|
Post by macdiver on Feb 22, 2020 20:32:16 GMT
Office politics are never good. One thing that would have upset me was you three are talking about work which, IMHO, is what you should be talking about. At most of my clients, I rarely hear people talking work. Normal conversation is about sports for the men and kids for the women. At my office, we tend to be too busy for the sports and stuff so mostly limit our conversations to work itself or bitching about our clients.
In my journal, you mentioned my culinary skills. If you are interested in becoming a better cook, a cookbook I highly recommend is called "Twelve Recipes" by Cal Peternel. He is a chef at one of the highly rated restaurants in the San Francisco area. It was one of the first restaurants to be based on the farm to table concept (20+ years ago). Though really, that was a return to the past. Anyways, I digress. He wrote this book based on when his son moved to NYC for college and he taught his son how to cook. It is not a normal cookbook with just recipes. It is a story with the recipes in the story. Each chapter is a basic recipe but the technique you learn applies to lots of dishes. In the US it is available on Amazon with used copies only a couple of bucks. There are other good cookbooks that teach the principles of cooking but I really liked this one since it focused on easy, quick, and healthy. Doesn't hurt that they are delicious too.
|
|
|
Post by seltzer on Feb 22, 2020 20:55:59 GMT
Sorry to read that you're experiencing that situation at work. I'm sure your manager is, or at least should be, aware of the attendance records of the team members you mentioned. As far as the mistake ridden portion of your group, is there a way to document their lack of competence?
Nice deads, presses, and lifts chins!
|
|
|
Post by Graham on Feb 23, 2020 13:55:51 GMT
Sorry to read that you're experiencing that situation at work. I'm sure your manager is, or at least should be, aware of the attendance records of the team members you mentioned. As far as the mistake ridden portion of your group, is there a way to document their lack of competence? Nice deads, presses, and lifts chins! Thanks for the complement re the lifts. I think generally, the managers where I work are poor at knowing the details of employees contracts as they can vary and are poor at confronting some of the abuses. Partly for an easy life and partly due to poor support from senior management. I haven't had a request to submit my Flexi-Sheet/record of hours worked for a time. I might start submitting it regularly without prompting as that may subtly remind my manager to request one from all staff members. Coincidentally I'm about to embark on a piece of work that will involve checking and raising potential issues with previous work done. I was a bit concerned that this might raise problems with the work of some of my colleagues. I'm a little sanguine about that possibility now.
|
|
|
Post by Graham on Feb 23, 2020 14:06:11 GMT
Office politics are never good. One thing that would have upset me was you three are talking about work which, IMHO, is what you should be talking about. At most of my clients, I rarely hear people talking work. Normal conversation is about sports for the men and kids for the women. At my office, we tend to be too busy for the sports and stuff so mostly limit our conversations to work itself or bitching about our clients. In my journal, you mentioned my culinary skills. If you are interested in becoming a better cook, a cookbook I highly recommend is called "Twelve Recipes" by Cal Peternel. He is a chef at one of the highly rated restaurants in the San Francisco area. It was one of the first restaurants to be based on the farm to table concept (20+ years ago). Though really, that was a return to the past. Anyways, I digress. He wrote this book based on when his son moved to NYC for college and he taught his son how to cook. It is not a normal cookbook with just recipes. It is a story with the recipes in the story. Each chapter is a basic recipe but the technique you learn applies to lots of dishes. In the US it is available on Amazon with used copies only a couple of bucks. There are other good cookbooks that teach the principles of cooking but I really liked this one since it focused on easy, quick, and healthy. Doesn't hurt that they are delicious too. We certainly do have non-work conversations but these occur, in the main, at the start or end of the day. The work conversations are necessarily more in depth as the often revolve around policy and legislation for the area of the Civil Service/Government (benefits/welfare) that I work in. I should look at some other options re cooking. Although I eat quite a diverse diet in regard to the food types and food groups I'm eating, I do eat the same limited number of meals over the course of a week. I have to admit that that suits me as I find it far easier to track what I'm eating and I always know what to buy at the supermarket. I am intending to prepare something different to eat for the next few days but that also will be a very simple meal plan.
|
|
|
Post by Graham on Feb 23, 2020 14:52:18 GMT
I've changed my user name from admin to Graham now. Decided this was better than setting up a new account as be logged in with my admin account will allow my to see any notification that might require attention. There aren't many as the forum seems to tick over just fine without intervention.
|
|
|
Post by Graham on Feb 25, 2020 0:06:49 GMT
2020 Session 21:
A Squat 110kg/242lbs x 5, 5, 5
Squat 65kg x 12, 11
B Bench Press 72.5kg/154lbs x 5, 5 - 70kg/154lbs x 5
Bench 42.5kg x 12, 11
C1 Back Extension kg x 10 2.5kg x 10, 10
C2 Dips x 13, 12, 12
Treadmill 6 minutes
Thought I was going to get away with no time on the treadmill today but my girlfriend was delayed getting to the gym so I had a spare 5 minutes or so after lifting. Was hoping not to do any cardio as I was feeling a little tired. Didn't have the best nights sleep. Sometime before 6am Google decided to that my pictures from my Berlin trip last summer would make a nice album. All very nice, but my phone gave me a notification each time a picture was added to the album and woke me early. Had a real task getting back to sleep. Had been restless earlier in the night also. Restricted calorie intake is also wearing me down a little so will probably have a week (next week) eating at maintenance level. Would do so this week but will be heading into London straight from work on Friday evening, skipping the gym and probably having a meal and some drinks before catching a movie.
