The Out of Shape Blogger

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Tuesday (Sorry couldn’t think of a creative title)

Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, well other then the short instagram/facebook posts but I was exhausted from the minute I woke up.  I’m not really sure why but all yesterday I was exhausted and I really had to push myself to follow my routine.  It probably didn’t help that I over ate at dinner which I haven’t done in some time.  I didn’t go quite as far though, I was about a 1/4 mile or so short, but I did it and that’s what counts right?

So today was different.  I’m well within my intake for the day and I managed to put in a total of more than 15k steps today.  I also walked/jogged slightly more then normal but I must not have kept the pace I thought since all the numbers were a bit lower than the shorter one.  either way it was a pretty good workout and a nice night to go for one.  Temperature wasn’t bad, a bit humid, nice breeze, people hunting Pokeman and the smell of pot as I passed some yards. lol oh well to each their own, anyway that’s about all I have for tonight, so have a nice night and thanks for reading!

JP

[theoutofshapeblogger]

One day off is enough

So I didn’t have a proper workout yesterday, I walked a decent amount and when I got home cut the grass for 45 minutes, so I’m sure I burned more than just sitting around, but by the end of the day I actually was just below my calorie intake, not by much, but still it was below.

Today we had a party at a friends house for their daughter.  She was turning 6 and it was Aladdin themed.  No I mean like all out, like they swapped out a swing seat with a magic carpet, balloon sculptures that looked like towers from the movies, a balloon sculpture of the Genie and then it really got a elaborate. They also had a belly dancer, an Aladdin impersonator, a Jasmin on as well and to top it off a camel!  Yeah a real camel!  Oh and a ton of food and drinks.  

So knowing the food and drink thing I really watched what I ate in the morning because I knew I’d probably over eat there.  So after it was all said and done after we got home my wife went to put my daughter to sleep and I figured, lets take the new shoes out for a second spin.

Unlike the last couple of days, it was about 75 or so and only a bit humid, it was a pretty pleasant night for it.  I threw on the new shoes and took off.  The first mile was just about on par with the fastest from the week, around 16:30 or so.  Not bad for me.  Plus with the new shoes the feet didn’t hurt at all, even after standing in sandals most of the day.  

I ended up finishing off the route, which was the same as the original I was using, in just about the same time, I was pretty happy about that.

At the time I’m writing this I’m at just under 10k steps for the day, which is my goal with 505 active caloires burned, well approximately anyway. So I;m pretty happy about that and now its off to play some Port Royale 3 while watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes.  

Have a good night!

[theoutofshapeblogger]

New Shoes!

So I got the new shoes in today and decided as long as the rain stopped I would take them for a spin, which i did, one thing I learned along the way is that 75 degrees Fahrenheit with 85 or 90 percent humidity equals suck. I mean it seemed worse than the last two nights when I was out and it was 85, but I digress.  

So I through them on and hit the sidewalk.  I pretty much started jogging right away and managed three full blocks, which for me not having jogged or really done any workout works in a while was pretty good.  It was farther than the last two days so that was a plus.  Then I learned a second thing, while these new New Balance 680v3′s felt pretty good, they were most certainly not broken in.  Which caused a bit of discomfort but not too bad.  I did have to cut back on the jogging and focused more on speed walking.

Another thing I noticed is how different the neighborhood was at 9pm vs 8pm.  There were still people out an about but under the cover of darkness people other things, lets just say jogging past a house with no lights on and the smell of burning leaves coming from the yard clued me in to the fact that they weren’t burning leaves.  

It also always amazes me in the late evening how many people live in the dark by the glow of the tv.  Also how many people seem to not mind leaving their blinds open so a passerby can see just how big a tv or what houses to rob next time around.  Seriously though we do live in a pretty safe neighborhood but 20 years in the safety and security field makes you think of those things.

I also decided to take a slightly different route, one that I thought for sure in my head was longer than the normal one, I was wrong.  As you can see in the picture it was a bit shorter.  Even though with the slightly lower pace and shorter distance I was pretty happy with tonights excursion even if it did feel like I was breathing water.  

Take care and have a nice night!

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Still working

i’m not going to lie, I got home a little later than normal from work today and had over 10,000 steps in by the time I was, I was supposed to get the grill going but I was tired and thought it was too hot and humid, the daughter wanted Little Ceasars and for a change it didn’t sound like a bad idea. 

So you would think that I would’ve been too lazy to go for a walk/jog right?  I mean my new New Balance aren’t in yet and the other ones got a bit wet this morning in the rain and were still damp.  Well, you’d be wrong. I did it.  I put on a crappy pair of Champion “running” shoes that I bought for around the house (seriously, they’re pretty much only good as slippers) and hit the pavement. 

You know what? I did the same route and at the end of it, I actually shaved two minutes off from yesterday.  I did and I plan on doing it again tomorrow, hopefully with my new shoes.  So take care!

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Back to work

So after kicking up the walking a bit at work, I decided that today would be the day to kick it into high gear....well for me anyway.  So along with the extra walking at work tonight I went for a walk/jog that was just over 2.5 miles.  It didn’t really start off well, had issues getting music to play on my phone, then the bluetooth headset wouldn’t connect and lastly I discovered that the best pair of running shoes I owned had finally worn out.  I didn’t let any of that stop me and I powered through, of course at one point my back and shins hurt to much for me to continue jogging so I walked at a rather brisk pace, probably just over 2.5 mph.  As for the shows a few months back  I picked up a pair of New Balance 680 at a local Famous Footwear.  They were on the clearance rack for 20 bucks and they were the last ones so I figured what the hell.  When they rung me up, the price dropped again to somewhere around the ten dollar mark.  After wearing the hell out of them the last few months doing everything from walking to jogging in them they’re finally worn out.

