So I am back on a new “health” kick. Hopefully it will last. I have really done a poor job with my workout in the last year. It had actually gone downhill ever since I started school but I at least worked out somewhat regularly the first two years but basically gave up the last year. I thought that I would get back into it once I finished in May but injuries, sicknesses, and lack of will have prevented me. To put it in perspective (since I log all my workouts), I have been to the gym to lift weights twice in the past two months. I’ve been twice this week so I already eclipsed my total for a while.

I don’t think I’m on a specific diet so you can call it the Eric diet. It’s a mix of low carb with a lot of fruit.

Breakfast

I normally eat a banana or yogurt first thing in the morning then follow it up with a scoop of protein in a shake around 9AM. I do eat some hard boiled eggs during the week. On weekend, I always make up some omelets.

Lunch

My goal is to bring my lunch 3 times a week which should be easy. I have more of a problem eating at the office on Mondays and Fridays so I am going to allow them. When I go out, I hope to eat a high protein mixed salad. When I stay in, I normally eat “meat rollups” with sharp cheddar and chicken/roast beef combination. The funny thing is that I bought bread for the first time in forever last week for lunch and ended up taking it off. I like the rollups. I also mixed in some hard boiled eggs.

Pre Workout

I having been eating a granola bar but I would like to mix in a protein shake. I realized that this pre-workout meal was one of the main things prohibiting me from working out in the past. There is a dilemma in that I am hungry when I get home so if I eat dinner after getting home then  too full to make the gym before it closes. If I wait, I feel too hungry to workout. So I need something that holds me over.

Post Workout

A protein shake.

Dinner

I am going for a high protein meal at dinner. I have been eating a lot of sirloin kabobs lately. I like the mix of other items with the steak compared to a normal plain steak. As a side, I have been eating either plain broccoli or broccoli with rice and cheddar cheese. I have also been eating a lot of pulled pork salads. I have a ton of vacuum packed bags of pulled pork that I buy from a guy at work. I have been following up these meals with mixed fruit. The good thing about Culinaria is that they sell all these different kinds of mixed fruit containers from $2.50 to $4. They are expensive but I love fruit. They are a variety of Berry or Melon assortments. I am chickened out so will take a break from baked chicken. I keep buying it but never use it.

Goals

I have a couple mains goals in which I do not want to do. They are (1) do not eat out of the refrigerated vending machine at work. I have been eating turkey sandwiches for breakfast the past month which isn’t bad but I want to stay away from that thing since there are so many other good items in there (2) no fast food (3) no eating after 8PM. This rule worked good for me in college but really failed at it since.

Workout

I am trying to keep my workout simple (at least at first) so I stay motivated. My goal is to do three sets of two muscle groups each day then follow that up with a 15 to 20 min run on the elliptical. I am basically cutting out 4 or 5 exercises a day so knocking out another 20 or 30 mins from my previous workouts. I am going to try to go every day that I can. For now, I do not want to lift weights 3 days in a row so I will do abs and run on the third day. My Day 1 workout is chest/shoulder, Day 2 is triceps/legs, Day 3 is biceps/back.

Good Shows Coming Back

Dexter (Showtime on Sunday) – I was really expecting a lot out of this show. I read in a review that the Dexter books have him teaching his new step children his ways of killing. That would be pretty freaky and wouldn’t make sense knowing his character dilemma so far so I do not expect this. Overall the episode was okay but I believe it was a building block show for their new serial killer.

Californication (Showtime on Sundays) -Seems like this show hasnt been on for ever. I have been watching some episodes lately but really have no clue where the plot will begin. I counted on the preview before the episode to catch up. I thought this episode was pretty awesome. I would call this show the new Entourage. Its edgy and full of surprises.

How I Met Your Mother (CBS on Mondays) – A classic returns. I didn’t watch this show from the start but it is quite funny. I am glad to see that Barney and Robin are a “couple” now but it will make the Barney character into something totally different so not sure how that is going to turn out.

Two and a Half Men (CBS on Mondays) – For some reason, I can’t watch reruns of this show but I am really entertained by new episodes. Needless to say, the first show this season was good. This show is not super funny but it is entertaining. They basically just keep reusing the jokes over and over again.

