I can not say what an amazing weekend I had at the National Trumpet Competition.  I heard so much great trumpet playing, got to see some really good friends, got to meet some new people, and just had a great time personally and professionally!

All that being said, it’s good to be home! Yesterday, I had a 6 AM flight.  I caught up on some Breaking Bad and Eastbound and Down.  I love those shows.  I got back and got all of my things pretty quickly and was around my house a 9 AM.  I stopped off at Subway for breakfast, because I had an idea!  This put me at the gym for a 9:30 class.  VertMMAx with Kristen was great as always, then the fun began.

I got home (mind you, for the first time since Wednesday) and saw the chihuahua next door, Buck, standing outside.  Buck is a fantastic dog and never gets out.  I also knew the neighbors were at church, so I tried to get Buck.  I petted him for a minute and then tried to scoop him up.  Bad idea.  Buck bit me and ran down the street.  He turned right and ran down the main road.  He turned right and ran around the back of the houses.  Mind you, I have been up since 3 something eastern, been on a 4 hour flight, drove 45 minutes to get home and then worked out for an hour.  Sprinting was not in my plans for the day.  After I lost sight of him, I drove around for a while.  I then checked inside, and somehow, Buck got back in and was laying in his crate with his sister Annabelle.  All’s well that ends well, right?

I also got to go back to my Genghis store.  There really is no place like home!  The food was, of course, great.  I think I have found my sauce of choice.  The 3G/chili garlic mix really can not be beat!  Try it out next time…

So, I’m in Virginia so that I can attend and be a judge at the National Trumpet Competition. This presents a few additional challenges for me:

1.  I don’t have my Park Meadows Genghis!!!!!!!!  You would say to yourself, this is not a big deal, right?  But it is, and let me tell you why.  The Chantilly store is new and beautiful as well, very big with 2 food lines.  Let me tell you the big difference.  One. Bowl. Size.  The bartender handed me this giant bowl.  My loyal readers will know that I use the small bowl.  It is more than enough food for me and where I want to be.  I know exactly how much of what to put in.  But then, I am handed an enormous bowl.  Of course, even when trying not to, I overfilled it.  The other issue is that when I do get starch, I am used to an appropriate amount for a small bowl.  I received an insane amount.  This should show how far I’ve come as I used to really enjoy the all-you-can-eat option, whereas now, I just want a small bowl.  It was still very good, just a little overwhelming!

2.  No 5280 Sport and Fitness.  The hotel has a small gym so I was able to utilize that while doing the Gary Sheet of Integrity that I had posted a month or so back.  No problem, but I’m not sure I could pull that off on consecutive days.  Today?  Here is my gym:

Beautiful, right?  Here is a little thing I designed for myself.  The hotel is 6 floors.  So, I started at the top and ran up and down.  At each non floor 1 and 6 landing, I would stop and do 5 pushups, situps, burpees, or squats.  I ran the stairs until I did 75 of each.  It was nice, except it was warm and did not smell very good…

3.  Food, bad, bad, bad, bad food.  I am hanging out with old friends, meeting new people, and just having a blast.  Guess where a huge bulk of that has happened?  The local Champps restaurant chain.  I had a blast but had more bad food than I would have preferred, not a ton, but I picked on some appetizers.  It’s OK, I’m still working hard, and I am living the 80/90/20/10 life that my nutritionist suggested, but that doesn’t make it easy.  I will do my best to get back on track today.  Haven’t decided on Genghis lunch or Genghis dinner yet!  Off to some more trumpet awesomeness!

So, another busy couple of days!

It has been business as usual, work out hard, make good choices, eat at Genghis.  But Basketball has been in full swing, so I have found myself heading out to Golden, CO on a few different occasions for the NCAA division 2 basketball tournament.

Metro was ranked #2 in our 8 team region.  Good, right?  Except the Colorado School of mines is ranked #1…and #1 in the country…and has whooped us twice…and we’re playing  in their home arena.  But Metro dominated the game, never let them get within 7, for the most part!  Here is the celebration and my awesome band!

Tomorrow, a new Genghis and how I am trying to stay fit on the road!

^^^I forgot to do a blog, but YOU’ve been forgetting to click the green thumb!

So, work and basketball have been in full swing. Unfortunately, the women’s season et it’s end last night in Nebraska. This means no San Antonio. But that also means no bad food that I am used to! The men can keep their championship hopes alive by defeating the country’s #1 ranked team on their home court. I will try to take a picture!