Sadly they no longer make the 680v2 but the v3 is out and on there way.  So hopefully the old v2′s have two or three days of life left in them.  So thats really about it for today.  On my Facebook I mentioned that you can follow me on instagram as well at johnnydarklighter.  I post more pics from my hobbies and such there.  So until next time, take care!

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Wow almost a year?

Wow, has it really been almost a year since my last post?  I guess it has, life has a way of sneaking up on you and really taking up a lot of time! Anyway, here it is, June 13, I turned 39 on June 3rd and decided to get back to it.  

Since the last post floor hockey has been pretty much non existent. One of our goalies moved to Oregon and who knows where the others are.  I didn’t mind much since I never really scored much and usually played D.  But apparently a lot of the guys just think its too easy to score even though the nets are face down with the only opening facing the the, but I digress.  I admit I also slacked off on the walking.  

I’ve been pretty much burning both ends between work and home since November last year and it just started to catch up with me.  I can’t lie, I did gain some weight back but luckily I made it through the holidays and the first half of this year with only putting on 12 pounds, but I can really notice it.

What was I working on you ask?  Well the “Getting Back to Gotham” podcast has been doing well, well enough that a group of podcasters from the UK wanted us to do a show for them, so then “It Came From Across the Pond was Born.” So while working on those, the normal family stuff, throwing in a Jedifuntime episode or two and it was pretty busy, there was one more achievement I am proud of, I finally finished what will be the first series of the comic I’ve been working on, or maybe a trade paperback.  First time I ever finished writing something so I’m pretty proud of that.  I had a lot of encouragement from my boys Mario, RJ and Nick, a couple of other friends and my wife.  Of course the next stop in that journey is editing, my cousin is working on that now.  I’ve started book 2 and I also realized I need to story board this thing, so now I’ve also started learning to draw characters.

So while it sounds like I’m still busy, I actually am, I have a new fire to get things done, besides I challenged a friend of mine to loose 33 pounds by mid September, nothing motivates like winning lol.  So I started to watch my intake again, although it hasn’t been too bad and started to walk more, tonight was the first time in a while I went for an evening walk.  It was about 2.5 miles and I even jogged part of it.

This brings me to another thing I’ve found out.  I had two pairs of Asics that I would walk or jog in and I never thought they were that comfortable, I just figured it was my weight or something.  A few months back I ran across a pair of New Balance running shoes at Famous Footwear on clearance.  They were the last pair and marked down to I think 20 bucks.  I picked up two other pairs of shoes and those and headed towards the register.  They rang up at I think 9 bucks!  

I go home and put them on, I wear them just about all the time and lets just say I’m only buying New Balance from now on, well for walking and jogging anyway.

So that’s really the latest, I’m hoping to not be away so long anymore so wish me luck!

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Wizard World Chicago 2015

Wow, it's been awhile since my last post, about a month or so.  Just a lot going on lately and not enough time to blog.  Anyway I've been keeping on track and topping 10k steps everyday weekday, the weekends always seem to be an issue, for example, Wizard World Chicago 2015.

We went on Friday and I thought for sure after 4 or 5 hours of walking I would be at 10k steps, but nope in fact I didn't hit 10k either day!  On the other hand I had a fun time.

It was a family affair this year, Friday it was the wife, the daughter and I along with my cousin and his son.  My daughter doesn't see her cousin that often and she was really hyped to see him.  She even drew pictures and made sure to give them to him and his father.  She was decked out in an Arial dress and the wife was dressed as Snow White. I did not wear anything this year, but there was a lot of great cosplay to look at. 

For some reason Friday just didn't seem too exciting for me, we saw some cool stuff and picked up a Wonder Woman poster for my daughter, but really it was more just walking the whole con floor and making notes of what to spend more time on the next day.

Saturday rolled around and we went back, Saturday seemed more exciting to me and I really was more into it for some reason.  I picked up some Punisher hardcovers and a Pop vinyl of the Robot from Lost in Space.  That was pretty cool, then walking through artists alley a TPB (Trade Paper Back) caught my attention.

It was called The Accelerators, so I stopped by the artists booth and asked him about it.  The artist was Gavin Smith and he told me about it and said that it was a fun time travel story and that the catch was that they soon learn they can only go forward in time.  So they essentially end up trying to go far enough to where they can go back.  It's actually really good and the art is well done.  So we talked a bit and I mentioned how myself and my buddy Mario were planning on starting a comic book (well, pop culture, comics and maybe even some fitness stuff) podcast.  He gave me his twitter name and said that he'd be glad to talk comics with us one day.

So, we got home and I opened the book, I figured I'd read a little.  So I'm reading the intro and it turned out it was written by Ming and Mike from Comic Book Men, a show I really enjoy watching about Kevin Smiths comic book store.  So then I notice that the original covers were drawn by Walt, another guy on the show and one of the actors from the movie Clerks that I really like.  So that was pretty cool to find out, of course the icing on it was watching re runs of the show and seeing one of the other guys wearing a T-Shirt for the comic. 

