P90X Day 5

If there happens to be anyone that is actually reading daily, sorry about not getting the recap of yesterday up yesterday. After work, I wasn't too much motivated to look at a computer screen much more. Well, without any further adieu, lets recap the activities of yesterday.

To my amazement, I was fully mobile from the start today. There wasn't any issues moving to standing from sitting, walking steps were a comfortable go, and I was able to reach around my desk without having to coerce my arms thru the pain of moving above my keyboard tray. There were a couple of instances where Angel was able to see clearly that I was feeling better. I was even able to do small sprints up steps.

Anyway, the completion of another day of exercise has come to a close. Yesterday's focus was on Legs and Back with another round of Ab Ripper X. The special thing about today was that Angel & I did not do our workouts together. Work was swamping me and there was no way I was going to be able to get away before Angel had to go to work. Therefore, she took the initiative to workout when she needed to so that she could cool down and be ready for work on time.

So, about my experience, the opening stretching was adequate to take the minor tweaks out of my muscles and I was ready to rock. Well, today's exercise was pretty brutal. Working on legs does not sound difficult, but if you do enough lunges and duck walks and pull ups, you will certainly begin to feel it.

I had once thought that my legs were strong and this should be pretty easy to complete as instructed. It did start out that way. Doing lunges and toe raises was as easy as I had expected. Physically demanding but pretty do able. However, the cardio workout from doing lunges at a fast pace was the hardest part. Many of the exercises recommended using weights during the completion. I didn't think of this as a problem, I've got bands for resistance. Well, using bands for many of these exercises has proven to be a bad idea.

We were doing three variations of toe raises. We started wide, normal, and then pigeon toed. Wide and normal with bands under the balls of my toes worked out just fine. However, when trying to get the pigeon toed position to work, everything started out ok. However, as I was doing a few repetitions, I didn't notice the band slipping. Well, that was quite unfortunate. The band slipped out and smacked me in 3 places on it way up. Somehow it managed to cut my shin, but it brought me to the ground when it hit me in the balls and also left a red mark on my stomach, but that was serious pain getting hit by a fully extended resistance band. It could have been worse, thankfully it was just superficial. The boys were not involved, but pain was plenty enough without them. Recovery came quick and went back to work.

Peppered in between the leg workouts were pull ups and their different variations. My max pull up count during the fit test was 7. The guys and girls are going sets of 12 - 20 in 30 seconds. Without help, I was only able to do sets of 3 - 5 (depending on hand position and direction). This help to do more reps was in the form of a chair. I'm not certain if I am using the chair properly, but it does assist me in doing more reps. And more reps should yield improvement in time.

Following the legs and back routine was some more Ab Ripper X. This battery of moves is tough. It starts right in and doesn't let up for 15 minutes. Each exercise has variations that will allow for progression as strength and training improve. However, right now we're both doing the "easy" way for each set. For the first time while doing this program, we have both noticed the burn. I don't know if that is because we finally figured out the correct way to do the exercise or what, however, this is extreme. There are several different variations of sit ups and crunches that finishes up with a pivot move. This is going to yield some serious results after the program is complete.

Well, 5 days down and one more to go to finish week one of 3 for phase 1. For the first time in a couple of weeks, we cheated on our diet. We were really not in the mood for cooking and the things I was interested in cooking Angel was not in the mood for. So we compromised and got a pizza. I doubt that this will happen very often, but only time will tell.

The next battery of a workout is Kenpo. Kenpo is a martial arts variation that appears to be full body engaging. I don't know for sure, but I will certainly let you know about it later.

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P90X Day 4

Well, today, as with the last few days, started off being sore. Same muscle groups and same deal as before. However, there are signs that it is lightening up. I'll know more for sure in a couple of days. Anyway, today's scheduled event was Yoga. There are a few problems with this.

1. I only get 1 hour for lunch and this program is 1 1/2 hours long. From the get go, I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the entire thing.


2. I am still very sore. Being in the plank position (or in the Army, front leaning rest) and all of its variations was no easy task for over 20 minutes.


3. I am not flexible. I can't do many things and keep my legs straight or wrap myself into a ball and hold my own hands in positions that men were not supposed to be in. Don't get me wrong, the person guiding this program is a guy and he can do it. However, I'm still too new and stiff to be able to do it.