Big Bang Theory (CBS on Mondays) – I’ve always like this show. Half of it is because of the engineer in me and how they act like they use big words and big scientific theories but they are actually quite basic to anyone that has took a Physics class. Needless to say, I think this show is hilarious.

Gary Unmarried & New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS on Wednesdays) – Both shows are solid and on my watch list.

Fringe (Fox) – I almost totally forgot about this one and it is one of my favs. Thanks to Matt S., I now realize the whole alternate universe concept from the season finale and how Peter actually did die but his dad went into the other universe to get him. That went right over my head. Doesn’t really fit with this statement I read on Wikipedia “Unlike his other series, Lost, J.J. Abrams promises the series’ story arc will be easier to follow and more accessible for those who skip the odd show.” I can follow Lost but seem to be struggling with this show. Guess I need a good Fringe blog to read. I also have no clue how Massive Dynamics plays a role in this show. I thought they were bad but maybe they are only bad in the other dimension. Nina kissing Phillip blew my mind even though I was expecting it.

Sit Down – Shut Up (Fox on Saturdays) – Thought I hated this show plus I thought it was canceled but new shows keep popping up on my DVR and I’m watching them.

New Shows that I have watched so far

Bored to Death (HBO on Sundays) – The pilot to this show was extremely boring. I will give it another try but it doesn’t look good. I am surprised because HBO doesn’t normally disappoint.

Accidentally on Purpose (CBS on Mondays) – I really liked the first episode but curious to see how they could make this into a long standing series since it revolves around a girl getting accidentally pregnant. You would think that premise would last for only 9 months unless it gets more serious with her “boy toy.” I think it caters to the same crowd as the other CBS Monday shows so should do good.

The Forgotten (ABC on Tuesday) – I only watched this because no other shows are new on Tuesdays. I almost turned it off immediately whenever they went over the premise which is a bunch of volunteers solving John/Jane Doe cases after the police give up. It might be a good show but I do not like shows like this so it does not make the cut.

Cougar Town (ABC on Wednesday) – With a name like this, how could you not expect me to watch it. Plus, it has Courtney Cox in it. I really liked Dirt on FX and thought she did a good job on that show to break of out the “Friends” typecast. I was surprised to see this was on a 30 min show. It was funny but I am struggling with the fact that Cox’s image of her body as not hot. She has a hot body; simple as that. I will continue to watch.

Modern Family (ABC on Wednesday) – This show seems to be the same as lot of shows last year that did not get picked up. It was funny but don’t expect it to make it on ABC. Would do better on Fox.

Glee (Fox on Wednesday) – I didn’t originally record this but watched the 1st episode online then recorded the next two in which I watched all 3 in a row on Sunday. I was surprised about this show and how much I like it. It is sorta a musical but has a good plot for a teen drama/comedy. Does anyone else think that the teacher sorta looks like Justin Timberlake? Plus, he dances and sings so its like he could be a dead on impersonator.

Flash Forward (ABC on Thursday) – This show is supposedly made for me according to the reviewers. Its sci-fi, action, and drama all in one just like my favorite show Lost. I thought the premise behind the show is that the world jumps 6 months into the future and now the people are trying to figure out why. I was a little wrong after watching it. The people did jump in the future but only for a couple mins then came back to the present time with everything being totally chaotic. The rest of the show seems to have them solving what is going to happen based on what they saw in their flash forward. To be honest, I am a little disappointed. I think this show was over-hyped. I expect V to be more of my type of show after seeing the previews.

Community (NBC on Thursday) – This show did have a funny first episode so it makes my cut list.

Other shows – I do have a bunch of other new 1 hour drama shows plus Brothers on Fox saved on my DVR but I doubt I will watch them. Let me know if I missed anything worth watching.

“New” Shows on the docket

Madmen – After all the hype, I decided to throw the first two season in my Netflix queue. I have a weird querk where I can not start a show like this in the middle of its life cycle so it will be a while before I catch up to the latest. I did the same thing with Lost after I did not watch the first season until the weekend before the series premier of season 2.

Dollhouse – For some reason this show seems like something I would like too after missing the 1st season so it is in my Netflix queue too. It sounds like this show almost got canceled but the “cult” fans responded which is something I would do so I am giving it a run.

Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO on Sundays) – Amazing enough, I had never watched a single episode. It goes back to the fact that I don’t like to stat a show mid-series. I was intrigued about this season because all of the Seinfeld hype and my love of the show. I thought the first episode was hilarious. I laughed the entire time. It has the same concept as Seinfeld – a show about nothing. I always though that Jerry was the brains behind the show but maybe it was Larry David. Hopefully all the episodes are that funny.

Series Premiers yet to come

V (ABC on Tuesdays) – Every time I see this episode title I think of Vampires but this show has nothing to do with the blood suckers. Instead if is a show about “visitors” who are aliens that are trying to take over the world from within our own governments. This show is supposed to be 1 of 2 shows (Flash Forward being the other) for catering towards Lost fans so I am looking forward to it.

The Middle (ABC on Wednesdays) – This comes out this week. A lot of critics have good faith in this show. I saw the preview and immediately thought Malcolm in the Middle (which I did not like) then found it funny to see the St Louis Post writer make the same comparison. It has Patricia Heaton (Everyone Loves Raymond) so I will give it a chance.

Overall, it was a pretty good weekend. Enjoyed a close win by MU on Friday with all the guys at my place and then rounded out the night with some 80′s action at Rue 13 then Lucas Park.

On Saturday, we finally came through after talking about it for months and went to the winery. The only difference was that instead of a guys trips, a lot of the guys brought their wives and girlfriends. Fortunately, that doesnt change much with this group because they have no problem making themselves look like a fool. We somehow got in a good 4 hour window of sun shine between downpours. Overall the winery was pretty fun but Augusta is really far away. We did run into some bad luck which made me super nervous for no reason. We had heard that the cops were going to set up checkpoints on 94 outside of the winery which turned out to be true. We met up at Troy’s house by Winghaven so we ended up taking back roads and we were told to go the same way back. We did not listen and took 94 the whole way back. I pitched in to be the DD  for our car so I had only a glass to drink for the trip. Needless to say, we were backed up in traffic for 90 minutes on 94 waiting to go through the checkpoint in which I was super nervous even though I was totally sober (never been through a checkpoint before). The funny thing was that can you imagine people waiting in line in car after drinking all day? Most have to go to the restroom after 30 mins. So eventually, after almost everyone in the car was going to pee in their pants, I made the decision to pull into Francis Howell School. They all laughed at me but it actually worked because there was an event at the school so it was unlocked so we got to use the bathroom. It was funny watching all these girls run into the woods to go to the bathroom. I also started a trend and everyone followed my bathroom breakthrough. I even joked with the cop that did my eye test at the checkpoint about the situation. We were one of the first groups to leave once it started raining so I cant imagine the line behind us. Pure ridiculous.

All the winery trip pictures can be found here.

Sunday was a day to enjoy football and all the Fox and Showtime season premiers.

This was a pretty fun weekend. There was so much to do. I had choice among some of my favorites: Cards vs Cubs, Air Show, a MU Football game, Blues game, Schlafly Beer fest, and an old neighbor leaving for Cali. Fortunately, I got to knock a lot of these out.

Friday was the Cubs vs Cards game. I knew a bunch of groups going so I decided to get First Pitch tickets so I woke up late and went and got my ticket voucher before work. The line was longer that I expected and it went pretty slow so I was 45 mins early and waited another 45 mins after the window opened. I bet I was probably #75 in line and I really doubt they went through all the tickets by noon so I bet these tickets are available almost every day till close to game time. Needless to say, my friend had to work late but we still got in with standing room tickets. All in all, I paid $5.50 for a standing room tix instead of the $30 through the conventional ways. The game itself was pretty awesome. My boy Matt Holliday hit a walk off homerun to win the game. We then went to Paddyo’s for a while then Lucas Park then the Wash Ave diner.

What seemed like hours later, I woke up to friends coming over for some pre Air Show drinks and some college Gameday. We then went to the Scott Air Force base air show. It was pretty awesome. You can find all the picture here. My favorite part was Tora! Tora! Tora! which is a depiction of the Pearl Harbor bombing. I liked it because they blew up a lot of stuff. I unfortunately got really sun burnt but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. We then went to Show-me’s for dinner and watched the end of some good foosball games then went to Paddyo’s to celebrate another Cards walkoff hit to win the game. I was super close to not going to Paddyos and calling it a day but I love that place and immediately woke up as soon as I got there. I stayed there for a pretty long time then went back to my place to get ready to meet up with the Wash U folks at Bar Louie. It was a good time. It seems like I committed to Chicago for Halloween so I guess I need a costume. I rounded out the night with some Pepper Lounge.