So while I didn't get my 10k steps in, I found a pretty cool new comic story and got some cool stuff.  I am proud to say that I haven't gained any weight the last month, but I am sad to say I haven't lost any.  September is shaping up to be a bit slower so I should have some time to write.  Fingers crossed! lol

Anyway, thanks for following and reading, it means a lot and keep an eye out for a new project, Getting back to Gotham.

 John

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Walt Disney World Day 4 - Magic Kingdom revisited

Day four of Disney rolled around and it was back to the Magic Kingdom.  Our first stop was the Dumbo ride, but on the way there we were fortunate enough to run into the location where Merida from Brave was taking photos and signing autograph books.  It was a small area that looked like a castle courtyard, it was pretty well done.  While we were waiting they had an archer helping kids shoot an arrow that had a ball on the point.  It was cool and my daughter loved it.  That was nothing though, because when we got to meet Merida she was awesome.  The woman playing her was so lively and full of energy, she would run and jump around with the kids.  She was very good and my daughter loved it!   Now that we were finished there it was on to the Dumbo Ride.

We made it to the Dumbo ride, both of them.  Apparently there are actually two side by side.  The fast pass lane was on the left and the standard was on the right.  So I assumed that the one on the left was for fast pass users only, turns out I was wrong and the line becomes one again shortly after entering it.  I didn't ride, I let my wife and daughter ride so I could take some pictures of them.  Also to be honest, I'm not real tall, 5'11", but in a lot of these rides I had to sit with my legs crossed to get my knees under the bar, so I didn't feel like being uncomfortable.  They loved it and I got some good pics.  Next up was Goofy's Barnstormer, but since we had some time we walked around the circus area a bit.

While we were wandering we found a circus tent, well, a building that looked like a circus tent.  It was Petes sideshow or something to that effect and the best part was that Minnie, Daisy, Donald and Goofy were in it! So we got pictures with all of them.  Donald has always been my favorite, I relate to him, life gives me lemons a lot and I have the same anger issues! Anyway I told Donald he was my favorite.  He then pointed to the Mickey hat I was wearing.  We laughed and I told him I had not seen a Donald one like it yet.  Right after on the way out of the gift shop I did find one and bought it.  Next up was the Barnstormer.

After that we finally headed to the barnstormer, which is a small roller coaster.  The daughter wanted me to go with.  As we got closer to the front of the line the ride broke down. Luckily it was only about 10 minutes or so and it was back up and running again.  At the end of it, I'm not sure if the daughter liked it or not.

After the Barnstormer we walked around a bit and checked out Tomorrowland.  We ate some lunch at cosmic rays then we headed the Aladdin ride.  We got to the area where it was and at this point the little one had actually fallen asleep in her stroller.  We had plenty of time so we checked out some of the other stuff and found out that the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was closed through September, so no chance of seeing that.  We then hit up the magic carpet ride.

So that was pretty much the day at Magic Kingdom, we did stop by the Magical Tiki Room and that was a fun ten minutes or so.  We then headed back to the resort to rest a bit. Later on in the evening we went to Downtown Disney for dinner and ate at a really good Irish Pub that had live music and step dancing, oh and beer flights.  It was called Raglan Road and I highly recommend it.  Great staff, great food and not only did they have the dancers, but the would go out into the restaurant and teach the kids to step dance....well at least try to.  The also got an autographed picture/certificate saying that they did it.  This was also our last full day in Disney, so the next post will be even shorter. 

I finished the day with 11,739 steps and 5.45 miles.   Not bad at all.  Thanks for reading!

-Johnny

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Starting Over.....well kinda

So, this post is about 14 days late, but what the hell.  Eventually you'll all read about the rest of my Disney vacation but long story short, with all that eating I didn't gain weight or lose weight, I came back like a half pound heavier.  Not bad since as you all you know from many of my posts, my will power is only good for a few weeks at a time then usually I have an off the wagon week.  I've been working on it, but I've also accepted that my mind is like that and use that to push myself to walk more or eat better the weeks that I am on the wagon.  Not ideal but then again I'm not perfect.

Anyway, right after Disney came the 4th of July holiday....which means....cookout!!! One of my favorite things in the world.  All in all one cookout wouldn't really be an issue.....but we had two.  Yup, our friend had her sons birthday party at noon and we had a Fourth of July party at my moms at 4.  to be honest the whole weekend and even part of the week before and after worked against my best efforts.  Let's just say I over ate for sure at both parties and during the proceeding week and following week we were so exhausted from the trip, work and the holiday we didn't eat good at all.  I didn't weigh myself at all until about two weeks after the Fourth and I was disappointed when I did.

Before the the trip I was down to 272, the lowest I had been since returning from my honeymoon in New Zealand about 6 years ago now.  When I weighed in, I was 279.6.  Almost 280 again, and I tell you I could feel the difference.  Two shirts that I had bought for the Disney trip that felt fine were now snug.  This was unacceptable, I felt like I had not only let myself down but all of you as well, the next day I got back on track.  I walked more, ate less, drank more water and ate more vegetables, it really did feel like I was starting over, luckily I hadn't gone all the way back.

So, I didn't weigh myself the next few weeks, I finally did Friday and was down to 276.2.  Not where I was, but better and at least back on track.  So that's it, the latest full update, sorry I haven't posted as much, but I promise I will start to try harder.  I'd also like to end with this, Something I believe a friend of mine, Corey Dee Williams said....or maybe shared from someone else, either way he's a great motivator, "You cannot fail at being healthy, getting fit, or losing weight.  Each week brings another opportunity, each day is a fresh start."

