Also known as, I have a lot to say on a bunch of topics and I don’t want to split it up, so I’m going to make one giant post about it with follow-up posts later.
On Weight (Loss & Gain) and the Effects Thereof
As some may know, I have been fighting with weight loss for the past… Let’s call it four years. At my heaviest (4/13/2012) I weighed in at 370 pounds. Yep, 370.
Proof? Oh yeah, proof.
That’s me in 2012. I looked (and felt) like a balloon.
At my lowest, (11/23/2013) I weighed in at 218.
That’s me in March 2014, a little over 234 at the time. Just as a comparison.
Today: I’m back up to 303. There’s been a lot of stuff that’s happened, between bouts of surgery, bad vacations (I mean, GREAT trips, but man do I love to eat), pets passing away, friends and family being in bad places (my grandparents were on the ropes for a while and I was stress eating as a result, for example). On Monday I weighed in a 307.4. Today was 303.6. I feel like I’m getting back on track.
It’s been very frustrating. There are days when I eat within calorie limit and I gain weight. There are days when I eat above the calorie limit and I lose weight. Working out is difficult at this weight. My body feels sluggish, slow, unresponsive. I cannot jog for my usual hour. Even walking that distance leaves me winded and in pain. I’ve taken to riding an indoor bike for now. I am proud of myself for doing 15 minutes a day for a full week. I plan on doing 15 minutes a day 3 days next week, and trying 30 minutes a day for 2 days next week additionally. I want to work myself back up to full weeks of 30 minutes a day. That’s the bare minimum I think I will need to continue righting my health correction. I’ll probably start doing pullups, pushups, and Low-Intensity training again soon. Something, anything. I’ve finally started to get my cravings under control again. I devoured sushi for dinner (spicy tuna, spicy salmon, spicy california, spider roll, egg sushi, tempura veggies, salad, and soup). It was a 1000 calorie dinner. But I stayed within my 2500 calories by eating light breakfast and light lunch. Small compromises.
I have ice cream in the fridge for when I have a sudden craving for sweet. I have pretzels on the counter for when I have a salty craving. If I don’t have these creature comforts, I end up splurging. If I crave ice cream and deny myself it for a week (saying something like: Oh I’ll just have it on Sunday) then on the day I do have it, I will go hog wild like I will never have it again. I need to remember that it will not be the last time I have ice cream, or pizza, or tacos, or sushi. I just need to reign it in and enjoy it.
If any are on the same journey: don’t be discouraged, it’s a long trip and there will be bumps along the way. Keep your eye on the prize: a healthy you.
When The Enterprise Isn’t Enterprise (Part 2): A Real Host
So, a while back I wrote about running an enterprise lab off a desktop PC. It got my roommate and I talking about proper home lab setups. Well, we went head on into it. We bought a used Dell R710 server. We’ve been doing a lot of setup. We bought a decent switch to connect all 8 lan ports to. The switch was sadly DOA. We’re waiting for a new one. The machine works. We have 2 147GB SAS drives and 2 TB Sata drives in it. We also have a 2 TB iSCSI LUN on Nick’s Synology. I can’t wait to start actually toying around with it. Unfortunately there’s just no time during this time of year because of school starting priorities. There’s a lot to do both at work and at home. I would do the home lab stuff on the weekend, but I need the weekend to recharge my batteries (both personal and work based batteries).
That being said: I’m excited and wanna play with it. It’ll be nice to have a dedicated-almost-like-work environment to play around with.
Car Loans
I’ve paid off my car! My title is in hand! It’s in a (new) fireproof safe! I feel like an adult! Holy shit! Is that what it feels like? I can deal with that.
That’s all for now. Like I said, a bunch of short ramblings.
-M, out.