Don't get me wrong, it was different. I think that this could be a beneficial thing to do. However, I think it is too early to be worrying about flexibility while the sore factor is still thru the roof. Let my muscles get used to this abuse and then we'll think about it.

For example, my muscles are so sore that I don't have much strength in them to do a single push up regardless of trying to stay in variations of the push up position for long periods of time.

However, I did find one aspect of the routine easy. Balance positions. These guys were pretty easy. It felt more like stretching for a workout then actually doing a workout. There were 4 on the program and I was able to do 2 with ease, 1 with some form issues and I didn't try the other. I'm sorry, I can't do a many push ups right now, I'm not trying to put all of my weight on my hands. Nope, sorry, not going to do it yet.

I'm not sure if it was because we are still learning it and trying to understand what the different positions are, but it really didn't feel like a workout. I hope once we get further into this the benefits will be obvious. Although, we might have to move our Yoga workout to a different room. Either we need more floor space, take out the ceiling fan, or the bed has to go if we're going to do any more Yoga in the bed room. We were either hitting each other or hitting walls and that's not a good thing. Well, I guess I'll let you know how things go next Thursday when we do it again.

Oh, what you say? Next Thursday is Thanksgiving? Uh huh, what about it. We're on a schedule and we're still going to exercise over the holiday and away from home. Are we nuts. Likely. The only major hurdle we need to figure out is how to do pull ups at my mothers house. Right now the rest of our equipment is very portable.

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P90X Day 3

Well, today marks our third day of this project and 4th day of daily exercising. I woke up today in the worst possible shape (I hope it only gets better from here). I was not moving very well at all. My hip flexers hurt, my triceps, my shoulders, my pecs. I was in a very bad way. Walking to the kitchen required me to take one step at a time, step down, match previous foot's step, take a step down, and etcetera, I'm sure you get the picture. Then once breakfast was over, to get to the bathroom, since I had been sitting for a couple of hours, it took me several steps to be able to fully stand up. I was walking hunched over for a while.

Then the 1 o'clock hour rolled around. Time to exercise again. Are you kidding me, it is hear already? Anyway, I sucked it up and hoped that the pre-event stretching would do the number to get me moving. Thankfully, this was the case. We spent somewhere between 4 and 7 minutes warming up and I was mobile again.

Today's torture workout was arms and shoulders. Thankfully, this did not include any push ups or pull ups. All of the moves were of a weight resistance variety. As the program book indicated, the muscles we were focusing on today are smaller then those of the chest and back. Therefore, the moves that focused on the shoulders and tries require less weight than we have available. I wasn't even able to do some of the moves with the red (smallest) band. We have this purple thing that we picked up from a moving sale the other day (the intention was to use the handles and use one of the packaged bands for the training. However, there isn't any way that I can see to easily remove the purple band and put another one in place. This purple thing I'm referencing is at least 1/2 or smaller then the smallest band from Beach Body. After today's exercise I can certainly seen the benefit in using free weight dumb bells as opposed to bands.

Unfortunately, the free weight dumb bell set is certainly out of our financial range at this point. I will have to do with what we have. This might mean slower progress, but right now, small is better than the backwards direction I was moving in previously.

Following the arm and shoulder routine, we completed another cycle of Ab Ripper X. Being only the second time we've done this I was quite surprised that I was able to improve on form and repetition count. I know that will will take much longer to be able to do each and every exercise as directed for the number of repetitions. However, noticing improvement in only 3 days was a surprise. The routine actually sucks, it hurts, it's rough, but I'm looking forward to the results.

Last nights dinner was a huge hit. We had some turkey breast and gravy with green beans and butternut squash soup. The soup was a huge hit. We did not have a clue as to how it was going to turn out or taste. Well, it did not disappoint. It was as good as any other different concoction that we've had to date.

Tonight's dinner is a bit of a different story. We had halibut with a pesto sauce, wild grain rice and zucchini. Well, I enjoyed all of it. Angel was a different story. The halibut turned out to be not as palatable for her as it did with me. Especially with the pesto sauce, I found it magnificent. Well, we now know we have a dinner to substitute because it doesn't agree with both of us. I do have to give Angel credit, she tried it. Which is more than she would have done not too long ago. Just because it is fish, some time ago she wouldn't have even entertained it. Thankfully this has changed, but the halibut goes on to the no list.

