Who IS that guy?

What I do for a living:

Short answer:

I'm a software engineer and application architect . When it comes to platforms and languages, I'm an agnostic, really. I've been developing in .NET (C#, specifically) since convincing my previous employer to go in that direction, though I also use Perl (aka cacharbe on perl monks ) and C++ in the majority, and can use Java, VB (pre .NET), php, etc (give me a book and a goal, and it's all about Syntax).

I was hired at the beginning of April 2005 to work for Avanade as a solutions developer in their .NET practice. I'm based out of their central region (officed in Chicago) but still work from home.

Long Answer:

My specialty is developing end-to-end systems that deal with b2e integration, knowledge management and enterprise business practice retooling. I've helped a brewer rethink it's marketing and sales strategies management, a bank redesign it's lending applications and a major retail chain consolidate how they deliver and service their products to the customer.

I'm a problem solver. My job is to identify business hurdles and their root causes, then to architect solutions that solve them and integrate a user base and content into an organization using architected code, off-the shelf solutions or (usually) a combination of both.

The hardest part of my job is usually the change management that goes along with changing a long standing business practice. There is a HUGE pride of ownership when it comes to these practices, even if the practice is OBVIOUSLY detrimental to a group or business. My training in improvisation has helped me considerably when it comes to identifying patterns, their problems and strengths, and communicating those patterns as well as possible solutions and integration points to the customer and the rest of my engineering team.

What I do for fun:

Improvisational Theatre. I've trained all over, including Chicago at the Improv Olympic, and I've performed internationally, including the US, Canada and Japan.

Who I do it With:

My wife and partner, Sara. She is my rock, my foil, my giggles, my laughter, my joy and my heart. And my daughter, Rachel, who is growing more beautiful with each passing minute, and already has her daddy wrapped tightly around her beautifully long fingers. They truly are the only people I need, and I miss them every day that I am not at home, playing on the floor.

First Law, Warrior Frame of Mind and Podcasts

My fitness, or relative lack of it in the last few weeks, can be directly defined by Newton’s First Law.  I have great velocity, but am easily effected by the outside forces in my life.  When I started CrossFit I had friends there to do it with me, and had great results.  Even when I transitioned to working out at home, I was on a great roll and turned quite a few heads with my workouts at the Y.

Cut to the death march that was this project.  I’m just not motivated to work out after 15 hour days, I eat poorly because I can’t prep my food and my sleep is stressed and short.  It’s not an excuse, it’s just the truth. And to overcome this truth, I’ve tried to create another outside force on my current state.

So, I’ve improved the home gym (and have more on the list to be ordered with the tax refund), I’m back to eating paleo (Walking through Whole Foods truly makes me happy), I scheduled time for the gym on my calendar so that people can’t schedule time with me and I’m dedicated to engaging my brain as well as my body to focus on fitness and health at least once a day. 

Because today was a travel day I used the time to read and listen to podcasts.  On the reader I’ve found what appears to be an excellent companion to Dan Milman’s Way of the Peaceful Warrior in Rudy Reyes’ Hero Living.  It really is a different path up the same mountain as Socrates’.  Rudy’s experience with enlightenment was much more brutal, but no less revealing and motivating than Dan’s.  His point of view is ringing clearly with me right now and I’m going to have to reread it and take notes, but for now I’m just ‘listening’ to the what he has to say.

I’ve dumped the tech podcasts from my iPod for the immediate and am focusing on my health (mental and physical).  I’m listening to both CrossFit Radio, as well as the Science2Health podacast (which used to be the “Fitness Rocks” podcast) and while I have a couple more on there, these two are mostly complimentary so I’m just sticking with two messages for now.  I got through two of each of the podcasts as well as another forty or so pages of the book during my travels today, and they helped me to think and focus on a couple of things that have been bugging me mentally lately, including how I go about goal setting and how much I really am focused on being healthy not just for me, but for my kids. 

This isn’t about resolutions or weight loss, it’s about my frame of mind and squaring it with the reality of my chosen profession and it’s subsequent lifestyle. 

Links:
 - Newton’s First Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_laws_of_motion)
 - Way of the Peacefule Warrior, Dan Milman (http://www.amazon.com/Way-Peaceful-Warrior-Changes-Lives/dp/1932073256)
 - Hero Living, Rudy Reyes (http://www.amazon.com/Hero-Living-Strides-Awaken-Infinite/dp/0451228103)
 - CrossFit Radio 99 (http://journal.crossfit.com/2009/12/crossfit-radio-episode-99.tpl)
 - CrossFit Radio 100 (http://journal.crossfit.com/2009/12/crossfit-radio-episode-100.tpl)
 - Science2Health 001 (http://science2health.org/2009/12/25/lifestyles-and-chronic-disease-rates/)
 - Science2Health 002 (http://science2health.org/2010/01/03/dietary-sugar-and-cardiovascular-health/)

Veterans Day

If there were a time when words were inappropriate, when silence was the most articulate speech, it would be here and now. Better than any oratory, better than any speech or poem for you and I to stand two minutes in silence and look out at those whom we know and those whom we do not know and think of all that they did for us.

Body Composition

My most recent numbers:
Total Pounds lost: 27.00
% Body fat lost: 5.10
BMI Change: 3.70
Pounds of fat lost:17.62
Pounds of lean muscle lost: 9.38

I know, I know, negative lean muscle delta isn't good. Interestingly enough, I'm stronger and have more endurance even with the loss of muscle mass, but this now must become a focus. I wanted to wait until I hit 200lbs before _really_ worrying about it but I'm thinking I'll adjust my protein blocks accordingly and start adding a little more weight to my olys.