Sunday was boring. I slept some but then watched football along with enjoyed the start of the new Fall lineup. I was not impressed with Bored to Death. I can’t wait for Dexter and Californication next week!

Another weekend, another 3+ day off extended edition. I really did not do much this past weekend. I went to the baseball game Friday night which is my extent of going out into the public for the 3 days. I did finish painting and cleaned up my place so it looked super nice. Probably watched more football than I needed to. I think that is all I did Saturday and Sunday. Watching MU almost loose was very nerve wrecking and I couldn’t even bare to watch past the 1^st quarter of the Rams game.

In fantasy sports news, I have started my run to the crown in baseball after a 1^st week bye and a very strong start for the first couple days by my pitchers. I am winning by a big margin but my opponents pitching staff is hanging in there. I also dominated in fantasy football. I scored the most points on both defense and offense to win by like 80 points…blowing all the other teams out of the water. What is weird is that I had little production out of my two wide receivers and one running back positions (along with my flex positions) so I thought I was in trouble but I had several players put up huge numbers plus had the most TDs in the league. My bench was even impressive. I remember having a discussion with the boys when watching the MU game about drafting Bess for Miami. They acted like they didn’t even know who he was. Well he had the most catches for Miami (like I believe he did last year). Michael Bush also seemed to get a lot of looks with McFadden and the Raiders which made me happy even though McFadden looked a lot better in the game. I guess the 1^st pick in the drafts make all the difference since I got it in both football and baseball. It would be nice to have a dual crown this year.

My thumb is doing really well too.

I decided to finally paint my place after almost a year and a half of living in white space. The funny thing is that I came extremely close to having it painted before I moved in since I had the place a couple weeks before I moved. The last straw came when I bought all new natural light bulbs which looked awesome but made the place look very white.

Choosing the right paint

The one thing everyone told me and what I heard was that a good paint makes all the difference. I had been looking at various Lowe’s paint offerings for the past couple weeks. I had settled on some Valspar colors but then at the last minute I chose to go with Eddie Bauer because I was told that the paint was a little better. I then heard about a Labor Day paint sale at Home Depot plus I was recommended to try Behr’s new paint because it had the paint and primer all in one. Supposedly all the Home TV shows use this new Behr paint. Do you want to know why I ended up going with it? You could say because it was cheaper. You could say because it had the primer built in so possibly less coats. You may also think that it was because a good friend kept telling me the Ralph Lauren paint at Home Depot was the best and I had two different Home Depot employees tell me the new Behr paint was better. All good reasons but the reason I went with it was because it had NANOGUARD® technology. Don’t know how this nano technology helped but both the Engineer and Marketing person in me loved the buzz word so I went with it.

Choosing the right color

Luckily I have some friends that understand the “color wheel” and choosing complementing colors. I obviously have no clue about colors. I tried adjusting colors online and kept getting totally different colors that I desired. I wanted bright colors since I have a contemporary open space. I ended up going with a combination of blues and grays (almost green).

Mistakes

1. Taping – I didn’t tape some of the bathroom after I though I could use the edger but it didn’t work out. Also, I did not realize that there are 3 different grades of tapes. I bought medium stickiness. I did pull off pieces of the dry wall/paint so probably not the best choice for non wood or concrete applications.
2. Ladder – I had only a 7ft ladder which worked fine in the hallway but was impossible around the kitchen since I could not put it against the wall. The corner above the refrigerator was impossible, I am lucky I didn’t kill myself after I was standing on about on anything I could.
3. Not having a shorter extension. I borrowed an extension from a friend. It was probably 4ft long and extended to another 4ft. In open spaces, it made it super easy to paint wall to ceiling since I have 12ft ceilings. In the hallways and kitchens it was impossible. I later bought a 2ft one that extended to 4 ft. It made a huge difference.
4. Throwing away some of the paint cans before I got the UPC for the rebate. The funny thing is that I Googled paint sales last week to find the Labor Day sales and actually read someone’s comment about making sure to save the paint cans.