Tomorrow we will be doing Yoga. I don't have the first clue as to what to expect. I have some general ideas which I'm sure will be found to be completely wrong. I guess I'll have to tell you about that once we're done with it tomorrow.

Peace.

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P90X Day 2

Well, today was a heart pounding cardio jumping battery of moves. Since Angel starts work at 5, we worked out earlier today, 12:15 - 1:15. This torture workout was full bore for an hour. Well, I couldn't make it all the way today.

The moves were jumping & squatting and the cadence today was serious. They call this workout high impact because of the potential problems with ankles, knees, and hips due to joint compression and decompression. Thankfully, this was not either of our problems (and Angel is known for having an ankle problem). Our problem was wind and muscle cooperation. The stress on the quads, calves, and hip flexers was serious. The burn was more then I had expected. I truly thought I was in better shape then this.

Anyway, the reason for not completing today's battery was because of time and not capability. My lunch is only an hour long. Since we were getting winded and had to rest longer than the time provided on the DVD on a couple of occasions. Therefore, since the workout is 1 hour long, pressing the pause button will always cause us to run over on time. With about 13 minutes to go for the entire workout, we jumped to 5 to go for the cool down. Well, being constrained on time might put a damper on the progress of the workout, however, 1 hour of raised heart rate and cardio activity is more then what I've done before. I believe that in time it will get easier and time won't be as much of a problem.

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P90X Day 1

Well, today was the day. We've begun our workout regimen. This program is exactly what it claims to be. EXTREME! Today's torture workout was composed of two parts. Chest and Back followed by Ab Ripper X.

The DVD's are setup to promote the completion of the program. The way the workouts roll out the setting is one to push yourself, but don't break or hurt yourself. The idea is that each exercise you "Bring it" (your "A" game) however, for those of use that are early in the process a friendly reminder is reiterated several times. "Do what you can and forget the rest."

This thought process is a reassuring way to go from beginner to advanced in as much of a supportive fashion as possible. I can see now that the program is setup as advertised. If you do what they say when they say it, there is no way to fail. The DVD included warm-up and cool down stretches to further promote a safe and effective workout.

Chest & Back is setup with push & pull movements. These include the push-up (5 variations of normal, military, wide, and dive bomber), pull-ups (4 variations of normal forward and reverse and wide forward and reverse), and some weight training moves. It was a complete set of 12 different moves done twice. Very interesting and should prove to retain motivation. This is not like basic in that you are forced to complete the same exercises in a required amount of time regardless of physical ability. This program allows you the freedom to adjust the repetitions to your current physical level. This is a promising aspect of the program. I certainly hope the praise for the layout continues.

As for Ab Ripper X, this was a completely different animal. They jumped straight into several core muscle movements that done at the rate directed is a seriously strenuous task. I am looking forward to the next 90 days where the ease of completion will be easier to find. Today I was pushed hard and then harder. We're to do this exercise 3 days a week for the next month. I hope by then I can complete it at their cadence. That is an impossibility right now.

After doing this 1:11 minute battery of bodily abuse, I am sore. My legs are fine (obviously, they were not the target today), my stomach is doing ok, however, my triceps are absolutely killing me. I'm glad my job only requires me to sit & type all day. I'm not sure how useful my arms will be tomorrow at this point. Furthermore, the P90X recovery formula is certainly the treat that they claim that it is. I am already looking forward to completing tomorrows exercise to I can have more.

There will certainly be more to come. Tomorrow will be Plyometrics (or Jump Training) and I don't have a clue what to expect, but I'm sure it will be EXTREME and fun wrapped in one.

Peace.

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Fit Test

Pictures added
Edited: 11/14/2007 11:31 PM

Well, last night Angel & I took our "Fit Test" for the P90X program. My results were somewhat where I had expected them to be. Angel was more or less ok with her results. Her biggest complaint was the number of push-ups she was able to do. She had expected to have been able to do more.

The purpose of this post is to share with you the results of our test. This is also for us. Somewhere public that we can store our results for later reference.