As for the real business at hand, Genghis Grill as been business as usual.i seriously can not say enough about the staff. It is really enjoyable to go in, hang out, and have a good meal every day! It will be weird eating at a different store later this week!

So, yesterday was a bootcamp class. And it was sunny and in the 60′s. This means we were outside for most of the class. There s a large hill which runs alongside the gym. This means that we did a lot of work involving the hill. there was run up, jog down, run up backwards, run up with a med ball, burpee-leap up the hill, and whatever else they came up with. In addition, each time you echoed the top or bottom, here were some exercises like pushups, situps, or burpees waiting for you! Then, we would do some indoor exercises, and then it was more outdoor pain. Then, Brooke and I were off to GG. Again, good food, good hang with the GG staff. Same bowl as normal. Nutritionally speaking, I like the protein of the chicken with as many veggies as I can fit. I usually change up the sauce to keep it fresh. I love the chili garlic, so I usually just mix that with something, yesterday being 3G.

Gotta go get some lose ends tied up before I skip town!

Yup, this hottie and her family has been nesting in my body.  I have had a severe lack of energy and appetite!  It has kept me from the gym  :( This is tough.  You really do need to eat in order to continue losing weight.  I haven’t eaten regularly, and found that to be a problem!  But I felt great this morning and went to the gym.  I thought my cough had gone dry.  Julius loosened everything else that was remaining there.  Lots of jumping and punching.  After class, I got a great ab workout by coughing up the rest of her family.

But at least it did not kept me from Genghis!

When I got there, I was in line and spotted my friends Nick and Heather and had a nice lunch with them. They loved it, much like I do!  Nick said he could’ve taken down a black bowl, which makes me think that he didn’t pack his red bowl down enough!

Then, it was time for work.  Metro State basketball vs Adams State.  We raced out to an early, dominating lead.  And then gave it all away..Then, Metro built a comfortable lead with four minutes to go…and gave it away to win by five.  Meanwhile, in Nebraska, the women won by 19!?!?!?!  (NCAA tournament games should not be that one-sided)  But, we are not able to make it out there for the Regional Final  Tonight, men play again for a shot at the Sweet 16…Go Roadrunners!

^^^Don’t forget the green thumb…on each post…each day…..each browser…on each device

So, I had to drive in to school yesterday instead of taking my train so that I could pack sousaphones in it.  Reminder…I drive a Nissan Sentra.  Sousaphones don’t fit easily, but I crammed them in.  One got to ride shotgun.  After work, I headed to Genghis for lunch.  Let me tell you how much I love udon noodles.  This is a great lunch!  I try not to do any carbs at dinner, so it is a nice treat whenever I do get to have them!  I had it with chicken, sausage, and lots of veggies with a 3G/chili garlic mix.  I do love the BBQ sauce, but I am really starting to love the chili garlic/any other sauce mixture!

As per usual, I sat at the bar with Jackson tending.  It is a ton of fun sitting there and hanging out with the staff especially for the beginning of March Madness.  It’s a lot of fun talking sports with those guys, even if my mind and heart were more excited about getting home to watch Phillies Spring Training!

Then, came exercise part 1 of the day.  Brooke has a new listing, and I was hired to put the sign in the yard.  Why is that exercise?  Because it is a 9 or 10 foot post that needs to be put in to the ground with a post hole digger…in wet, clumpy dirt!  I made it through and, as far as I know, the sign is still standing.  Picture to come.

Then, it was home and off to the gym.  Tonight was my first Vert:30, a new class at the gym that is an intensified 30 minutes of Vert.  So, here’s the deal.  30 reps.  Decline press, jump squats, and shoulder press on the Vert Machine, atomic pushups (feet suspended in TRX, pushup, knees in to chest 30 times) box jumps (I used the 2nd highest), situps, and then 3 minutes of cardio.  There’s a competitive element to this in that you are competing against other people.  Your name goes on a white board with the amount of rounds you completed in 30 minutes.  How’d I do?

That’s right, tied atop the leader board with 3 rounds completed.  I barely got them in.  This cold is sapping me of my energy.  I don’t think I could have gotten to 4, but I know I can pump out at least 3.5!  Next time!  But it was fun!  The 30 minutes was perfect for me yesterday. As for today, I may skip the gym and see if I can spend that energy getting thw MUcinex family to move out!

^^^Bonus blog, click the thumb

Lately, all of my inspiration has come from friends, family, and students that have worked hard to lose weight and get healthy.  Seeing people change their lives and realizing that I can do that too have really driven.  The feeling I get from being in better shape does as well. That has been keeping me going, and for once, that has been my focus.  But tonight, I got some old-school inspiration.