As always, thanks for reading and for your support!

John

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Walt Disney World Day 3 - Safari!

Day 3 of the Disney trip was a little more relaxing, for one, we only went to one park, so this will be a shorter post,  but it was an awesome one so get ready for Animal Kingdom!

So our main mission at Animal Kingdom was of course to go on the Safari ride.  So we headed straight there of course!  It turned out to be pretty good and we saw some cool animals, pretty close as the below picture of a Giraffe shows!  I didn't even zoom it in all the way.

After getting off the safari ride we walked around a bit and decided for a change to actually eat lunch before our next attraction.  We were in an area that looked like somewhere in Africa and the one main restaurant in that area was a 45 minute wait without a reservation, which we didn't have one and it was another buffet so we decided to pass.  We had reservations for a restaurant in the Asian area later on. So we headed to an open air food court where I grabbed a kabob which turned out to be awesome, in fact good enough that even my daughter was eating the meat from it.  

After we hit up the food court, we headed to our next destination, the Lion King Celebration.  I will say that the shows in Disney World are pretty damned good, on par with shows I've seen anywhere and this Lion King one did not disappoint  We thoroughly enjoyed it and I would highly recommend it.  Afterwards we had a bit of time left before our reservations so we walked around a bit and man I tell Disney really knows how to capture the look and feel of places.  Our reservations were at a restaurant called the Yak and Yeti so we headed that way.

So as usual it was hot and humid, probably more so here than at the other parks, or maybe it just felt that way to me.  So the Yak and Yeti was a pleasant place to go.  They pretty much served a mix of Asian dishes, Indian, Thai and probably a few others.  I had the Malaysian Seafood Curry which was delicious and a nice beer brewed just for them called  Safari Amber, it was really good and I recommend it if you ever eat there.  After we ate it was time to find Nemo.

So the last thing we did at Animal Kingdom was go see Finding Nemo The Musical.  Once again I was completely impressed with the show.  The puppeteering was very well done and the characters all looked like they just jumped out of the movie.  My daughter was tired and cranky and before it started kept saying she didn't want to watch it, but after she loved it.  Again, I highly recommend it.

After the show we went back to the resort, I synced the Charge at this point even though we were going to walk to Old Port Royale for dinner and i was short steps.  For all the stuff in Animal Kingdom, there's less walking than you would think.  

So after a short rest and a dip in the pool we walked along the lake and ate at the resorts Restaurant, Shutters.  I expected more themed food, like Caribbean or Jerk style.  It wasn't so much on that scale but the food was great.  For the life of me I don't remember what I had.  I do remember having a drink that came with a glow cube.  

We took the bus back to the room, mainly because we didn't want to deal with mosquitoes.  When we got back we watched some of the fireworks.  When we went back in I synced my Charge again to find 11404 steps (still over my goal), 5.3 miles and 5 flights of stairs.

So thanks for letting me share my trip with you and thanks for reading!

-John

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Walt Disney World Day 2

Ah here we are, day 2 of Walt Disney World.  As usual on vacations we had an early start.  Today was the day my daughter was waiting for, breakfast at the Norwegian section at Epcot so my daughter could meet the princesses than the rest of the day at the magic kingdom.  We woke up got ready and headed out for the Epcot bus at around 8 or so and yes the weather was still hot and humid, but at least it wasn’t raining.  Although in Orlando it could rain at any minute, I mean my weather app was constantly saying thunderstorms possible, but none materlized.

We arrived at Epcot, a place I remember visiting as a kid and not wanting to leave, also the place we spent the least amount at.  Anyway I digress, we started to head towards the Norwegian area and it was a nice walk, Epcot is a really nice park, and really did turn out to be my favorite.

We arrived at the restaurant and got seated.  It turned out it was another buffet, I would say it was healthier, but I’m pretty sure multiple cheeses on my plate weren’t exactly healthy.  The bacon was great and to be honest again nothing was bad, the peppered herring was pretty delicious as was the salmon to be honest. Realistically I would say it probably wasn’t the worst I ate during the trip. 

It was actually pretty nice, the princesses came to each table for photo ops and all were very nice to the kids.  My daughter smiled the whole time and then they had a procession with the children.  So each princess had a section and the kids in that section followed her.  The best part? The building had air conditioning, which made it really nice for me since it was Father’s Day, seeing Ariel wasn’t bad either lol.  

After breakfast we had a couple of hours before heading to the magic kingdom, we wanted to get there by 3 to see the parade.  So we set out around the world.  It was really neat to be honest, each country had people working there from the actual country and everyone was really nice.  In China we met Mulan who took photos and also autographed my daughter’s book.  She was very pleasant and friendly also.

It was about 11:20 or noon when we made it to Germany and I decided to grab a beer.  It was about 95 and again humid so I wanted something tasty and not too high in alcohol, so I had a nice German Radler (for those that don’t follow www.dabeershow.com and its FB page, a radler is beer and grapefruit juice)  It was a good one and I’m sure tasted even better because of the temperature.  

We made it to England and we met Mary Poppins and a really good Alice, I mean she was really inro the character.  To be honest, all the characters were very nice, some were just a bit more enthusiastic but overall they were all great.  In fact Alice and my daughter named a baby bunny, they chose Austin by the way.