Event	Description	Standard	Bob	Angel
Resting Heart Rate	What is your heart rate at waking	N/A	68	77
Pull-ups	Chin-ups with palms facing forward, away from body, two fists wider than shoulders	male: 3 female:1	7.5	0
Vertical Leap	The difference between standing arm raised and a one step jump (think jump ball)	male: 5" female: 3"	17.5"	10"
Push-ups	Standard hand width push-ups	male: 15 female: 3	33	11
Toe Touch	Remember in High School doing the flexibility tests? How far can you reach beyond your toes?	> -6	4"	4"
Wall Squat	Place back flat against wall and lower your body into a seated chair position (quads paralel to the floor, feet directly below knees [think 90-degree angle here]).	1:00	2:20	1:27
Bicep Curls	Extend arms straight down in front of body, palms forward. Pull weight to chest and return to a fully extended position	male: 10 curls at 20 lbs female: 10 curls @ 8 lbs.	21 reps with the black band	19 reps with the red band
In & Outs	Think crunches but the activity is in the legs, fully extended and then knees to the chest without touching the ground with feet.	25	33	35
Heart Rate Maximizer	Jumping Jacks for 1:30 at a brisk, steady pace. Followed by 30 seconds of "sprint" Jumping Jacks. Measure heart rate each minute following for 4 minutes	Complete 2 minutes of Jumping Jacks	At stop: 188 At 1 minute: 165 At 2 minutes: 147 At 3 minutes: 138 At 4 minutes: 129	At stop: 172 At 1 minute: 136 At 2 minutes: 117 At 3 minutes: 100 At 4 minutes: 88

And the last part of the Fit Test is to take before pictures. Here are ours:

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Adventures in Cooking

Well, in my prior food post I mentioned that I ruined a meal. Well, I'll tell you how that happened in a moment. In addition to already have ruined one meal, I just recently escaped ruining another.

Tonight we are having Lemon-Garlic Chicken. The recipe called for 4 cloves of chopped garlic in addition to three other liquids that once mixed together amounted to just under a 1/2 cup. Well, I've never prepared garlic fresh. This was new to me. You should have seen my confusion when I was looking at this 1/2 cup of liquid and 3 items of garlic. You also should have seen my surprise when I attempted to cut into this baby. Mind you, I didn't know what to expect. Anyway, it split into many different pieces that were separated by what appears to be onion skin.

So, I'm looking at all of these pieces, each one needing to be pealed and the thought occurs to me, since this is for a marinade, do I really need to peal of these bad boys? Well, to my dismay, when I call my mom, she's not home. I called my dad and Steffy and him are already asleep. What am I do to now? Thankfully Colleen was visiting Dana. She was able to set me straight. Was I supposed to know that the full item of garlic is called a bulb and a single piece is called a clove? I thought the bulb was a clove.

Well, it is a good thing that I asked this simple question, I would have certainly ruined our dinner for the night. There is a huge difference between 4 cloves of garlic and 4 bulbs (I only had 3 anyway, but the point remains the same).

So, the other meal that I did ruin. Chilled Cucumber Soup. Ok, don't laugh, you're thinking to yourself, "How do you ruin soup?" Well, apparently it doesn't take much. Of the few of you out there that have ever watched me cook something, I have a tendency to play with spices. Even odd ones for the application. I'm about certain that my cinnamon accented steak is common knowledge by now or even the chocolate sauce flavored chicken. So those should give you an example of the weird things that I've been known to do. Well, one spice that I've kept distance from has been cayenne.

Most people also know that I'm not one for the spicy foods, so this also stands to reason. Anyway, this recipe for Chilled Cucumber Soup called for 1/16 teaspoon of cayenne. Well, the smallest teaspoon that we have is 1/4 teaspoon. Apparently my estimation skills are a bit lacking when it comes to contents of a teaspoon. The presentation of the soup was nice. It looked good, it smelled good, and it even taste good with one exception, it had bite. This wasn't just a simple, mild bite. It was offensive. The bite didn't hit immediately either. It was just before the swallow. Hell, the aftertaste wasn't bad either. Anyway, neither one of us could tolerate the kick in our soup. In hindsight, I've realized that instead of 1/16 tsp, I actually used something closer to 1/8 tsp. From what I can tell now, I think that even 1/16 might be too much. I think I'll just use a 1/4 pinch on the next attempt.