Good Calls

1. I read at the last minute that someone said one of the 5 key things to painting is owning a canvas drop cloth. I borrow some plastic from a friend but ended up buying a runner drop cloth at the last minute. This was key because I could put it along my entire wall, it absorbed paint so you did not track it around, and it stayed in place while laying flat.
2. Buying the good paint

What I learned

1. Good brushes really made a difference
2. That I do not understand how to paint with a roller
3. That you can spend a huge amount of time taping and it still doesn’t look right when your done.
4. That I suck at painting overall and I should hire a professional next time!

What do I think?

Overall, I like the colors. The kitchen is my favorite. My customer vases would work perfect in there if I ever did it. The one major problem I have is a spot in the hallway. It is the area where I went from one can to another. There was a super bright streak. I painted a second coat over it and you can still see it. You cant notice it if you look at it straight on but easily is noticed when looking at if while walking down the hallway. The other issue is the white trim I have around my whole place. The paint looks a little rough around it. I need someone with a stead hand to paint the top lip with a small brush.

The Final Product

Click here to see picture of my progress and the end results.

So I fractured my thumb last night in the first minute of our last basketball game. I tried to make a steal and jammed it. It was supposedly really loud. Enough for the ref and the players to question if I was okay. It didn’t hurt at first but it hurt more and more as the game went on. I woke up to it being blue so I went to get a x-ray and they confirmed my suspicion.

I had a lot of aspirations for this past week and most of them came through. I had the second 4 day weekend in a row so it was nice. Trust me! I do work a full time job.

Friday was the day I was dreading while also looking forward to the most. I spent the previous night taping for about 5 hours in preparation for an all day painting binge. I will write a full analysis of my painting experience in a later post but I did knock out both rooms I planned on Friday; albeit a little late. Since I was late, I missed a friend’s race in Lafayette Square for the Gateway Cup. I did squeeze in a quick date along with hanging out with some friends at the race. St Louis still amazes me in all its outside activities. The race was an unexpected great time. Basically people had parties in their front lawns along the park and people brought coolers of beer and sat in lawn chairs as the watched the various races which lasted till about 11PM. The other thing that amazed me was how loud wrecks are. I guess the riders are going 30+ MPH. There was a line of ambulances waiting for them though.

Saturday was the real day I was looking for. It was the first real day of college football and the start of the season for MU. There was a lot in question this year for Mizzou after such a great season last year and so many seniors graduating. The biggest question was the QB position and Blaine did not disappoint. I had various tailgates on my docket for the game but only ended up going to one because it was so much fun. I was a little sad that it rained so the crowd started late but we had a lot of fun under the tents until the rain stopped. I also enjoyed Over Under’s Paddyo’s like experience after the game but thought it was really weird that they kicked everyone out of the tent after a certain time when it was still full. Must have been a permit thing. We bar hopped the rest of the night for an extremely long day.

Sunday was a waste. I did do some cleanup around the house but I basically just sat around and watched TV. I did go out of the house for a brief time but only to get food and wash the car. I was good and passed up Fast Eddies during the day and Harry’s at night so I could have an early morning Monday.

Monday was a pretty productive day. I woke up early (like planned) and hit up Culinaria to get supplies for a big breakfast. I had to fight the parade crowd plus all the bikes getting ready for the afternoon race. I watched the dominant performance by Carp to get another Cards win and followed that up with painting the bathroom, touching up the hallway and kitchen, and cleaning up everything. I ended the night by watching the awesome Florida St vs Miami game. It was so entertaining. I also made some awesome soft tacos for dinner.

In other news, I somehow pulled off being the regular season champ in fantasy baseball. I am a bit worried about my team since I had some big players go down but I also have some big players coming off the DL. The bye this week works out perfect. It also looks like I have all my big pitchers pitching twice next week which should make me pretty hard to beat if I win a lot of the pitching categories. I have the fantasy football draft this week too but just do not seem to be into the NFL this year yet. Like last year, I seem to be more focused on college football. I never use to be able to watch non Big 12 games but now find myself watching any college game while flipping the channel for NFL games.

Also props go out to Matt Smith and his recent engagement.