Well after leisurely strolling through we realized we needed to move so we headed towards the exit and hopped on the monorail, which ended up delayed for 20 minutes.  Delayed on a monorail for 20 minutes with a 3 year old that ended up having to pee was not fun.  That’s a story for a different blog.

We made it to the magic kingdom in time for the parade and had a great spot.  Of course after running to the bathroom from the monorail station, then to the park entrance we were pretty hot.  So when a cart with spray bottles of ice cold water with fans attached walked by, my wife asked how much, before the woman could respond I said it doesn’t matter just give me one! 

 The parade was really cool and the cast members did a great job and all really seemed to be enjoying themselves.  My daughter liked it and we were in a somewhat shady place so I liked it also.  After the parade we headed for the It’s a Small World Ride.  Of course we spent a large amount of time looking at the castle.  The Magic Kingdom Park is cool because it’s the classic park, but it was busy, not so busy you couldn’t walk around but that, the heat and all the things going on were overstimulating me, let alone the little one.  

We hit the Small World ride and it was still pretty neat, we all enjoyed it, but before that we met Peter Pan.  Peter Pan was jumping all over the place and was far less of a douchebag than the Peter Pan in the shows.  He was very nice and from the heat and running around, very sweaty.  After the ride we grabbed lunch at Pinnochio’s place.  I had an Italian Balsamic flatbread which was, as usual, really good.  

After that we walked around a bit as we waited for our fastpass time for the Peter Pan ride.  We hopped on the Peter Pan ride and flew over London and watched battles with Hook, it was actually pretty nice and we all enjoyed that one as well.  After that we had fast passes for the Little Mermaid ride, but as usual had some time between the two.  

We did a good amount of walking, although less than I thought, and my wife and daughter went to visit Ariel in her grotto and get more photos.  We did eventually go through the Little Mermaid ride, which as usual we enjoyed then headed back to the resort.  It was a bit of a longer ride, but when we got back the wife and daughter hit the pool and I headed to Old Port Royale, the main part of the resort, to pick up some stuff from the store.  It had a really nice water park (that we never got to use) a great food court and store.  

When I got back we noticed we were able to see Epcot’s fireworks from our pool, so that would’ve been cool, if we had ever timed it right.  I synced the Charge and here’s what I did that day, 12,861 steps (less than I thought) 4 flights of stairs and 5.97 miles.  Not as much as the day before, but still over my goal and I did eat slightly better.

So thanks for your support and for reading and stay tuned for Day 3, Safari!

-John

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Review - Fitbit Charge

Well, I'm sure most of you have read my Misfit Shine review and revisit.  I really wanted to like the Shine I really do go for the underdog, but it just wasn't meant to be.  So shortly before our family trip to Walt Disney World (see Fridays post).  I decided to go with the Charge and not the Charge HR (with built in heart monitor).  I debated for a while and talked to a lot of people and for what I wanted it for it just didn't seem worth the extra.  I also picked the Charger over the higher end models because receiving texts and other info like that just isn't that important to me.  

First off, let me just say this, the Charge was only 129 dollars, the Shine was 99 dollars, not a huge price gap. Some other reasons I went with the Charge are that it has a fully functioning Windows Phone 8.1 app, an actual website that you can check your stats on and a thriving community.  Let's face it, Fitbit and Garman probably have the two largest communities when it comes to workout gear.  

The packaging was not nearly as fancy to me as the packaging the Shine came in, but it was still nice. I opened the package and took out the Charge.  It looked nice and felt solid, nicer than the Shine in both of those categories. The documentation was better also.  Although, I don't like that it has a special charging cable, I mean really why can't people just use micro USB?  The other drawback is charging, the Shine I was using had a CR2032 watch battery in it that lasted 3 or so months.....of course the Shine worked like crap so yeah I guess its a moot point.  The Charge came with about half battery, so I thought I would set it up before I charged it.  I did also notice right away that is has a nice easy to read screen and with the single button you  can cycle through all the info, which is nice.

I hooked it up to my phone and setup the app.  Then went to the website to fine tune a few things.  It was pretty easy and intuitive and didn't take long at all.  I put it on and wore it for two days before the trip then for the whole Disney trip.  All in all the batter lasted just about a full 7 days, it was showing low battery the last day but it hung in there until I got home and charged it again. To me that's pretty good but then again the Shine took a CR2032 watch batter and lasted 3 months......of course it worked like crap so yeah the category still goes to the Charge.

I could bore you with technical details and what not, but I'll skip it, I'm not good at it and all I can really tell you is the following, the Charge works great, the battery life is good, the display is nice and easy to see, it has an alarm function, it vibrates when you hit your goal, a great website, works on all three phone platforms, can also be synced on a laptop or computer and has a comfortable stylish band and the overall look is pretty slick also.  So yeah there it all is in a nutshell.  My wife has the Garmin equivalent and its not bad, but I prefer my Charge so I can say after three weeks with it, that I recommend it.

As always thanks for reading and I hope I helped you out a bit.

-John 

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Walt Disney World Day 1

Well, I know I’ve been away awhile, but I’m back and ready to blog! I think.  So two weeks ago we took our first ever family vacation, to Walt Disney World.  It was the first time I had been there since I was like 7….I mean Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios didn’t even exist! For those of you that are old enough, the displays were still sponsored by Eastern Airlines!  So this would be an adventure.  I was concerned a bit since I have been trying to lose weight as you all know (hence the blog) and traditionally vacations are not conducive to that.  Unless there is a lot of working like in Vegas.