Well, as we progress through our new dietary plan, I'm sure we'll screw something up again along the way. Stay tuned.

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Hard Disk Backup

Being an IT professional, there are somethings that still get my goat. Within my department there are quite a number of servers that we are charged with maintaining. However, some aspects of these machines are maintained by other departments. Such as database and hard disk (HDD) backups.

This past week we had a server raid controller die. At first glance this wasn't going to be a big deal. We have c (OS), d (application) & p (page file) drive backups that are written to tape on a daily basis. The database for this application does a backup every day to the D drive and then the HDD backup would backup everything present. This sounds logical. These backups are also taken hot. Therefore, unlike with Ghost backups, these backups are not bootable.

Well, the server is still under a maintenance plan and IBM was tasked with restoring the server to operation. However, what wasn't brought to our attention was that with the motherboard and raid controller replacement the entire system would have to be wiped and restarted from scratch. I understand working with SCSI equipment that much of this can get complicated. However, the one thing that I don't understand is that if the parts were swapped one-for-one in make, model, and version why we would have to start over with this machine.

Anyway, the server operations team installed a new OS to the machine. It was previously Windows 2000 and they upgraded it to Windows 2003. So far, so good. Well, since the OS was wiped, all of the applications would need to be reinstalled. Once again, we were not stressing this. However, we later were informed that the databases, that were supposed to be in the backup folder on the HDD, were not present. WTF? What good is it to backup all of this data and then not have the required information to then restore from?

Furthermore, why backup a drive like the C & P drive if they are throw away in the event of a catastrophic failure? Why only backup portions of a HDD? This backup of the drive in question (D drive for the application) was in the neighborhood of 40G. How do you have a 40G backup and not get the databases that the application requires? I don't understand.

Now for the kicker. There is a known DR flaw in this system. This system is charged with distributing software and collecting journals from ATMs. The permanent storage of any of this information does not reside on this server so we're not missing much. However, the ATMs in this system normally do not talk to the server unless spoken to. The only time to force an ATM to talk to the server is to restart the service. Well, the way ATMs are designed, you can't get to the desktop to bounce the service at need. The only other way to accomplish this task is to reboot the machine. Therefore, each and every ATM on the platform must be dispatched for a reboot before we will reacquire the ATMs back on to this server. What a waste of money. If we would have bridged our DR gap OR had the application database, this would not have been an issue.

In hindsight it would have been really simple to deploy a scheduled task to force the ATMs to talk to the server once a day no matter what. However, we didn't do that yet. It just got bumped up in priority. I predict that this will be bridged in no less then 2 weeks.

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Heart Rate Monitoring

As part of the previously discussed exercise program that Angel & I are undertaking, we needed to determine our heart rate for various reasons. Athletes are known to have slower heart rates then the non exercising populous. Therefore, after completing this 90 day battery, our heart rates should show evidence of slowing down. Also, your resting heart rate is used in determining your training heart rate.

Well, since I am the one that takes things to extremes, of course I've been trying to determine the numbers we should be targeting. Well, this investigation has lead to some interesting results. The first heart rate readings that I took were from sitting at my desk working. This averaged out as I had expected to be in the neighborhood of 82 BPM. I was likewise not surprised that my heart rate while lying in bed to also be in that same neighborhood. My heart rate bounced between 75 and 83 while lying in bed. However, what did surprise me was that my true resting heart rate (taken at wakeup) was much lower. It averaged 68 BPM. I find this to be an interesting swing. However, it is likely to be statistically uninteresting.

Well, our Heart Rate Monitors that were previously mentioned have alarms built in to help the users from hurting themselves by over exertion or from slacking off by not exerting themselves enough. However, in order to take advantage of this feature, we need to determine our training heart rates. A quick search on Google lead me to Wiki. I don't know how accurate this document is as there isn't any reference to the differences between sexes. I don't know if one exists, but I would think that there would be a difference.

The reason that I am inclined to think that there should be a difference is that a difference exists between Angel & I for resting heart rate and in general physical condition. I don't think it would be fair to say that my 90% max heart rate of 173 - 179 (depending on the calculation you use) would be the same for Angel. I realize that it would take different levels of exertion between us to obtain this number and this very well might be an accurate representation of how things work. However, I'm skeptical. I guess we'll see how this pans out once we start working out and what it takes for her to max out.

