GYGO! #49!

Well, a little later than anticipated for the holidays, but considering the craziness that comes with the season schedule around here, I'm pretty geeked to have finally gotten the show produced. That, AND tons of fudge, whew!

It's worth the wait though, the show is packed with lots of fun stuff to keep everyone motivated all winter long. Check it out by clicking here now. Also, stay tuned because this weekend we announce the official winner of the 18-week, 2008 TTW Challenge!

News, Gossip, and Related Fun

Man.

Well, I dare say although it's been a whirlwind of craziness, this has been one hell of a fun few weeks off. I must apologize however, as SO much has happened there's really no way I can relate the whole holiday experience as was had, but all the same, here's my best foot forward on the play by play:

First week off highlights:

1. Excavated all Christmas related coolness from the bowels of the basement, and put up indoor/outdoor decorations respectively.

2. Started phase one of "the purge", e.g. all the stuff that was long past its usefulness expiration date and thus, had to go. Items included but were not limited to: toys, clothes, tupperware lids widowed by their containers, chipped dishes - in fact, broken and/or stained anything - spinster socks I've finally come to accept will never find their mates, etc.

3. Made an unholy amount of fudge in every imaginable concoction - dark chocolate cherry cordial, mint meltaway a la Fannie May (the candy company, not the defunct lenders, but ha wouldn't that one have a nasty aftertaste!? * Ba-dum-bump*), lemon chiffon bread and cannoli.

4. Sharpened my impeccable wit.

5. Got my first ever manicure with best buddy Leddy who came home from San Diego for the holidays, then an hour later took her to one of my infamous kettlebell classes, which of course she promptly spanked being the fitness goddess that she is - and WITHOUT chipping a nail mind you.

As for the manicure, let's just say it was not the orgasmic adventure in luxury hygiene Kahuna promised it would be. Sure the women were beautiful and Vietnamese all right, but the guy who did my nails was on his phone and/or laptop more than a 14-year-old iCarly zealot, and when he was doing my nails, was blathering on in Vietnamese while strategically inserting English phrases like "No nail what-so-eva!!" - complete with Soup Nazi inflection - in order to thoroughly communicate his disdain for the task at hand (ha, get it?), or maybe just for me and my nubby nailed gall. Either way, guh.

6. Went with the family to see The Tale of Despereaux, which was good but kind of slow, but anymore that's a pretty good rating for cartoon movies without the good fortune of being made by Pixar.

7. Had a rockin Christmas with family and friends! Everyone had so much fun together, and all the presents were a hit. I, for one, will be totally set this winter on the trainer with umpteen episodes of Smallville and Supernatural to watch, not to mention will be trying to channel my inner comic book geek thanks to my now completely enabled addiction to Wonder Woman and all things Justice League.

See, James put together quite the sampler set of DC awesomeness for me, and since I've been interested in doing some comic book story lines lately (which of course started out as just writing them, but then evolved into illustrating them too since I can't just do ONE thing, I have to try to do it all, and we happen to have a friend who illustrates comics so I've been learning all about that "world", which by the way is really interesting... right, but I digress), he also put together a professional drawing starter set for me with all the fancy shaders and erasers and pencils and pens and even a hard-bound sketchbook, how cool is that? I'm telling you the week was just multiple layers of fun all around, and hey there's more! As alluded:

Second week off highlights:

1. Completed phase one of "the purge" and began phase two - target: the basement, basement closets, and garage. *cue Terminator music*

2. Took a kettlebell circuit class with the owner of the gym and promptly bonked my brains out 3/4 of the way through. After half a protein bar and a bottle of water, I was back on the front lines with my 35-pound bell (why yes, yes I did say 35-lb...yes up from 26-lb, that's right. What a great memory you have!) doing one-armed swings and cleans, YEAH BABY.