We were staying at one of the Disney resorts, which was probably a bit more but we also had special hours we could go to the parks if we wanted, free bus service to all the parks and the best part was the Disney’s Magical Express service (I think that’s what it was called).   With this service, you put a special Disney World tag on your luggage, when you arrive in Orlando, you go straight to the bus and off to your resort.  Your luggage arrives in your room about three hours later…..It was awesome.  I hate wrestling the carry on and the luggage, plus the waiting, ugh.  So this was great.

e got to Orlando International (which I might add is a really nice airport) around 1ish Orlando time, went straight to the bus and started to Disney.  It was maybe 30 or 45 minutes to the resort, which was the Caribbean one.  It was really nice and it was laid out where every section of the resort had a Caribbean island name and the check in building was the Customs House.  We stayed in Trinidad south and had some nifty pirate ship beds. More on that later.  Also, two days before the trip I had replaces that Misfit Shine (see the follow up review) with a Fitbit Charge (review up soon) so I was excited to see how it worked out, since it tracks flights of stairs, I was happy when we found out we were on the second floor! 

Anyway, we go to the room and I thought we had some time to rest, nope.  The wife had stuff setup for us already, some fastpass stuff and dinner reservations all at Hollywood Studios.  So we went down to the bus stop, which was pretty much right downstairs from our room along with a pretty nice pool and waited a bit for the bus.  This was when I realized that it was possible to have more than 100 percent humidity.  It was a bit drizzly out and about 92 degrees or so….and like 140 percent humidity (Yes I know that isn’t possible but I’m sticking to it!)  So we only waited a few minutes which was nice and the bus was air conditioned so yeah that was nice also.

We got to the park and it was really cool, I was tired and exhausted already but there was so much coolness and this was only one park! The first thing we did was stop by a store (which all of them of air conditioned J ) We hadn’t eaten since leaving O’Hare and we figured if we were hungry the three year old was also.  We stopped at an outdoor eating area, I had a pulled pork sandwich and water.  I figured I should stick to water since I knew I would be eating pretty badly, but I had hoped that the amount of walking coupled with the heat would help compensate for that.  After that we were off to Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin.  It was a lot of fun I did pretty good, had one of the top 5 scores for the day….well for our car.  Then we walked around a bit, okay, well a whole lot.  We saw some cast members dressed as army men which was cool.  We walked around a bit more and hit up our first show, the Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, which turned out to be a pretty damned good show.

After that we had some time so we walked some more, a lot more to be exact, past Star Tours (where we would be going later) into the area by the Muppets, then of course another store, where I bought a cool black Mickey cap that has the main seven or eight iterations of Mickey since Steamboat Willie.  We then realized we lost track of time and boy did we have to move fast to make our dinner reservation at the Hollywood and Vine restaurant….which meant we had to run past Star Tours since our fast passes were for after dinner.  This would be a motif that followed us the whole trip.

I could lie to you and say I ate properly at what turned out to be a buffet, but I’m not going to lie to you guys, I never have before so why start. I did try to watch the portions but I wanted to try a little of everything.  Now I know how that sounds but let me say, what I found out on this trip was that all the Disney restaurants don’t have huge menus, but what they have is almost all excellent.  The highlight of the buffet was the teriyaki steak salad, baked salmon and the best thing ever created, lobster mac and cheese…..yeah…that stuff was so good and I hadn’t eaten all day other than the pulled pork sandwich so I’m sure you know where this is going.  I had a pretty good drink there also, I don’t remember what it was called, but it was blue.  Blue things always taste good right?

We left dinner and headed over to Star Tours, at this point it was 8 or 8:30, about our daughters bed time and she looked wiped out.  So we knew this would be the last thing then we would go back to the resort.  Star Tours was way more awesome than I thought it would be, it was a flight simulator and great.  My daughter didn’t think so….she cried most of the way through then all the way out.  We looked at the store way too quick (I mean it was all Star Wars and I have a Star Wars podcast! www.jedifuntime.com) and didn’t really have time to look at all the coolness or buy anything.  So we headed back to the resort and relaxed in the room, since my daughter got a second wind.  I synced my fitbit and here’s the good news.  My target is 10,000 steps per day, usually I’m around 11,000.  This first day I was at 13,987 steps for a total of 6.49 miles.  It also included 8 floors.  My caloric intake is supposed to be at 2610 for weight loss along with the steps.  After all the walking and stairs my available was up to 3,229.  I probably was over 2600, but I don’t think I was over 3000 so not bad.  I’ll end here and post about day two on my next post.  So thanks for reading and for all your support!

-john

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Misfit Shine Revisit

Wow it’s been a long hectic couple of weeks and I’m sorry I’m so behind.  I mean with a Blackhawks Stanley Cup, my first trip to Disney World since I was like 8 and a slew of other things going on I just haven’t had a lot of time.  So I hope to get back to writing and sharing stuff soon.

First let me start by saying that I haven’t exactly been the best at watching what I eat, but I have been keeping up on the walking.  So the weight hasn’t changed which is nice.  The downside is that I haven’t lost any either, but not gaining is a huge plus.