I know that skating is a pretty lax physical activity. I once skated from Station Square to the Blood Bank to donate and my pulse was around 110 bpm. Also, since I'm a smoker, I am able to maintain a heart rate longer then that of a non-smoker. I don't know why this is, however, I once heard that it is. I was instructed to wait 10 - 15 minutes for my pulse to decrease and the change was not great enough to permit me to donate. When I had my pulse up to 110 I was only marginally winded and know that there is much more that I could have done to kick that rate up. I have no doubts that I will be capable of maintaining a heart rate of 165 for an hour a day to do this exercise. Once again, I can't speak for Angel and am interested to how this works out for her.

If anyone would like to reference my calculations for the desired heart rates I have published my Heart Rate Calculations spreadsheet.

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Eating Healthy

This is a next installment of the post begun yesterday, "Workout Program Introduction"

As everyone knows, eating healthy is expensive. Much more so than picking up the prepackaged items that most supermarket shops are touting today. I find it interesting how much my diet has changed over the past few years, each time for the better. Both financially and in health regards.

It wasn't very long ago that I would eat fast food (in one incarnation or another) everyday for dinner. And to make more of a point of this, that was my only meal of the day also. Once I moved to Atlanta, my diet changed again. Since Angel & I were together again, eating at home became a more logical idea. We could cook for the 2 of us for less than a fast food meal for each of us. Not to say we cut it out completely, but we were eating at home more often. Then we bought our house. At this point, eating on the cheep became important. The house we bought is just about at the knife's edge of being too expensive for us to handle. So, at this point we were shopping on a minimum of a monthly basis for food items in the house. This was working out just fine. We had food to eat and it was more healthy than the fast food joints we were previously patronizing on a periodic basis.

Once eating more often at the house, we were primarily purchasing 2 or 3 step prepackaged meals. We'd get the Crock Pot meals, the Tuna, or Chicken, or Hamburger Helpers, or on rare occasion, we would pickup steaks to eat with canned vegetables and powdered potatoes. By far, I am not calling this healthy. Especially if you know how we were eating (particularly me). A meal packaged to serve 3 or 4 would possibly only serve the two of us. This typically broke down to Angel eating a correct portion and me eating 3. Now, I know that for most of you that know how I eat, this comes as no surprise. However, with eating approximately 2 meals a day now (since I can eat any hour of the day from home because I work from home), the increase in frequency of food consumption has had some adverse effects. My weight is fluctuating on a daily basis, but I was toeing the line at 175 at one point. For my age and height this is substantial. Especially since the Army keeps tabs on these things.

A quick recap of my weight fluctuation over the years:

Graduate High School in '97: 155 lbs
Graduate Basic Training fall '97: 165 lbs (also lost 2" at the waist)
Graduate AIT spring '98: 155 lbs (gained back the 2" lost at basic)
Through the 8 years following: Averaging 163 lbs
Within the past 6 months: Peaking at 175 lbs
Today: 169 lbs.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the primary objective with this workout program is to get into a better physical condition to improve my PT score. However, I know that in doing so that I will also bring some definition to this undefined shape that I currently call my body. As also mentioned earlier, I'm not becoming narcissistic, however, I would like to be able to see my 6 pack again (and maybe improve it to an 8 pack along the way).

Which brings us to today.

So, we've received our ordered equipment and the room for the workout has been established. The only things left to do are to start eating in accordance to the healthy eating guide and doing the workouts. Keep in mind, the workout plan is 6 days a week for an hour each day. Anyway, the eating aspect is what I want to target in this conversation.

Angel & I opened the books and completed the required reading. We're motivated to start this plan and thus created a shopping list. This list was the largest shopping list we've ever created in our time together. We typically just winged it. Well, with the number of items that we didn't already have in the house and the number of fruits, vegetables, chicken, turkey items, we needed reference for at the store. This list was printed in Arial 10 point from a Google Spreadsheet in a single column and was a full 3 pages of items. We knew this was going to be expensive. However, we didn't realize how expensive.