3. Looked longingly at my bike on the trainer, and promised to dust it off next week.

4. Went to the BEST New Year's Eve party ever with some cool couple friends, and there, met even more cool couple friends, which as you may or may not know are a rare breed. It usually goes a little something like this: either one half of the couple is cool and the other has some passive/aggressive control freak disorder, or is into voodoo or something, and of course then forget about it, or better yet they're both these Jekyll and Hyde religious cult types who are half the time cool and half the time trying to get you to come to 'taking up snakes' night at church, you know what I mean? It never works out that they're both regularly cool except every so often. But, yes, thanks to the party we now not only have one set of cool couple friends around here, we have three, and that's just all kinds of great. Hopefully no one will have any weird cutlery fetishes come out and the good times will roll on.

5. Went with the family to see Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler, which was actually pretty funny.

6. Took down the previously mentioned Christmas coolness and returned it to storage along with some new (75% off!) stuff for next year.

7. Finished phase two of "the purge" and now will endeavor to paint the hallway and stairwell this weekend... after ice skating with cool couple friends and our collective kids tomorrow.

And there you have my vacation to date! With that, if you'll be so kind as to excuse me, I'm off to sneak in some Smallville before bed, and then if there's time, draw a frame of my postmortem protagonist rifling through a pawn shop for his leather jacket.

Yeah, life is good.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

TTW Challenge: Week 17 Leaderboard

Wow the holidays are insane busy around here, what with the baking and wrapping and friends/family dinner partying et. al., but soon things will be winding down and I'll resume the play-by-play of my Kettlebelling class coolness, among related and not life updates. And OH there are so very many to relate. But in the meantime, let's get everyone up to speed on the homestretch of the second annual TTW Challenge!

As you can see, Kessyud has officially made her move to chase down Nappy for that top spot, but given the wind between the two, and barring some serious Ricki Lake before the intervention eating, Nappy is going down in the books as the official 2009 TTW Challenge winner. But hey, it ain't over til it's over, so no one get too comfy just yet.

A major podium showdown does seem to be shaping up between Kessyud, Abbybarr, and Smur38 however, that is assuming some challengers from the mid-to-back leader pack don't swoop in and take it all away. I'm sure many folks out there have just been buried in too much busy to update these last few holiday weeks, so this is no time to go all Cookie Monster on any surviving shortbread snowmen here people!

That said, I hope everyone celebrating will be able to chalk up 2008 to a happy holiday season. Congrats again on another fantastic week challengers, just ONE more to go and you can have that well-earned post-race party!

TTW Challenge: Week 16 Leaderboard

Well as the holidays draw near, the race tightens up, and Nappy is still holding strong at the top spot. Abbybar is climbing the ranks just as we predicted, with Smur38 also having launched into third. At this rate the final weeks of this race should be pretty compelling!

Congrats Challengers, just a few more weeks and we'll have our winner!

The Plank on Crank

As you may have heard, Satan can appear to us in many forms... violent crime for example, hate, wrath, and as filmed in the video below, the elevated walking push-up circuit. Do feel free to note that the walking push-up is in fact the plank exercise, yes, but on drugs, and no, not the fashionable kind newly legalized in Michigan:


The latest addition to my training: the walking push-up circuit.

Ugh. Now when you're done with that, do overhead presses for 60 seconds with an 18 lb kettlebell. Falling to your knees afterwards to beg for divine intervention? Not a problem...

Live from the Land of Holiday Craziness

All right. Time for an update:

#1: Let the record show I have not yet succumbed to the torture methods used in my kettlebell circuit training class. IN FACT, if you must know - and why yes, yes you must - after three weeks I've dropped a jeans size, and have actually graduated from the 30-second plank to the 60-second plank...whilst alternating shoulder touches mind you. Oh that's right, I said alternating shoulder touches, as in your one hand leaves the ground and touches your opposite shoulder, leaving you to balance yourself on the other hand. You might even consider this the little brother to the one-handed push up a la Rocky Balboa by the way. And sure you might not, but hey feel free to do so because God knows I certainly am!!

