Exercise & Diet - Terrible Twins

So, by now I'm sure you guys are tired of me posting up exercise posts like I'm some sort of fitness freak.  But the truth is, I'm actually exactly the opposite of a fitness freak.  In fact, I struggle each and every time I have to decide whether or not I'm going to get in a workout for the day or not.  I wish I wasn't that person.  I actually do wish I was the kind of person that just did their daily or tri-weekly workout without a moment's thought - that it was as natural as eating.  I wish I was that person that, while even on vacation or on a business trip they sought out the hotel's weight room and was up at 5:30 am getting in their daily workout.  But no - I'm the person that while on vacation exercise is the furthest thought from my mind.  I'm all.. "Exercise!  Fuck that, I'm on vacation bitches!"  and that's the last thought of exercise that runs through my mind.  Which is why, I suppose, it actually makes it somewhat interesting to write about.

I have though, discovered something.  It's something that most everyone already knows, actually.  But as the great philosopher Morpheus once said.. "There is a difference, Neo, between knowing the path.. and walking the path".  As you probably already know, if you want to get back into some kind of sane human shape, you can't do it with just eating better, or just exercising, alone.  You have to do both.  Believe me I've tried - but exercise all you want, if you ignore your diet, you won't lose any weight.  At least I don't.  And vice versa, even if you successfully clean up your diet, without exercise, you still won't get the heart action you really need.  But the thing that I've discovered, is that one actually directly contributes to your ability to succeed in the other.

Here's what I mean.  I didn't exercise Friday.  Yap - blew it off.  Had a fine morning of leveling my protection warrior in WoW.  But as a result, I additionally felt almost no real motivation to watch my diet throughout the weekend.  So I threw down the beers, had 10,000 calorie pasta dishes on Friday night and Saturday night, and followed up with homemade pizza on Sunday.  Mmmmm.  The thing is, I probably had two weeks worth of normal person calories in three days.  It's a sure fire way back to 230 lbs, to be sure. This morning, despite a huge struggle, I actually somehow found the motivation to get back into the exercise room in front of the kinect and give it a 30 minute workout.  Not much, but it was something.  And the thing is, as I'm lumbering this 210 lb frame through butt-kicks and burpies, I'm thinking.. gawddamn.. this would be a helluva  lot easier if I didn't friggen weigh so much!  See?  One leads to the other.  If you actually can get a little exercise in, suddenly you're a bit more motivated to maybe skip that double package of Dolly Madison Swiss Roles at midnight.

Anyway, I'm writing this this morning to remind me of that motivation later, when I need it.  I dunno if I'll stay on my tri-weekly routine or not, but I need to.  I can't pretend to be even really very good at this, but I keep tellin' myself as long as I continue to try, then it has to be worth something.

Anyhoo.. hope your week shapes up to be a good one.  Peas Out!

Purchasing a Level 90 Boost - Long Overdue

So with this morning's patch, for a brief time, in the in-game store there was a services tab, and on that tab was the option to purchase a level 90 boost for $60.00.  Plenty of people are firing off with opinions on both sides of this, so I figured what the hell, might as well chime in on one side or the other.  So here we go.

Ask and ye shall receive

So apparently the right thing to was to blog about it.  Because just one day after complaining about it yesterday, the 6th and final piece of my transmog set dropped.  And as you probably already guessed, it was the blue rogue tier-2 recolor set from the Burning Crusade dungeons.

I didn't want to set up any of the set until I had all of it, because it clearly is a matched set, and just wouldn't look right without it being complete. And of course, the helm, the Cowl of the Guiltless, was the piece that I didn't have, and I think the cowl makes the set.

Though to be honest, the shots with her without the cowl aren't too shabby either.  The truly observant will notice that I also visited the barber to make her hair match the gear.  Yeah.. I'm that obsessive.

I love the Starlight daggers.  However, I spend much of my time in combat spec, when I'm soloing, and I don't yet have a decent sword.  Next on my list is to find a nice blue glowy sword - so if you have recommendations, I'm happy to hear them.

At least now though, I can stop visiting Black Morass every day, and for that, I am extremely pleased!

Transmog Where Art Thou

One of the "fun"* things I've been doing is trying to gather up a nice set of transmog gear for my rogue.  The gear pieces I want all drop from level 70 dungeons.  Unfortunately, they all mostly only drop from heroic versions of those dungeons, which means you get to make one attempt per day.

I've been working on this for about two weeks now - which I suppose in the grand scheme of things, isn't two bad.  And a few days I got really quite lucky, and got several drops in one day.  So I'm now at the point where I lack exactly one piece - the head piece.  And of course, the boss that drops the head piece is the last boss of Black Morass - which as you may or may not know, is one of the few metered dungeons where you absolutely have to do everything to actually even get to the last boss.  So a minimum of 12 to 15 minutes per run.

After over 15 days of killing this boss, and seeing every other single piece of gear in his loot table drop multiple times, I began to worry that perhaps the table had been changed and he didn't drop it anymore.  So I went over to wowhead to check out the info, and was greeted with hysterical commiseration comments like this:

To all level 90 rogues hoping to get the bloodfang recolor:
This will be the most painful 12-15minutes of your life x how ever many times you have to run it till it drops.
Currently i've invested 18 runs and about 190+ minutes into this dungeon and still have been unfortunate enough not to get it.
Good Luck!
Confirmed drop after 37 runs...... ffs fix the drop rate.

And this:

how is it all the drops have the same % rate but the one item (this one) seems to never drop ... i'm on my 20th run and still this hasn't dropped. i can get those handgrips of assassination just about every time though. 

Ah well. It's good to know it's not just me.  I will of course inundate you with screenshots once I get the full set.  The cowl really does make the set, so I'm not putting any of the other pieces on until it drops.

So.. drop.. already.. >.<

* Fun is in quotes because while I do actually enjoy going out and finding cool looking gear, running this one instance is getting on my last nerve! 

Motivation

I remember now what it was that actually got me going on the last exercise program that lasted for more than 6 weeks.  I was watching this Iron Man competition.  And there were.. these 75 year old guys out there.. doing the friggen IronMan.  And they weren't doing like.. the senior citizens version of the Ironman, they were just doing the straight up normal competition.  And I got off my ass and I started working out, and I stayed with it through the better part of six months.

I fell off that program back in October.  And though I have pretty much every weekend since January told myself "Okay.. let's get back on this" I have so far failed to do so.  This morning I'm saying it again.  And I gotta admit, it's the Olympics that are my motivation.  I mean.. make no mistake, it's not like I have any delusions about Olympic grandeur, but every one of those kids out there is out there because they worked their asses off.  And not just for months -- but for years.  And they're kids.  And you just.. you have to appreciate where they are now. 

So this morning I'm motivated to get back on track with a couple of things.  I'm going to game less.  Not much less, but I'm going to make more room in my day for other things too.  I'm going to blog more.  I'm starting this morning, and my promise is to start putting out more, 15 minute blogs.  Because one of the reason I don't blog as much as I should is that any time I sit down it turns into a 2 hour endeavor, and who has time for that?  So I'm going to write a bit more, excersize a bit more, and try to round out the lifestyle a bit.  And if you're all nodding and smiling in empathy and commiseration and thinking "Yeah.. so we all say.." well I don't blame you one bit, and I'm doing a bit of that myself.  But hey, they way I see it, no matter how many times we quit, we only lose if we stop trying to start. 

Have a great monday!