Our first trip to the grocery store was to Kroger. We believe that they are open 24/7, however after being there for ~2 hours and approaching 11:30 PM, they started to shut off lights. We are not certain if they were trying to close or just conserve electricity. The biggest point is that there were not any overhead announcements. However, we were not trying to spend all of this time getting our items to be kicked out without finishing our shopping and call it a night with more then a dozen or 2 items unchecked from our list.

So, we've got a cart full of items from various locations we didn't previously purchase from around the store. Anyway, at that hour of the night, we kinda felt bad while checking out. Everyone else that was trying to check out were using baskets and only had a couple of items. We let a few people ahead of us, however, we would have been there all night had we let every person that came around in front of us. Well, during the unpacking of the cart, I'm pretty sure we filled the belt twice over. As previously mentioned, we knew that this was going to be expensive, just not HOW expensive.

After everything was all said and done, we had spent $426 and that was after saving $28 with our Kroger card. Of that amount, we had spent approximately $100 in just cooking accessories. These include spices, oils, an ounce scale, grater, syrups, sauces (such as tabasco), vinaigrettes, and cooking wines. Thankfully, future purchases of these items will be more spread out. That is a lot of money to spend on items that are to be used as accents. In addition to these one-shot items, there were many other things that we'd never had to purchase before. Cabbage, 3 different varieties (for cole slaw), eggs [3 18 packs] (we're not big breakfast people, but this menu calls for a bunch of eggs), artichoke hearts, hearts of palm (what is that anyway?), onions [3 different varieties] (we typically just use onion salt or the similar), skim milk (we prefer 2%), squash, fresh beans (Snow Peas & Snap Peas), protein shake powder (with Whey protein), cheeses [3 different varieties, mozzarella, swiss, and feta] (we typically purchased Velveeta and shredded cheese for tacos), salmon, shrimp, swordfish, turkey bacon, and the list goes on. But as you can see, these items individually are not too bad, however, everything at the same time became quiet a shock to the wallet.

So, once we get home and unpack the car and bags, it is time to finally eat. Well, as we came to find out, many of the menu items were missing one or two different ingredients still. I don't remember what we did have that night, but we did have something out of the book. I was kinda skeptical. Don't get me wrong, I'll eat just about anything, but this was so new and different, I didn't know what to expect. Eating healthy. Sounds bland to me. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. It was very good. It had a wonderful flavor and was even filling. Needless to say, I was shocked.

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So, I compiled a list of items we couldn't find in the time we spent at Kroger and decide to try Publix for the second round of shopping. We were still missing some items that we had never known existed before. This list includes items like Arrowroot, Arugula, Miso, Quinoa, shallots, Soba noodles, Jicama and lemongrass. Well, after doing some research as to what these things are, I came to know that there are some easier to find items to substitute with. But, we did find at Publix the Arugula (some leafy green lettuce like vegie). The rest of the items are MIA. Thankfully we know we can substitute flour for Quinoa, a lemon spice for lemongrass, onions and garlic for shallots, wheat pasta for Soba noodles. However, we are still at a loss as to where to acquire Miso (I doubt we can substitue this as it is a major ingredient of Miso soup), Jicama is some sort of starch and is also known as a Mexican Potato or Mexican Turnip or yam bean. I guess I will have to do some more research because I don't have the first clue where to look. If we were still in Pittsburgh, I'm sure I could find these things in the Strip. Well, our shopping jaunt to Publix came to another sum to exasperate the expense of this endeavor. Another $50 dropped there.

Well, I am happy to report that each and every item that we've prepared has been a smashing success (as long as you exclude the Chilled Cucumber Soup that I mixed wrong). These meals don't feel like a diet. The portions are large, they are filling, and they taste wonderful. Last night we had the Steak and Arugula Salad for dinner. Don't let the name salad fool you. There was more meat and tomatoes than there was leafy greens (same as the chef salad also). This plate also included a dressing of Balsamic Vinaigrette that needed to be prepared. This dressing was amazing. I couldn't have been happier. When I read that this was to be the dressing for the plate, I was worried. I've had a Balsamic Vinaigrette before, I wasn't too impressed by it. Well, I was wrong. The combination of this dressing and the arrangement of the plate was excellent.

So, in summary, we've spent damn near $1,000 in preparation for this adventure and we haven't done a single thing yet. I have high hopes for this process and hope to benefit from this expense. Only time will tell at this point.

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