The main course for dinner tonight was sweet and sour meatballs though I have plenty of green on my plate as well thanks to salad and broccoli.  I got the recipe from a blog, Kitchen to Kitchen, when I was searching for something else.  Some of the other recipes on there look pretty tasty as well.

The meatballs were easy to make and turned out well.  The recipe said to use a really lean meat so I used turkey.  The blog author used elk, but I'm not sure where I'd get elk around here except maybe off the road.  Heh.  I would definitely make this recipe again though I'd probably make more sauce as the author suggests.

I've now banged out 79 new recipes towards my challenge.

Protein bars

I would like to eat more protein, but commercial protein bars are little better than candy bars so I thought I would make my own.  Hmmm...this recipe for no bake oat bars did not work out well for me because it's too dry.  I think I need to use oilier peanut butter or more liquid.

My friend says she has a good recipe, but getting it from her has been like pulling teeth.

The bone dry protein bar mix:

It's a new recipe so now I've polished off 78 towards my challenge.

Fitness update

I didn't make much progress this week, but I think I am newly motivated to get into shape.  Yeah, I think I say that every week and every week I slip a bit further into chunkitude, but I'm serious this time.  Heh.  I think I now have a good tool since I bought a book by this guy when I was poking around on Amazon.  I highly recommend it and I don't want to exaggerate, but I think it'll turn my life around because I always feel better when I'm in better shape and I think this book will help me get there.  I read through it already and he has some interesting ideas on fitness which match my experience.

Firstly, he emphasizes high intensity strength training over low intensity aerobics or cardio.  He claims there are studies showing no heart benefit to cardio over strength training.  He also points out that low intensity exercises only help us become more efficient at those exercises.  Let's say you jog three or four times a week.  You're going to improve, but what's happening is you're becoming more efficient at jogging rather than becoming stronger.  Your body will shrink muscles not in use which is not really the point unless you're training for a road race.

He also gives some good information on nutrition which is mostly in line with the South Beach Diet.  He advocates eating a lot of protein every two to three hours.  You should eat just fruit, vegetables, protein, eggs, nuts, seeds, fish and maybe dairy.  It's kind of like a paleo diet and you adjust the caloric intake based on whether you want to get lean or build muscle.

My goal is to get to ripped and to reverse some of the trends of aging so I'll focus on his program of strength training for a couple of hours a week.  It doesn't sound like it'll be enough, but the impact of a high intensity exercise lasts long after you finish it in contrast to a low intensity exercise which is easy to recover from.  I have probably mangled the theory so read the book for yourself.  It's only $10 and all of the exercises can be done at home with just your body and sometimes some household supplies.

He breaks the exercises into four groups: push, pull, legs and glutes and core.  You can mix and match or focus on one group a day.  I think I'll focus on one group a day since my plan is to pick and choose different exercises each day.  I don't want to do the same pull exercises on every pull day, for example.  He has enough variations for me to use muscle confusion which is essential to preventing plateaus.

Anyhow, I think I have the tools needed to reverse the pathetic body fat trends of the past few months.

Posture fixed

Today I had an appointment with my chiropractor and he moved me onto maintenance so I think I'll consider this task complete.  I've had a good number of appointments to get readjusted and I've been mostly keeping up with my posture exercises at work and at home.  I need to do a better job of doing the prone Bruggers and the wall squats at night, but I do the seated Bruggers at work.

I'm not sure if my spine is actually straighter, but I think I feel less crooked and feeling less cooked was definitely my number one priority.

I've now polished off 7 tasks.