A couple days ago a flip switched

I've always clicked on the yahoo health stories about people losing weight.  As and example I saw this particular one this morning.   I've always been a sucker for them, thinking good for them and I've noticed a common trend in a good number of those articles.  The writer notes a "Flip switching" or that "Ah-ha" moment.  I can honestly say I've never really had one of those moments, I'd given it up to some major medical emergency would do it. Thinking of it like that is slightly terrifying, especially re-reading that.  I know I'm a large dude, but I've also thought of myself as fairly athletic, even after not having played sports for a number of years now.

When I re-started this blog I said I wanted to get more cardio in.  On Monday back to work I was looking at my Fitbit stats and I was disappointed in myself.  When I got the Fitbit the default goal was 10,000 steps a day and because I was tired of not hitting the goal I changed it down to 7,500 a day to give myself a moral boost of hitting a goal.  During a weekend at festival I averaged about 50,000 steps over a two day weekend which in my mind averaged everything over the goal for the week, even though during the week I did maybe 5,000 steps a day.  I was sore and didn't leave my desk.

Once festival ended I made an effort to get up and walk a couple laps around the hallway of my work, the company measured out how many laps around the floor equals a mile a couple of years ago so I tried, to get up and move a few times throughout the day.  As you can see above I haven't reached the 7,500 goal for a while.  Monday, for lack of better terms, I felt a flip switch, I made a choice to reach my goal, not just the 7,500 steps goal but I wanted to hit the 10,000 goal.  Each hour (except lunch break) I got up and did 5 laps around the building. Monday I hit that goal of over 10k steps.

 On Tuesday, I was sore as I also did the 100 push ups, sit ups, and squats but I resolved to do it again.  It almost became something that I looked forward too, the view was bland and boring but it got me moving and I felt better about myself for moving so I did it again.

Last night I went to bed sore and tired, and I slept the best I had in a while.  The same Fitbit that tracks my steps also tracks my sleep and I was out like a rock last night sleeping.  This morning I woke up and came to work and I noticed something.  I have less overall pain.  My nails look healthier, as in it looks like I have a french manicure going on until I took a clippers to them.  As weird as it sounds I feel like I'm healthier, from hair to teeth to joints, I just feel better.  If this can happen after 2 days of a little more effort I'll take it.  My laps started off with a normal lap and then I kicked it up a notch so that by the end of the 5 laps I had a couple beads of sweat going on and actually looked forward to sitting down for a little bit.  Until I did it again, there were times when it hurt but I convinced myself to push through it.  I saw post on a friends Facebook page and I thought it was appropriate and will commence the blog with this as I have to get some laps in.

First day of the year of the revolution

January 1st. Trying to type this up on a phone while getting ready for first workout of the year. It's the one time of the year where you have the chance......

Ride arrived earlier than expected.....now resuming post workout....

As I was saying once chance of the year where you can have 100% of your workout goals obtained. Sean and I went to the gym tonight. I was actually shocked at the number of people there. Not in the fact that there was a lot but in the fact that there was less than normal.

I started out tonight with 5 minute of rowing to get loosened up followed by my 100 reps workout
I did 4 sets of bench press, crunches and body weight squats
1st set 25 reps @ 85lbs for bench press
2nd set 25 reps @ 105lbs
3rd set 30 reps @ 75lbs
4th set 20 reps @ 115lbs

Sean and I had talked about a video workout we had seen from Derek Weida and it's as follows:
(We did squat bar no extra weight (55lbs)
10 behind neck
10 shoulder press
10 front raises
10 upright rows

Our order switched the front raises to last, those things are brutal!!!!

After all the lifting it was onward to a half mile of cardio. Alternating between brisk walking a lap and jogging a lap.

Final event was the glorious hot tub for the ten minutes that we had left

Instead of promptly coming home tonpass out I elected to write this up or finish this up. The whole sentence they I started before Sean arrived.

Day one of the revolution is a wrap. I came up with a couple more things to add to my list of the years resolution that I'll bring up next time. For now I'm tuckered out and am heading to dream land.