Anyway, that’s for another entry, this one is the follow up to the Misfit fitness tracker I wrote about a month or two ago.  Since then I upgraded the band to the leather one and finally got it setup on an android device to see how the app works.  Long story short, I’m wearing a Fitbit Charge now.  Yup.

Let’s start with the leather band, in the picture it looks nice and classy, when it arrived, the packaging was very nice, just like the packaging for the unit itself.  That’s where that ended.  The band is pretty thin both in thickness and width, width I could deal with but after a few weeks of wear, it looked like it was about to break off by the bezel.  I can’t recommend it at all, sorry, I really wanted to like it but I just think it’s too flimsy and for the 30 or so dollars it goes for, not worth it.  Also, the band is brown and the bezel that the Shine sits in is grey with a silver circle around it.  It just doesn’t work with the black faced Misfit Shine I own.  Maybe some of the other color faces would work with it but I doubt it.  They should have just made it black since, well, black goes with pretty much any color.  Plus the grey made it look cheap to me.  That’s just my opinion of course.

Now for the Android app.  I figured it would work way better than the Windows Phone app, I was wrong.  I tried it on a Lenovo tablet and a Motorola phone and had issues on both.  One plus is that it did allow it to link to myfitnesspal but that’s where it ended.  It still never synced correctly, hell sometimes it wouldn’t show up at all and the app would say “something went wrong, please turn your Bluetooth off and on again” (well I don’t remember the exact words but that’s about it) even though other Bluetooth devices would connect no problem, oh and guess what, following the advice it still woundn’t work.  Eventually it would just start to work again, it might take minutes, it might take hours or even a day or so.  Not good.

Then there was the issue where it would sync and the app wouldn’t show any info.  Then it would show partial info, then maybe a day or so it would show the whole thing for that day.  Oh and my biggest problem is that sometimes it wouldn’t register whole days.  No really, not kidding.  I even put a new battery in and sometimes it still wouldn’t register.  Not good at all when you’re trying to use it to track fitness.

So that’s about it, I really can’t recommend it anymore.  It’s not expensive, but that may be part of the issue really, you get what you pay for sometimes I suppose.  The good news is after a week and a half I’m still happy with my Fitbit Charge, which I’ll talk about in a later post.  So thanks for the support and its glad to be back, stay tuned for posts about Disney and the Fitbit Charge.

-John

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Birthday week(end) and Star Wars Day update.

So it's been getting real busy at work and lots of family things going on lately so I haven't had time to write anything and I feel kind of bad about that but I'm sure all of you understand.  So last week was actually a pretty good week in terms of exercise  even with my birthday being on Wednesday.

Even with a lot of extra walking at my job I still took time to walk an additional 2 or 3 miles.  Besides I knew it was going to be one of those weeks that I was going to not quite eat healthy.  Still, no excuse I know but hey I've said it before, my will power only goes so far! Anyway the 3rd was actually a pretty good birthday.  My wife and daughter (mainly wife) got me a 3 hour NASCAR driving experience that I have a year to use.  I always wanted to race cars, I love speed, now I can at least drive one for a bit, the speed thing must run in the family, because my little girl is the same way already!  Then I was surprised with Wizard World tickets, which is awesome because the rest of the Firefly cast members that I don't have signatures from will be there.  Then to top it off we went to one of my favorite sushi places and watched the Hawks win game one of the Stanley Cup finals.....which to date is their only win of the series (get it together you idiots!) Anyway it was a nice birthday even without taking the day off.  I normally would've but I knew that the weekend was going to be busy so I scheduled Monday off to recover.

So a little background for you guys, some of you already know that this isn't my only blog.  I have a few others but I don't keep up much with them except for this one.  I just don't have the time right now.  I also have a few podcasts.  Currently only one is still active, Jedi Funtime.  Star Wars has been my favorite fandom and world of sci fi for a long time now, closely followed by Doctor Who and Star Trek.  To most of that is no surprise.  I do have a Doctor Who podcast, but Jedi Funtime seems to be a hit and I really do enjoy it.  It just all works well and my co host Jimmy does a great job of getting us guests on the show, like Jake Lloyd, Mike Quinn and Corey Dee Williams to name just a few.  He also has visions of us being famous and having our own Star Wars con!  He's gotten us press passes, but this weekend was a challenge that turned out to be pretty awesome. 

At C2E2 this year we met some nice people from the Joliet Public Library, turns out they have an annual Star Wars Day and they wanted us to come down!  So I said sure, the next day it got more interesting.  Jimmy met them and offered to do a live stream podcast.....so they gave us a booth!  So I really needed to learn a lot, like how to live stream a podcast!  Which we successfully did.  To sum up the day, it was awesome, 76 degrees and mostly sunny, awesome cosplays, met some great people, live streamed 2 podcasts, and walked around a good couple of miles.  Usually at those places, I would overeat since the food always smells good, but I was good and limited myself to just one cheeseburger.  For those of you that are Star Wars fans you must attend the event next year, it was great.  

We went out for dinner afterwards and I was impressed. We didn't order appetizers for one and I didn't eat all of my fries.  Although, Sunday would be the day that makes me glad that I put in all that extra walking.

Long story short we went to one of my favorite restaurants, Pilot Petes, again and I had a nice Cuban sandwich.  I still didnt eat all the fries and drank water instead of soda so that was a big help.  Now for the big news, the previous Monday I was up to 273lbs, I gained about a pound, this Monday, I was down to 271.  Pretty happy about that.  The next big step is getting below 270.  That's my goal, to be under 270 by the time we head to Disney!

