huff and puff and bloooowwwwww the house down

Anyone need some wind? We are getting gusts that have to be close to 60mph here right now.......shaking the ole shop for sure and whistling through the door cracks haha. I cannot sleep because of WIND.....who'da thunk it? They say the winds should die down during the evening.....at which time it will be time to get ready for work then so maybe sleep will come tomorrow.
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I signed on to a yahoo name I seldom use anymore and got reunited with a once good online friend from TN. Her name is Sherry and she is in remission now from cancer (which I was unaware she even had.......yes it had been a few years since we talked) so please add her to your prayers. She is a single mom with 3 kiddos and as she put it has basically bought the Univ of TN hospital and Savannah cancer hospice. I chatted with a few more people that I had lost contact with for a while also so lets just say I might use that name again more now haha.
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My workouts have been progressing nicely. As stated before I have been taking creatine and protein supplements and they stated that a weight gain was very possible just cause of the extra muscle you will build. They were right. I am at about 230 now up from 225-227 or so but its all muscle for sure cause my pants are looser fitting already and my shirts are fitting tighter haha. I am gonna give it about 3 more weeks before I really get serious with the weights though. Just still getting in shape in order to be able to workout the way I want to. Sad to have to get in shape in order to get in shape........guess some thursday I will have to share a pic of my progress maybe.....
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Still waiting on a day off work. I have worked every day since Christmas (went to work Christmas night in fact) and other than holidays and a week of vacation pretty much every day since october for the most part. I am getting about ready for some vacation time already haha.

Snap(ping) into shape, Choctaw princess and the Jamaican

I have been learning a lot about Jamaica lately. One of my employees is a native of Jamaica. He lived there until he was 19 or so and he and a brother of his moved to Florida at first in order to make money to send back home to his mother. It is amazing the every day things we take for granted that the people of Jamaica do not have or at least most of them don't. I have learned that in order to harvest bananas the banana tree must be cut down. But they grow pretty fast and for every one that is cut down two seem to sprout up. Avocados, mangos,.....all kinds of exotic fruit are common staples or Jamaican diet. Catfish ( a favorite of mine) are considered dirty and if someone sees you eating catfish they think you are very poor. We sometimes look at Jamaican websites on break. It is really interesting getting to know about some other culture from someone who lived it and now knows the "good life of the good old USA. He makes as much in one week as some people make in a month or two on the island.I will be sharing more of my "travels with Aston" in the future.....who knows I might even make a trip down that way soon.
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I finally stopped by and met an online friend at her job earlier this week. She is part Mississippi Choctaw and part Cherokee. Such a charming lady she is. She works for a local Indian agency. More of my culture education. I am sure I will be learning more from this Indian princess as well.
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I have joined the local Snap Fitness gym. I have been going each day since last Tuesday and basically getting a feel for all the equipment and trying to get a workout plan figured out. I will say this.....those elliptical trainers really give a great cardio workout. I started my first "real" workout this morning. Hopefully will get to where I wish to be soon as far as my conditioning.

whey out there and tagging Breazy back

The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.


I have decided to (hopefully) take my workouts up a notch. I stopped by this morning and bought some whey protein, some 2% milk to mix it with and some creatine. Whey is one of the best sources of protein as it is easily absorbed. I was worried this stuff would taste horrible but it is actually quite good. I am even thinking about trying it with soy milk sometime soon also. Never had soy milk though so not sure how that would taste. The creatine is basically to increase gains in muscle mass by providing more energy to the muscles during exercise. It also helps to hydrate the muscle cells which also adds size. I am trying to stick with the 3 day a week weight workout and walking anywhere from 2-4 miles a day and soon hopefully start jogging some of these miles again soon. The latter part of 2007 saw me add about 20 pounds back on and just to document my weight here in the blog today I was 227 while during the summer last year I had gotten down to 208 or so. With the supplements I am taking it is possible the weight could actually increase some at first but it should start dwindling down again soon.
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My good friend Breazy tagged me (&^%$#*&^%$#@) haha just kidding Breazy and I shall get to that tagging soon. I don't normally get tagged and sometimes I don't reply to the tagging as I really feel theres not much I haven't shared already in my "100 things about Brad" post last year.....or was that year before last.

Link to the person who tagged you;
Leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit yours;
Post the rules on your blog;
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog;
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post;
Include links to their blogs;
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
7 things about me…



7. I started blogging because of someone I started chatting with who blogged.

6. I quite often will go out for late night /early morning drives to no place in particular and end up 2 or 3 counties away. You could say I love to drive.

5. If reading and researching about fitness was a paying job I would have become wealthy this past year. Instead I am poorer for buying all these books haha.

3. I always break the rules so thats why there is no #4 (plus by doing this it eliminates two things I have to come up with)

2. I sometimes cheat to make the game more in my favor. Its not playing fair I know but who said life was?

1. I have gambled away 2 weeks pay playing blackjack before. I have also won 2 months worth of paychecks playing in one weekend. I need to go play again now that I think about it.

Again I wont follow the rules and tag anyone so if you wanna do it let me know you did in my comments.