Peace

A resolution for a revolution

I started to write this last week and accidently closed it and lost all I had typed.  Long story short, it's been a couple years since I've bothered to write anything.  I started this as a reminder that things aren't easy and as a tie in of multiple interests with the focus being on losing weight and getting healither.  At the time of the last writing in 2013 I had lost almost 100 lbs ( I believe 96 officially but I can't recall)  when I stepped on the scale about a month and a half ago I found I had gained (if my memory of the 96 lbs lost is correct) 72 lbs back from what I lost. 

The year is coming to an end and the past month has been a sort of awakening; in that time I've
1) started cooking meals more often (using as limited of processed/canned food as I could)
2) started moving and workouts a few sporatic days a week. consisting of 4/5 set of push ups, crunches, and squats to total 100 reps.
3) realized I need to focus on my cardio, even simply walking more.

#1 really hit home about a month ago, when we had a boxed lasagna for dinner.  One of those boxes that you take the tray out of the box and poke holes in the plastic film and cook for 40 minutes remove the film and cook for another 10 and it's supposed to look like the cover of the box which it does if you squint long enough.  I found a simple lasagna recipe that took about 15 minutes longer than the boxed version but the only thing that was out of the box was the lasagna noodles.  Everything else was fresh ingredients. 

On the flip side as much as I love cooking and will put energy into that I've come to the conclusion that I'm lazy when it comes to anything involving a gym or working out.  To clarify I don't care to do the hard work that it takes to reach a goal when I have to motivate myself.  I can set my alarm to wake up at 5:30 and simply find the nice warm cozy bed an insurmountable obstacle to overcome.  I can't motivate myself to drive 10 minutes to the gym after everyone goes to bed at night.  I can however use the kids as bench presses as an alternate to the push up in the sets listed in #2 above which makes it something that I can commit to.  I can go to the gym with a friend and have an amazing workout, but convincing myself to do it alone for whatever the reason doesn't hold sway with me.

I've seen a number of motivational sayings and memes as the year winds down and I personally cannot think of a time since I was maybe 10 that I actually wrote down a resolution for the new year.  I can't guarantee that I'll stick to it, but I believe that If I make an effort at the things below that things will be easier, worse case I'm back here in 2 years with a reminder of things that I wanted to do.  I have a friend who stated something along the lines of instead of a resolution, lets do a revolution.

So without further Ado

2016 Year revolution!

1) Start utilizing the blog as a personal accountability "partner" and less as an attempt to entertain.  Update the blog 3 times a week

2) Go to the gym 4 times a week.  I'll figure out what I do in another post, I need to think on that.  But I want to get to the gym, just GET there....if I GET there and stay there for 10 minutes and I still don't feel like working out I'll go home.  I just need to GET there

3) Contine to explore and utilize easy, healither recipes for food choices

4) Be and become more connected to friends and, especially, family.  Enjoy them

That's it, 4 pretty simple things to write down but it seems I've had a lot of troule achieving the success on them in the years past.

How I got my Maga Krav’d

While sidestepping the obvious fact that it’s been a while and there’s a mountain of internet dust that has accumulated since my last post, lets just say I have MORE than enough writing material.  Quick recap before getting to the purpose of the blog, "what has happened since the last post;" Renaissance festival shed completed, Renaissance Festival, wedding, new job, costuming for theatre production, death, Holidays, breathing, taxes, leather working aaaaaaaand we’re now caught up.  I’ll get into a few of the previously mentioned events in the upcoming days for now I want to focus on the caught up portion. 

I’ve found my pants have all been getting a bit tighter in the past couple of weeks.  I chalk this up to the weather; last year at this time there was no snow and our temperatures were somewhere in the 60’s and 70’s.  Basically I was outdoors already biking and doing outdoor workout.  While the gym is availiable to use at work, I’ve never really been the type of person that will go to the gym by myself.  I’d much rather go with someone and be pushed and challenged than go alone and push myself.  I’ve previously blogged about the outdoor workout that Sean and I have done in the past.  While I’ve done it alone a handful of times, I don’t get the same effort out of myself when I do it alone.

Okay so you’re pants are tight and you’re blaming the weather and whining about not working out alone what does this have to do with this post?  I’m getting to that right now.  I decided to sign up for Krav Maga Classes.  Krav ma-wha???  Krav Maga, it’s an Israeli self defense system.  