So that's what's been going on the last week or so.  I actually plan on starting a podcast for this blog when I get home from Disney and have been planning it out.  On that note, if you want to check out Jedi Funtime just head to www.jedifuntime.com or follow us on Facebook (where you can see our Star Wars Day pictures) at www.facebook.com/jedifuntime  For any of the others, well just click the headings on top of the page for blogs or podcasts.  As usual thanks for reading and remember that there has never been a perfect person, its how we recover from our mistakes that matters.

-John  

[theoutofshapeblogger]

2XL and 36x32 relaxed fit? Really? Hell yeah!

So the day I had my blood drawn and before I knew the results we had a birthday party for my friends 1 year old son.  I had been wearing size 40x32 pants a year ago, but man even with a belt they looked pretty baggy and like shit and at this point even my 38x32 ones were oversized.  This really surprised me but I felt pretty good. 

So I decided that since I needed to buy some Chicago Bears stuff for the party (it was football themed) I would pick up some new jeans.  Turned out I was now able to wear 36x32!  That felt pretty good, but the best would still come.  So I picked up a Forte jersey for my little girl (almost 3 years old and 38 inches tall, so maybe not little but you get my point) but the store I was at had nothing bigger than medium for adults.  Granted its now April and in Chicago football season ends around thanksgiving (thanks Bears!)  So they didn't have much.  I went to a couple of more store but found nothing, then luckily I found a Chicago sports and collectibles shop in the mall, and they had Bears stuff!  So I go in and look around and find a few 2XL shirts.  I didn't have much time so I picked two of them up and went home. 

My wife was pretty much set with an Urlacher baseball jersey, my daughter was set, so that left me.  I took out one of the shirts and started to put it on expecting it not to fit, but it did.  It wasn't oversized like I was used to, but it looked good.  If it wasn't for having some confidence back I would never have worn it, but I did and it fit pretty good.  So I'm pretty happy about that.  So anyway, that's the last year of my life or so.  I'm sure while you waited for these chapters of my life I posted weekly and maybe daily updates and hopefully I'm helping to influence you as well.  I mean it, I really feel good now, even when stressed hockey or walking with some hard rock or trance (yeah I know those don't go together at all!) fixes it.  So all I can really say is that I started small and worked my way up, it worked for me, I can't guarantee that it will for you but everyone needs to start somewhere!  So I hope I've at least helped motivate you, I plan on posting recipes and other stuff also along with my ramblings so thanks for reading and following!

[theoutofshapeblogger]

Weekend Update, back on track

So the last 3 weeks or so really haven’t been great for my fitness, birthday dinner for my father, my wife’s birthday last week and my daughters this weekend.  Ever since the Cinco I haven’t played hockey either, my knee and heel have been bothering me something fierce.  Finally, after 3 weeks and a holiday I have gotten back on track.

Friday wasn’t too bad except for eating late.  Our daughter had her first school recital, so after we got home and put her to bed I ran out to grab dinner.  I picked up a chicken cantina bowl from Taco Bell.  Now I know how many of you are yelling “yuk” or “that food is horrible” but all our taste buds are different, I like it and when I looked up a chicken cantina power bowl, it actually wasn’t too bad at all.  I also got a nice walk in Friday at lunch so I was pretty happy about that.  I also knew that I would be getting some good walking in on Saturday also so the weekend started off pretty solid.

Saturday rolled around and we were up early.  For my daughters 3rd birthday we were taking her to Santa’s Village! For those of you not from the area, Santa’s Village is an amusement park (or as they say now, azoosement park) mainly for kids from pre-teens and down.  It had closed down a few years back but it’s now back open and better than ever, even the food was good!  The daughter rode almost every ride and only got scared on a giant swinging dragon boat.  It went a little too high and her face changed and she started to cry a bit.  Over all she was doing really well.  Of course we had my parents with us and you know we couldn’t take our daughter home after without going to dinner, so we went to Pilot Pete’s in Schaumberg. 

Luckily we had walked over three miles because I’m sure that lobster roll I had (I didn’t eat any of the fries so I was proud of myself there) was probably not very healthy….but it tasted really good.  The rest of the evening was just cleaning up and trying to relax a bit for Sunday.

Sunday rolled around and day 3 of the birthday weekend started with a big family breakfast for our daughter a the Mirage in Schiller park, again, I didn’t really eat healthy but stayed away from the high carb stuff and tried to watch how much I ate.  After that it was back to the house.  My sister in law and her boyfriend came by so that was nice.  I lit up the grill and we grilled some chicken sausage, polish sausage and burgers.  With all the walking out of and into the house to the grill I actually managed to break 3 miles again, so that was 3 days in a row, way better than any 3 days the last two weeks.

Monday brought more of the same, we played some classic NES and SNES games and my buddy Arturo came by for, you guessed it, more grilling.  Yet somehow once again I popped 3 miles so that was 4 days in a row. 

So it does seem I’m back on track at least with the staying in motion and exercising.  The eating has been a bit hit or miss but at the minimum I’ve at least tried not to over eat.  So far so good.  This week my heel and knee aren’t hurting so it’s also back to hockey!  In fact today, before writing this, I put in a 2.5 mile walk.  Well I hope all of you had a good memorial day as well and as usual thanks for reading!

-John