Upon getting home from the gym, I saw a facebook status from a friend saying that principal trombone player for the NY Philharmonic (Joe Alessi) would be playing a concerto with the Ithaca Wind Ensemble and that it would be webcast!  I clicked the link.  I knew it would be good.  Here is me before:

Then, I heard it…Here is a picture of after:

That’s right.  He literally melted my face.  The performance was amazing and the piece is so much fun.  I am inspired to practice and just keep getting better.  I have always been good at maintaining my chops, but it’s been a while since I heard something like that, that makes me want to just play, and play, and play, and practice, and practice, and practice. As amazing as I have been feeling lately, nothing replaces this!

It really makes me love what I do!

^Give me the thumb…Please.  It’s kind of deflating when I realize I am the only one clicking…

That’s right, the scale says 179.2.  This is a major accomplishment because I am now more than 30 pounds below my heaviest weight, which was right around 210, maybe 211.  It’s been a lot of hard work and discipline, but I feel great and I love it all!

Yesterday was a good day of work, a quick hang with the dogs, and a tough, TOUGH bootcamp.  I love the instructors and the fun people who do the class together each time.  My work schedule has made my attendance to the class sporadic, but it is really great!

I had a quick rehearsal, and then it was off to Genghis with Brooke and Rob.  A great meal as always with my same small bowl filled with veggies!  Then, it was off to trivia, a little late, but it didn’t matter because these questions were HARD!!!!!!!!!!  We got destroyed in each round!

However, there was a lot of ping pong smack talk going on during trivia, so we decided to settle it with a Rob v. Jackson best of 5 over at Fox and Hound.  It wasn’t even close, Rob won.  I mean, I almost beat Jackson…  Just another Wednesday!

So, I seem to have a little cold.  But I am not gonna let that get me down.  I am still impervious to sickness in the sense that it will not keep me from doing things.  So, I was still able to teach my six lessons and knock out half of my to do list at work yesterday.  I went home, let the dogs out, and headed to the gym.

So, the past couple of trips to the gym have been a bit frustrating.  I recognize that I am n much better shape than i used to be.  However, I am still struggling.  I struggled through a lt of the exercises over the weekend, and then came yesterday’s FitMMAx with Jackie.  Now, she always seems to bring out the exercises that I am not good at, but I still hate the struggling feeling.

So, we did some warmup and then a three minute round on the bag. Mthe bag wore on e a little, which it shouldn’t, so tat got e a little out of sorts.  Then, an 8 round circuit of leg exercises, including some side steps, wall sits, jump squats, weighted squat jacks (I really REALLY hate those), ball slams, Swiss ball pikes  ad some resistance things.  I really struggled through and that is frustrating. But I need to stepnack and realize that for very minor “setback,” I have taken three steps forward.

Then, came my favorite part, partner work.  One person has pads, and the other person has gloves, and you have 3 3-minute punching rounds.  I really enjoy this kind of stuff.  When I had a partner, the pace was a little better and I felt I hung in really well!

Then, it was dinner at Genghis.  I had my usual small bowl, but with a 3G khanzu mix for te sauce.  I am getting much better at figuring out the proper portions for the small bowl.  I had a problem with putting in too much meat, but I thin I ave the formula now.  We shall see.

Good start to the week yesterday.  I had a good ay at work, then got home I hopes of sleeping off a potential sickness.  For those unaware, I am impervious to colds and flus.  This “thing” is no different.  I needed a break from the gym after a few hard days.  I left the house and went to Genghis for dinner.

I had a good time chatting with Melissa and Jackson as they asked me a lot about my progress thus far.  I received a compliment in that when I first started, everyone was asking why I was chosen.  They did not realize that I am down close tho thirty pounds from my heaviest weight and have always struggled with food selection.  Everyone apparently expected a very large man.

I got my bowl with chicken, steak, celery, cabbage, green beans, Mongo mix, broccoli, and spinach.  I have started leaving off the egg unless it follows a workout.  At first, I was doing 2 eggs.  Then, I realized that is what I eat for breakfast…I would Maine adding that to your dinner is not an ideal situation.

After dinner, I was lucky enough to listen to some Youth Orchestra seating auditions.  This is a ton of fun for me as it doesn’t seem like that log ago that I was doing the youth orchestra auditions.  It is also wonderful to hear young people prepare and do so well.  Just one of the many joys of my job!