New Equipment Kick

So I realized a few months ago that I haven't got any new, regular-use gear (other than Reason upgrades) in like 3 and 1/2 years. The last thing I got was my 5-string J, and that was a gift. So, I thought I was definitely due, and I'm going all out! I spend several weeks pondering over the design of a new road case, which would be by far the largest equipment upgrade. After coming up with lots of cool ideas, I worried how I might convey the aforementioned strokes of genius to someone else. (that someone else is Dan Carson of Dandee Cases who built my last case and has been providing the JCB with a steady stream of new cases lately). So, I decided the best solution was to teach myself how to draw... BUT, I don't have very steady hands, plus there were still too many thinks to cram into a little drawing... So, I taught myself a little bit of Adobe Illustrator and was what I came up with is below. Dan hasn't started on it yet per my request, but I'm REAL excited about it.

My next item is a replacement, but still cool for me... a new power conditioner (*oooo*, *aaahhhhh*). For the uninformed, it's a glorified powerstrip that filters the power so your junk sounds better. I've been needing a new one since a capacitor blew up and the plug shorted out and I had to replace the end. Not all that exciting for most people...

My favorite and most recent is yet another gift from my lovely and always supportive wife. I'm absolutely ecstatic about it. It was her Christmas gift to me; it wasn't on my list; and I knew about it before I got it because I had to help her pick out the right one. Now, some might laugh at how silly it might be when I tell you, but I've been wanting one essentially since I got my bass 3.5 years ago. Its... wait for it... let the suspense build... oh wait you've probably already peeked at the pictures... it's a new pickguard. It just makes my 2004ish bass instantly look vintage. Anyway, thank you so much Michele. I think you might already be tired of hearing how much I like it. (who knew a piece of plastic could make me so happy?... oh wait Legos are plastic)


Before:


After:

Happy Turkey Day!

Don't eat too much... and if you do just sleep it off.

My first camping experience...

...was canceled due to a fire ban. So I'll have to wait a little longer to get to tackle mother nature.

Speaking of tackle. The Red Raiders aren't holding them. Consequently, the Sooners are up 7-0 in the first quarter. I decided since I had the Texas game on without watching it that I'd do the same for the OU game. So far... no luck. Another post... uh... post game.

First time camper

I know, I know. It's been forever since I've blogged.

No more P90X blog. I'm starting over.

So, I get to camping for the first time in my life ever. Somehow I managed in all my life never to really experience the outdoors in a tent. My family went hiking quite a bit when I was growing up, but it was always day trips. Never overnight. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we were so "city-fied", too comfortable with our comforts of home to do without them for a bit. I think it'll be a lot of fun, even though I'm kinda nervous (not a lot, but just enough to say so).

I am really excited about getting away from things. I might even turn off my iPhone just to be disconnected (*gasp* say it ain't so). So if anyone is wondering why I'm not answering emails or phone calls or texts that's why. (Wait a minute I'm only gonna be gone for 24 hours. If you need to get ahold of me then... just wait. Like the days of yore in good ol' 1990 when only Zach Morris had a cell phone.)

Day 29 - No Motivation

So my rest week didn't go at ALL like it was supposed to. With me being gone all but Thursday, I just didn't have any motivation to do the workouts on the road. The Core Synergystics video made me feel like I needed a whole empty room, and I had part of a hotel room with barely enough space to turn over, much less roll in the floor. All I wanted to do was spend time with Michele on Wednesday, so we moved Kenpo to Thursday. But, we still didn't do it. And I couldn't do the Yoga on Saturday, and didn't get home in time to do stretching on Sunday.

Today, I've eaten like crap today (i.e. Kerby Lane pancakes, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and dinner at Gattiland). So consequently, I feel like crap today and still have no motivation to work out. HOWEVER, I did do the Chest, Shoulder, Tri workout. I may not have "brought it", but I still completed it. Maybe a good night's rest and some good food tomorrow will help.

Day 18 - Yoga no bueno

I hate yoga. I don't necessarily mind doing it, but I can't do it. I'm not flexible enough, yet. I'm not strong enough, yet. And I'm definitely not fit enough to finish an hour and a half of it, yet. Granted I skipped last week, but... still. Ok, I have no reason to give up now. However, I did give up... About 30 or so minutes into it.

On a positive note I can do a pull-up now. Woo-hoo.

James

Day 13 - Lazy blog

This has been a tough week for me (and Michele for that matter). I made 7 trips to Liberty Hill this week for a revival at Fellowship Baptist Church, which went really well. Consequently though, I had several late nights which severely affected both workouts and diet. Monday night, Michele went with me and we got done pretty late (9:30ish) and hadn't had dinner (BIG mistake). Then we decided to run by Taco Bell, which does have some things we can eat on our diet, but at 9:30 at night with an empty stomach who wants to follow a diet. So I had a carb-loaded, high calorie grilled stuffed burrito, and hardly slept at all 'cause (A) I wasn't used to that many carbs in a day and (B) I certainly wasn't used to that many carbs before bed.

Since I didn't sleep well, and neither did Michele we slept in and had to do the Plyo workout separately. That wasn't too bad, but Michele had to do it after she got off work at 8:30 and didn't get to come hang out afterwards. I made another bad dietary mistake by ordering a mocha latte w/ protein late, which not only had a lot of carbs (which I later found out) but also has lots of caffeine, which keeps me up (I know, bad judgment call, but I was interested in the *add protein* special).