#2: Let the record further show that in the tradition of my well-established OCD, I've decided if I'm going to do this fitness comeback thing, I'm REALLY going to do this fitness comeback thing. With that, yesterday I started working with a nutritionist who today, is in the process of planning out my next six weeks' worth of meals per my body composition, schedule, and tastes. On a critical note, she said I'm not eating enough carbs, which is going to be tough for me to change since they're scarier than Blagojevich's job prospects, but I'm trusting her to not bloat me into oblivion. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. On the positive though, she said I have a textbook hourglass figure (woot), and am a mesomorph, so it looks like my results should be noticeable more quickly than they might for some.

#3: Finally, GYGO! #49 is FINISHED and has been for a few weeks, I just need to make the time to splice in the ending credits music. Hopefully I can get it done before the holiday baking bonanza begins this weekend, fingers crossed. Oh and one more thing, let the record also show that Kahuna was smoking some So-Cal Crakerjack when he said we were going to be able to produce a show a week. Shaaa right surfer boy. I love you man, but it's clearly not happening over the holiday with all this Domestic Goddess of the Universing I have on my plate ... how about we revisit that one in the new year, hmm? For now guys, please know we're going TO AIM for twice a month, with show #50 scheduled for taping this Sunday!

And I think those are the big three, happy Tuesday :)

TTW Challenge: Week 15 Leaderboard!

A bit of a delay getting the leaderboard up and running this weekend, lots going on to say the least! But with three weeks to go, we have some challengers making major moves towards the number one spot.

Kessyud jumped into fifth last week, and this week climbs all the way to second, giving Nappy quite a run here in the home stretch. Abbybarr is also climbing up the leaderboard, up from number seven last week to number three! Everlast340 also bumps into the box, dropping Hak42 in the process - oh but don't count her out, remember what happened last week's leaders.

All in all folks, we're turning up the heat as this year draws to a close. Will Nappy be able to hang on to the top spot for another few weeks through the toughest, most infamous weight loss challenging months of the year? Only time will tell, so kick up the cardio Challengers, and congratulations on another stellar week!

Double Dutch from Hell

So I haven't posted in a few days, mainly because today is the first day I could lift my arms to keyboard height after this past week of Kettlebell craziness. Holy cow, allow me to present the newest weapon in the circuit training arsenal... the rope:



And thus, the insanity. Check out the rest of the videos (with specific exercises) here if you're indeed so masochistically inclined. Man, and this is just week three of these classes, next week I'm pretty sure we'll be pulling Buicks in the parking lot!

Look out New Orleans!

TTW Challenge: Week 14 Leaderboard!

Wow, seriously? 14 weeks? Holy cow what kind of craziness is that? Time flies when you're having fun I guess. Let's see who's been having the most, shall we?

Well, the awesomeness that is Nappy is STILL running the board. And yes, I've completely lost count of exactly how many weeks in a row it's been now, but we've got to be pushing double digits here. What an insane display of willpower Nappy is cranking out this week as well, down another 6+ pounds and nearly 3% total loss! Whew, now that's the way to put some distance between you and number two!

Smur38 has been steadily climbing up the rankings lately, and this week has pulled another pound out of the ether to hold tough at number four. A little jostling in the thick of the rest pack knocks a few folks back a bit, namely dropping Patricia off the end, but if history proves true we haven't seen the last of her in the top ten. Abbybarr is responsible for a bit of that jostling with her one-pound loss this week, and look out leaders, here comes kessyud from nowhere! Now didn't we say people drop out of the sky on the frontrunners? I'm telling you, the secret to winning this thing is to never, ever get comfortable.

We're in the homestretch here boys and girls, three more weeks to the top of the year! Congrats to all the Challengers on another amazing week!

The Plank

Dang life has been busy... BUT, week one of kettlebell class is officially in the books, and guess what, I'm getting progressively less pathetic each day!

For example, the mid-circuit punishment this morning was my best friend's favorite exercise torture, the plank. OMG the trainer announced we'd be doing it in between our sets for 30 seconds and I almost passed out right there just anticipating the suffering - and by the way did I mention this was the second time around the circuit, so we were already veritable Stay Puffs of goo? The first time we had to toss a kettlebell from one hand to the other a la 'hot potato' for core work - read: taking a sledgehammer to your midsection for 30 seconds in between 12 circuit stations.

