"No, but that's a really nice ski mask."
Well, my trip to Long Beach has been cancelled, but I'm certainly not cancelling my leave. I need a break like you wouldn't believe. It's not like work is getting to me or anything(other than the fact that the AC is busted and the whole boat is like 90 deg), but I just haven't had any time off since June 2005! It's my turn to just sit around and be lazy!
I mainly wanted to get on and blather about my new weight loss routine. I wanted to lose the weight I've gained since joining the Coast Guard It's actually paying off, I'm back to my weight I was in highschool, and I've only started a few weeks ago. I started out by cutting out the junk food and snacking at home. No more gallon o' milk a day; I'm only drinking non-fat milk and even that is sparingly. Iced tea and iced green tea are my main staples now(and probably about 3 gallons of water a day to tolerate this heat!). I still eat crummy microwave meals because I'm too lazy to cook when I'm at home, but they're at least Weight Watchers and Lean Cuisine dinners now. But, in order to aide me in my progress, I've gotten a membership at GNC and have started taking some supplements. I started out with Hydroxycut by someone's recommendation. I used to use Xenadrine back when it had Ephedra, but that had some really awful side effects. I haven't suffered any side effects from the Hydroxycut so far. Also, I've started a good exercise routine with my new Total Gym. No more straight up weight lifting for bulk liked I used to do in HS/college. I've actually developed a regular routine with isolative exercises for different muscle groups for 6 days a week(my duty day is my relaxation day). To help out I've started using SuperPump 250. It's mainly to aide in lean muscle development and some weight loss. So far so good! I'm tempted to change over to whey protein shakes though. Anyway, I've rambled on like I wanted to. I've lost 35 pounds so far, and I have a lot more energy than I used to. Hopefully I'll work in some cardio later(I want to start jogging in the morning).
Also, don't forget:
Comments
Great, blog. Love hearing the stories from your port calls. So, I take you will have to be one patrol for the holidays. Do they allow you guys to get Christmas presents or do you have to wait to you get back to port? I bet those days are the hardest at sea. Keep up the excellent writing.
RPS
P.S. Did you guys have a "state" chaperone in China?
Posted by: RPS | September 13, 2006 04:32 PM
Yes, I'm afraid I'll be out floating on the ocean for the holidays. I'm pretty disappointed about losing my vacation, but I can't wait to see all these South American countries. It doesn't come as a huge surprise to me though, because I've worked the majority of the holidays since I've been in the Coast Guard. Guess it's luck of the draw on what days you end up working. It can definitely take its toll on members of the crew. We can receive packages and mail while we're out, but only at selected port calls, and the arrivals are sporadic and far between.
I should be able to do some great Christmas shopping for friends and family though. Get some memorable/exotic items, so I can look at that as an upside.
I was actually quite surprised that we were allowed to roam freely around China. The only restriction we had was that we had to travel in the buddy system. It was pretty interesting, we were actually considered "guests" of the Chinese government, so we were given special cards explaining our status(written in both Mandarin and English). So, if we ever encountered any trouble we were to present that card that explained who we were and what we were doing there. It made travelling around a little bit more reassuring.
Posted by: xKinetiCx | September 13, 2006 08:23 PM