is that a tomato in your hand...

or are you just happy to see me?

after much talk about my father and his garden i thought i would share some of the fruits of his labour. no pun intended. this little beauty showed up on the window sill the other day. frankly i am speechless.

good-bye to you...

as i shared recently i am dieting again. i intend to take progress pics during my upcoming florida vacation. during the first three weeks of my quest i have had little definitive success. on the gym floor i can see more detail while i train so i have to be marginally leaner, however there has been little movement on the scale.

i have enough experience with dieting to know that the scale is not always the best way to judge improvements. this past weekend i broke out the measuring tape. which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that at my current rate i will not reach my target goal. thus any pictures taken would not accurately show physique improvements.

to that end i have made some changes. the secret to dieting is to make slow and gradual changes, particularly if the goal is to hang onto the muscle mass you've been trying to build.

previously my daily caloric intake was just shy of 1900 calories, with the first four meals of my day having a clean carb. i have removed the brown rice from my fourth meal of the day and replaced the green peas with green beans. that will take my daily caloric intake down to about 1700 calories. i have also increased my post-workout cardio to 25 minutes from 20.

all told i expect to see some real progress in the next couple of weeks. my abdominals is the area where i tend to lean out last. if i can lose a good couple of inches there i will definitely be in a position to actually learn something from the pics i intend to take.

there is still five weeks left so i still have some wiggle room and i can make further changes if need be.

you might also be interested in hearing how the writing is going. frankly it isn't. i am ashamed to say that because my first story was as well received as it was, i find myself too intimidated to try again. sometimes, with things other than weight training, i find it easier to not try rather than try and fail. i will be honest with you, i am more than a little disappointed with myself.

the bloke and i have discussed this and as he is my writing mentor he is of the opinion i shouldn't beat myself up over my inability to write. he believes that if i don't let myself worry about it, it will happen. i wish i could believe that.

and finally would you believe that work continues to play the maybe we will pay you, maybe we won't game. fekkin' wankers!!

adding to my fifteen minutes

i recently posted my complete and edited fanfiction up on the indeath.net website. as you may have recalled from earlier blogs posts it was something i intended to do, yet something that i was more than a little nervous about. sure i was pleased with how it turned out and everyone who read it, who already liked me, had nothing but kind reviews.

but the internet is a scary and wonderful place. the anonymity of it allows some people the courage to be cruel without retribution. with that knowledge i was amazed and happy as #@%& to receive positive reviews from the readers over at indeath.net. to paraphrase ms. fields "they like me... they really like me!"

i should also note that somewhere in toronto's west end there is a certain english gentleman who is currently doing a fairly unbecoming version of the 'i told you' dance. it's a very slow version of the british shuffle as the bloke does nothing quickly. his nickname is the bloke after all, it is not flash!

and on that note... it is time i do what they pay me!

but know that i am even more inspired to write another story and this time i am challenging myself to step even further outside of my little box