The class is in Stillwater through Valley Self Defense.  The instructor is the Pastor at our church and I’ve been wanting to give it a whirl for some time now and my 2^nd job work schedule never allowed for it, so I changed the schedule to make it work so I can check it out.  It’s an 8 week course and I completed week 1 last night.

 I intended to blog about this prior to the class and follow up with it because I had a moment on Sunday where the Instructors’ son asked me if I was going to be in the class on Monday and I said yes.  So after thinking about it for a bit, I had this feeling that I was going to get my butt handed to me by someone half my age, which I’m not certain if that’s a better thing than getting it handed to me by someone twice my age…. (love you Luis/Robin)  Yes the sole purpose of wanting to blog about it before hand was so I could put that one joke in there….

I think the first class went allright, it was armed (knife) and un-armed attacks and blocking.  We warmed up by walking around the space and then avoided having the back of our heads, arms, knees touched while trying to get any of the other members (situational awareness, and a big game of adult tag all rolled into one.)  We then lined up, did some pushups, sit ups, squats and then we partnered up andwere taught the various blocks and proper form/technique for unarmed attacks, armed attacks, choke attacks, from behind attacks (think atm/unattentive walking down the street/being jumped etc) and then a six stage “gauntlet” that tied everything together.

All in all it was a pretty good workout so in another 7 weeks I’ll be able to go from this…..

To this!!!!!

  

That’s right,  Krav Maga....Israeli based... will take a fat white guy and turn him into a buff Asian warrior.  (it all makes perfect sense in my little world) 

Sorry Chuck Norris….but Bruce Lee owned you….just like I will in seven weeks or my money back….right……right…..that WAS the fine print wasn’t it…........shoot what did I sign???????

that's it for now kids, like and and share this, I'll be back in a couple days with some leather work/projects post.

Ent Armor....or all bark and no bite

A quick picture journey that went into creating a pair of bracers with a tree bark theme look.  I dubbed it "Ent Armor" when it was completed and am rather fond of that title.


Bracers cut out, pattern drawn on, lines tooled and getting ready to have the lines burned



a look at the pair of the bracers after burning the tooled lines



a close up look with the background tooled



Bracers dyed and holes for eyelets punched



The lovely model Coby showing the top view of the bracers upon completion

the opposite half view of the bracers

Leather Armor series - Shoulder Spaulder

So one of the projects I’ve previously mentioned has finally been completed.  Or completed enough that I can post a blog about it and add the finishing touches.  Of my blog posts one of the most popular posts was about making a gauntlet.  This is another chapter on leather work and in this post we’re covering how to make a Spaulder.

 If this makes you go “A what now???” fret not, I’ve done the same thing and have come to simply saying, “shoulder armor.”  You can check out the wiki page here to get a little more detail and the difference between a spaulder and a pauldron.

The first step was pretty straight forward I had to get a measurement of the person shoulders that this was going to fit.  I measure from about the collarbone over the shoulder to about the top of the shoulder blade to give me the general idea of the width.  Then I measure from the base of the neck to where it is to end.  Think of a trapezoid covering your shoulder and a portion of your bicep.

Once you have the width measurement it’s a matter of making enough pieces to cover the length you need.  There is a general patter out there that was brought to my attention a couple months back that can be used and found here.

My pattern is a free hand pattern inspired from actual leaves.  The first step is laying out the pattern onto the leather.  For this project I used a 8 / 9 oz. leather which is almost a ¼ inch thick.  I chose this weight of leather because it will look and feel more realistic than the thinner options.

Once the pattern was laid out I added a few lines for details and proceeded to cut out the leaves.  This particular spaulder called for a 3, 2, 1, meaning the top layer had 3 leaves, the middle layer had two leaves and the final layer had one leaf.

With them cut out I began to tool the leather which is making a design into the leather with various tools and/or stamps.

With the leather tooled it was wet down and formed to the individuals shoulders to allow me to mark where to punch the holes to connect the three pieces together.  This is also the time where I measure out the strap that is going to attach the armor to the body via across the chest and around the arm and mark those holes as well.

Once all three pieces were marked, and holes punched and rivets put through the holes, but not capped, to ensure it would fit how it was supposed to it was disassembled and dyed.

Once the dye had dried and re-applied as needed it was sealed and reassembled.  The rivets were now capped and cut off and pounded down to ensure the caps stayed in place and the sharp edges were removed. The buckles were placed onto the body strap and arm straps and then attached to the armor.