The roughest thing is the project that I'm on. I haven't been to the gym in three weeks and I'm getting depressed. I'm fighting t keep my schedule clean so that I can get ou of the office at a decent hour, but no one really respects that the drones shouldn't have to work 24 hours a day. It's toughsetting boundaries, especially over the last few weeks with the potential of program ending dates not getting met.

I'm hoping that the most recent round of 'All hands on Deck' has passed and we can get back to our regularly sheduled healthy (ier?) lifestyle.

These Four Things

These four things have been rolling around in my head lately:

• Dave Egger’s TED Talk from Once Upon A School from last year.
• A Story on the Huffington Post about a JROTC program in San Francisco taking responsibility for the PE of several schools.
• CrossFit Kids
• I was at the YMCA doing my CrossFit workout* and there was a father about my age, maybe younger, and his son (about 10 years old) there “working out”.  They had been there from before I arrived (I saw them when I came in) and were still there when I left. I give awesome kudos to dad for getting them both there, but neither one had broken a sweat by the time I left, and both were drinking a 4 serving size bottle of Gatorade.  They were both considerably overweight (I know I’m not the poster child of fitness, but it also puts me in a state to know where others are) and dad was obviously trying to do the right thing.  What was missing was education.  I heard the son asking questions about machines and how to use them, and I thought “What ever happened to playing as fitness?  Why aren’t you running around outside chasing a football and playing catch?”

Schools cut funding in PE and the Arts first; these activities and structures that give our children outlets of expression and energy (both creative and physical).  Sports, on the other hand, gets booster money and proclaim the schools success through wins and losses, and therefore get better funding, but that’s not the root of the problem.

When you cut PE (as an actor and improviser, I have another rant on arts altogether, but I’ll save that for another post), you are killing the opportunity for kids to get the natural, hormonal goodness of sunlight, endorphines and the calm that comes after really being active.

So, how about this:  Instead of a store front with a back room that teaches writing skills, how about a place called the “Jungle Gym” that sells all sorts of Safari based paraphenalia, and the secret path leads out back to a Crossfit Kids gym?  Or steal the Super Hero idea from 826NYC store ouright and have the ‘Super Hero Training Ground’ out back and we let passionate people who are stupidly, insanely passionate about health, fitness and kids do what they love, and help kids rediscover play.

Not XBox Play, or Wii Fit bullshit play, but real, actual, ‘Let’s GO Ride our Bikes!’ ‘Keep Away’ ‘Dodge Ball’ ‘Swing on a rope, run on a log, do cartwheels until we fall over’ play that we all seem to have forgotten.

 First things first, however. Friday, on my lunch hour, Rachel and Daddy are going to go outside and play.

 

*WOD: (posted time 26:05)
10–9–8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1
Run 200m
Dips
Box Jumps
Push-ups

Me, CrossFit and a big Change

I made a life style change recently.  I didn’t go on a diet, or start a weight-loss plan.  I started living differently.

I’m trying to live by the CrossFit tennants (World-Class Fitness in 100 Words [1]):

• Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.
• Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.
• Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense.
• Regularly learn and play new sports.

Based on lectures on nutrition and performance from coaches in the CrossFit system, I’m focusing on:

• Rest
• Food
• Exercise

In that order of importance for my lifestyle, given my known weaknesses and patterns.  This is also why I twitter my workout and take pictures and use Wolfram|Alpha to log my food to FaceBook.  Being open and honest about this info are steps to transparency (meaning I’m hiding nothing from others or myself).

My starting weight at the end of June was 230 lbs (26.9% Body Fat and 31.2 BMI).  I weighed today at 218lbs (24.3 % Body Fat, 29.6 BMI), which means that since 06/29 I’ve lost 11.5 lbs (which translates to 2.4% Body Fat and 1.4 pts of my BMI). I should mention that I was at 238lbs in December, but didn’t log or track anything in between, so it’s just an errant data point.

More importantly, I’m more fit.  I ran 2 miles today, I also rowed 1200m, did 50 jumping pull ups, 60 squats, 25 push presses, 40 Wall Ball throws, 30 Burpees, 30 body weight dips, 12 hanging leg lifts and I’m sure I’m missing something, but I was a little winded there at the end. I have the sheet and will log it accurately with my time after work.

My time?  Oh, that..it took 40:29. That’s not a great time (there are a couple of people who did harder exercises during this Workout and did it in close to half my time – but they are what we like to call “After Pictures”), but let’s be clear:  Six weeks ago, I would not have been able to finish even half of that.  I couldn’t even run a mile or row 400m without rest.

I’m getting fitter.  And I’m not using my weight loss as an indicator, or my muscle size.  I’m using Time and Performance.  Weight Loss and Muscle Size are by products of fitness.  This is what I’ve always thought, which is also why I get bored at the gym doing rep after rep of the same thing.

My one concern is that when I’m done here this week and I start to work from home and take paternity leave over the next month, that I can maintain the rigor and give myself the time to continue this hard work.  Right now, as I write this, the answer is “Yes, of course I will.”  I have a passion to do it.  I like being pushed and how I feel when I work with intensity.  I like the results so far as well, so I’ll see you at the gym.

And if you want to be this motivated, go and check out your local CrossFit Affiliate.  I promise you, if you do it, it will change your life.

Special thanks to all the folks at CrossFitMN, especially Damian, Christine and Kat whose motivation has kept me focused.

[1] – What is Fitness and Who is Fit