But guess what boys and girls - and exercise android Leddy - it didn't suck! I kept waiting to crumple into a sad pile of mush right there in the middle of the gym, but interval after interval came and went with said suckage never happening! It wasn't easy, but I didn't want to violently take my own life, which was a huge improvement over the last time I did the infamous evil known as "the plank".

So, go ahead and just bring it in a few weeks when you come home Led... I will TOTALLY outlast my six-year-old this time!!

TTW Challenge: Week 13 Leaderboard!

Ohhhh big surprises this week boys and girls... ALMOST NO ONE has lost any weight!

The leaderboard remains virtually stride for stride with last week, save smur38 and ghostlito swapping spots - what a difference a pound can make! Cheers to smur38, as well as to Lynnypins, who also dropped half a pound. This is nothing short of hugely impressive if these two live in the USA, and like the rest of us just celebrated Thanksgiving a few days ago!

With that, happy working off all that turkey and pie everyone, next week we'll check back and see who has kept the leftovers at bay...

Day Three

And of course the third time's the charm. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this thing.

I suppose it shouldn't be surprising, this is how anything new starts out after all - you suck monumentally and then you get better, little by little. Today we mixed up some resistance band training in with the boxing class, and I cringed walking over to get mine because I thought my arms would spontaneously snap off Spongebob style thanks to yesterday's punishment. They didn't though, and I'll take that as a good sign there's some internal work going on aimed at getting me to where I want to be.

So, as little a thing as that may be, I'm grateful all the same. Seems to be that's always what makes the difference isn't it... the little things in life? Like orange juice and soft socks...

Yeah, it's all coming back to me now :)

The View from the Starting Line

Kettlebell circuit training is.... humbling.

First, the good news. I logged all three successes again this morning, up at 4:00 a.m., packed lunches and readied everything for off to school - yay, three cheers for me - however, let's just say it was a fight to keep my confidence during class, which began promptly at 5:30 a.m.

Granted I'm the new kid on the block and all, but let the record show there's a big difference between being a rock star when there's a personal trainer hovering over you, giving you all the time you need to master the necessary form as to not lobotomize yourself with the iron ball hanging over your head the instant your biceps give out, and in not only nailing the form, but doing so in fast forward through 12 different circuit stations.

That, dear reader, is just fantastically hard.

Every other station was kettlebells, and in between were things like throw a sandbag the size of a six-year-old over your shoulders and repeatedly step up onto a two-foot riser for 30 seconds, or stick your feet into the handle holds of an elastic, get into the plank position and do alternating knee-ins to the stomach for the ultimate in ab assaulting upside down crunches. And did I mention the very next station was to swing a 26-pound iron ball into every curve of your circumference?

UGHH.

My form was survival form, not good form, but man I'm grateful for even that today because I've come to believe it's pretty amazing what you can hold up when the alternative is letting go and either putting yourself of someone else in the hospital. All the same, I had to have a conversation with myself in the car on the way home to get my head on straight. Although I didn't like what I saw in the big building length mirror before me as I fell down stairs through the circuit stations, at least finished, and that counts for something here at the starting line of all this.

As I drove home I realized something, however; there's a growing part of me that's increasingly dissatisfied with "just finishing." I know there's more in me, especially lately, and it's just going to take a little more fight to bring it out.

That said, you know what cool in a freaky kind of way thing happened next? Hearing the following song start to play the instant I settled on that realization:

Renegade Fighter by ZED. Definitely the song of the day.

Day two of kettlebell training... officially on the books.

Houston...

...we have lift off.

4:00 a.m.: Woke up, staggered downstairs and did not run into anything - success number one for the day, check.

4:30 a.m.: Answered email, made kids' lunches, organized off to school stuff - success number two for the day, check.

5:15 a.m: Left for boxing class, success number three for the day, check.

6:30 a.m.: Home from boxing to shower and post the first three successes of the day, and it's not even 7:00 a.m., check.

And I'd say that's how you start a Monday morning boys and girls.

Have a good one!