From the heart

The running theme for the year thus far seems to be to teach me to ask for help.  I’ve never been the type of person to ask for help, it’s always been a challenge for me to do so.  I’d always plan on doing something and tell people that if they wanted to join in they were free but it wouldn’t evolve to the point of asking anyone for anything.  I can’t really point a finger on when this change occurred or started to develop but the past six months now has been a lesson in asking. 

First off I started an undertaking in getting healthier, there have been good days, and some not so good days along the journey and I’m slowly learning things that I knew but never accepted before and am still working on bettering myself and overcoming obstacles along the way.

Part of that journey led to me to participate in the Tour de Cure bike ride for the American Diabetes Association.  Not having ever done anything of the sort I found that money needed to be raised in order for you to participate in the ride.  So thus began the task of asking for help from others to support me in the ride, which I did and some amazing folks took up the cause and helped me raise the funds to ride in an unbelievable experience.

There have been numerous other things along the way, such as asking for time from others to watch the kids while I work on costume pieces for people.

Now the next adventure has begun.  I’ve loved theatre and performing from the moment I stepped in front of a classroom and did a monologue.  I still remember being in 6^th grade and we got to do Tom Sawyer for our yearly production.  After that production sports took a greater hold and focus in my life and it wasn’t until I hurt my knee and decided to quit football shortly afterwards that I took theatre seriously.  Learning about acting and stage craft has opened many doors and taken me to some amazing places and I’ll forever be in debt to some of those amazing people I’ve learned from along the way.  When I started out doing seriously doing theatre I said there were three roles that I would want to do before I would say I’ve had enough.  Those three roles are: 1) Captain Hook in Peter Pan, 2) Lennie Smalls in Of Mice and Men, 3) Little John in Robin Hood.  Thus far I've had the honor of doing two out of those three.

A little over 4 years ago a man I had worked on a film with named Luis Rosa took a chance against what many people had expected and asked me to be Little John for the Robin Hood show he was planning on bringing back to the Renaissance Festival.  I, of course, said yes.  The first year there were three of us; Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, and myself.  We had a good year with a few learning bumps along the way.  The second year our Friar Tuck left and we re-did the show for just Robin Hood and Little John and we officially welcomed a new member in Will Scarlet. Last year we added two additional members in Much the Millers Son and Winter Scarlet and gently incorporated them into the show.  This 4^th year has found me taking more responsibility with the group and we’re working on two different shows.  One show with Will, Winter and Much and some tweaks to the Robin Hood and Little John show.  There are greater plans that lie in our future and hopefully those plans will be built upon as they have the previous years into something new and exciting in the upcoming years. 

Part of the process of getting a new show up and running is our show props, what you could call weapons.  While yes, these are weapons in a sense, they are what makes the show be the show that you see.  To me, there is something magnificent and almost romantic about the ring of steel on steel and that distinctive twang you hear that just isn’t duplicated with wood or other objects.  It resonates and grabs your attention and draws you into the sound.  With that being said, we’re all at the mercy of our lives, be it children, wedding planning, job searching, school, and life in general it’s difficult to find the means to fund those things we need. 

After some discussion and research we decided to start a kickstarter program in an attempt to gain some help in funding those items so that we can continue to bring forth our plans to entertain as many people as we can and see the new Robin Hoods Merry men show and future projects brought to life.  Working at the Renaissance Festival doesn’t pay for much beyond gas and what we can buy in materials to build our own costumes, when we ask for a hat pass that’s our true income.  I’ve done shows with cuts, concussions, and aches and pains that I haven’t had since football because I enjoy entertaining the audience and the children’s laughter and smiles we get from each show.  I truly love that and it brings me incredible joy to be able to be a part of something that I remember seeing as a child and can only hope to pass that passion onto someone else.

 

That being said, I ask you from the bottom of my heart to take a few moments and look at our kickstarter campaign and become one of our backers.  There are some truly, in my opinion, great offerings for those people who become a backer of our campaign. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1057309805/robin-hood-stage-props-and-elemental-protection/dashboard?ref=email

Finally, and most importantly thank you from the bottom of my heart for each of you that have taken in one our shows for helping bring a dream of mine to life.