I did still manage to get up and do the Shoulder & Arms workout, but I was only running on 5 hours of sleep. Then that night the revival service ran extra long (lots of Spirit moving...), so I was DEAD tired when I finally got to sleep that night.

And I didn't get up the next morning for Yoga. Michele and I decided we'd do it at 8:30 that night, but we were still dead tired then too. So after less than 2 weeks we missed our first workout. We also decided we both needed a little bit of a free day diet-wise 'cause we were both going crazy. So when we did get up, we went to IHOP. I was craving pancakes and, boy, did they taste good. But enough about Thursday, because that was just a bad day.

I HATE working Legs & Back. Not that my heart-rate gets extra high or I can't do the moves (even though I can't), I just don't like working out my legs.

OK. Now that I'm caught up here's today...

Woke up really tired, got up to watch the hurricane reports, decided to workout tonight, went BACK to bed, woke up and had lunch at Whataburger (MAN, my diet's sucked this week), came home did quite a bit of nothing, took care of the car some, had dinner with Michele (Chick-fil-a salad, a little better), came home and dusted, then did more nothing, then did Kenpo and burned over 700 calories in less than an hour (better than running), soaked up the gallon of sweat off my body with a small towel, then sat down to catch up on blogging... I'm going to bed I need to sleep and stretch tomorrow. Good night.

James

Day 6 of P90X - Kenpo = Ken-pooped

Sorry it's been a few days since my last post.

I didn't realize how hard a few punches and kicks could make your heart beat. I think I lost like 5 pounds in sweat alone. It did go by pretty fast though. I started concentrating on my form on all the moves more than the power since it is the first week, and I still managed to max out my heart rate at 180, which is slightly above my zone.

The diet has gotten a little lax, but we're still eating pretty healthy. We aren't following the exact meal plan laid out by P90X, but we are sticking pretty close to the portion allotments (i.e. servings of protein, carbs, fat, etc.). I've been feeling a whole lot better as far as energy goes since Michele and I decided to add a 1/2 to a whole serving of carbs to our breakfast or lunch. Before both of us were totally running out of energy at like 5 or 6 and nearly falling asleep. But we're both much better now and I still feel awesome.

Now for an update on the band. Basic tracking is done on the new 'Justin Cofield Band' EP. Which means we've finished Drums, Bass, and Electric Guitar. We'll start recording vocals Tuesday or Wednesday.

I'm really excited about my first rest/Stretch X day. I really wish I could sleep in tomorrow, but I have to be up and leave for Liberty Hill by 7:20. Maybe I'll just have to take a really good nap. Speaking of naps. I'm gonna go sleep hard in my comfy bed.

Day 2 - Yikes!

So in the last 18 hours I've worked every muscle in my body. Last night I did Chest & Back. I know I didn't work my triceps per say, but man those push ups really wore them out. I was really excited at how many pullups I was able to do in the workout. Granted they were assisted pullups with a chair a foot or so away, but still I did 8 on just about all the first round. Considering I couldn't even do a pullup during the fit test, 8 is pretty good for me.

Then there's abs... I literally couldn't finish ANY of the exercises. I paused during every set so I could do most of the reps, but still didn't get all 25. The Oblique V-ups were my favorite only because I could actually do those with some semblance of dignity. I felt a little queezy after all was said and done, but managed not to throw up on my first day of P90X.

So after doing abs last night at 9:30, I got up at 7 this morning to do my first Plyometrics. Wow, I'm tired. Not only from a little to little sleep, but mostly from all the jumping around. We doubled every waterbreak to a minute or more just because Michele and I both needed a little more of a break. I feel like I'm wimping out some of the workout cause I can technically do better, but just have nothing left to give. It is just the first week and I plan to BRING IT the rest of the time.

As far as eating goes, I feel like the portions are incredibly too much food. Yesterday I couldn't even finish the salad and barely muscled down the salmon and soup. We didn't really have time to make both the 6-egg white omelet and the shrimp stir-fry so we opted to just make the stir-fry and skip the omelet but still have the strawberries and cottage cheese. I'm just now getting hungry for lunch and I'm gonna have to eat out since I'm at the studio and have the stir-fry for dinner instead of turkey. I'm gonna do some more research this afternoon to make sure we're eating the right portion sizes. I'm just glad I don't have to workout again until tomorrow morning. I need a break.

Day 1 - Let's Begin

So this is really a Day 0 post since I haven't done my first workout yet. Michele and I went to buy groceries yesterday to start the P90X diet along with the workout program. HOLY CRAP! That's all I have to say. All new spices. Making our own dressings. Buying swordfish, halibut, top sirloin. I'm gonna be eating like a king. Unfortunately, king's usually have more money than I do. The total for yesterday finished out at $435, and we're not even done. We have to have 64 (yes, 64) egg whites for ONE WEEK!!! I need to buy my own chicken farm.

So the JCB is in the studio today starting an EP. We're doing some covers of songs that lots of people have asked if we had them on CDs. Consequently, I didn't get up and do the workout, but we'll do it this afternoon when we get done. I'm pretty pumped, but after looking at the rundown sheet for the workout, I don't know if I'll last the whole hour just doing chest and back. We'll see...

My First Post

So, Michele and I are about to start a 90-day workout regiment called P90X. Yes it's from one of those semi-annoying infomercials you see on Sunday afternoon when nothing else is on TV. From time to time, hopefully every couple of days, I'll give updates and thoughts about my progress through P90X and will upload any pics and videos I might have. And I just might include other random thoughts I have. i.e. I will never use UPS after today (details coming soon...)