Speaking of movies. Having already enjoyed X-Men at the weekend, today I purchased an Alfred Hitchcock Blu-Ray boxset containing 18 of his movies. Watched the first in the boxset, Saboteur, this evening. I've now got a big stack of movies to work through.
Scale weight is continuing to fall and BF reading although fluctuating wildly is doing so at a consistently lower level.
Scale weight this morning 182.8lbs at 24.6%bf.
|
|
|
Post by shamie on Feb 25, 2020 13:58:28 GMT
Are you trying to get down to a specific weight? I think I recall you were 188, because I was 188 the same day you wrote that. Unfortunately, I took the other route, and 188 is looking good to me now.
|
|
|
Post by Graham on Feb 25, 2020 19:22:09 GMT
Are you trying to get down to a specific weight? I think I recall you were 188, because I was 188 the same day you wrote that. Unfortunately, I took the other route, and 188 is looking good to me now. I'm just trying to get a little leaner. This time last year I probably cut calories a little too low, dropped weight a little too fast and wasn't lifting as heavy as I am now. I lost weight and body fat but probably lost a little lean body mass. I ended up slimmer around my middle but didn't maintain the chest, back, shoulders and arms that I would have liked. I then put on a little too much weight too quickly through the summer attempting to remedy that. Following that with three weeks off training when I went to Japan where I lost six pounds and ended up around the same weight as now but a good bit softer around the middle. My weight has hovered around 188 quite often in the last year but I've been far leaner at around 182. I think there is scope for a slow 'cut' to around 178 or so and then try to eat a little over maintenance calories on a slow 'bulk' I think I'm going to need plenty of volume in my workouts on a calorie surplus.
|
|
|
Post by Graham on Feb 26, 2020 22:25:05 GMT
2020 Session 22:
A Press 48.5kg/106.7lbs x 5 x 5 48kg/105.6lbs x 5
Press 30.5kg x 12, 11
B Deadlift 140kg/308lbs x 5
Deadlift 77.5kg x 12, 11
D1 Chin-up x 10, 9, 9
D2 Suitcase Carry 6 circuits 20kg x 2
No treadmill.
I think I'm bored with my workouts or my nutrition. Or maybe I've had enough of the dark, cold, dreary, wet, windy weather. The last couple of years a holiday was just a week or so away. It's four weeks until I have a holiday. I'm ready for it now.
Despite the current dissatisfaction with my workouts, today was pretty good. Increased weight or reps across the board. Bumped up the weight on the additional Deadlift sets as they were rather light compared to the top work set.
I have relaxed the diet a little this week (see below). I think I'll carry this through next week and mix up the workouts a bit just to allow myself a change in routine. Probably not a bad week to have a bit of a change. No gym on Friday. Will be out for drinks, food and a movie in the evening. No catch-up gym session on Saturday as I'll be at my Nephews (plural) birthday.
Scale weight this morning 183.6lbs @ 24.5%bf.
|
|
|
Post by Graham on Feb 26, 2020 23:03:58 GMT
Slow cooking. Very, Very slow cooking!
A brief update to the previously mentioned topic of cooking. I regularly eat the same meals on a daily basis. I like the simplicity of both the preparation and the shopping that is needed. I fancied a change recently and decided to use my slow cooker to make a casserole with dumplings. Not a healthy choice, the dumplings, but a warming, comforting winter-time meal. The whole attempt to cook a simple meal became a chore as below (which admittedly might also be a chore to read).
Sunday: Planned to cook the casserole but had forgotten to get the beef out of the freezer. Drove to the supermarket to buy some more beef but had forgotten to take my wallet. Went home and gave up on the idea of going back to the shops. Got beef out of freezer, left to defrost in the fridge until Monday night.
Monday night: It's probably a bit late after the gym and shopping to put on the slow cooker but I've got all the ingredients. Prep the casserole, put all ingredients in slow cooker end up waiting until 1am for it to be cooked by which time it's too late to add the dumplings. I had to let the casserole cool and put it in the fridge the next morning.
Tuesday: Plan to get home and put the casserole back in the slow cooker straight away and get the dumplings added. A simple plan derailed when I drop my girlfriend off at her home, switch of my engine briefly and find the car won't re-start. I'm fairly sure it the battery (it's been fairly cold recently and I do a lot of short trips which doesn't allow the battery to top-up it's charge). Call the breakdown service that's available through my bank account. Arrives 35-40 minutes later, gets car started in moments, recommends running the car for 30-40 minutes. Rather than sit in the car I got for a 40 minute drive. It's now getting rather late. Put casserole in slow cooker. Takes an eternity to heat up. Make dumplings, put them in, sit back and await a late yet satisfying dinner. As I contemplate the satisfying yet unhealthy dumplings, I realise that instead of using the self-raising flour, I've used the plain (they won't rise). I scoop out dumplings, make new ones with self-raising flour, put in slow cooker. Give up on the casserole being ready tonight eat something else and switch of casserole at midnight and put in fridge once cooled.
Wednesday: Get home late again after gym and collecting an ebay purchase at a store a little out of my way. Get home, prepare mashed potato to go with casserole, heat in microwave and finally sit down to eat a full THREE DAYS after beginning to prepare this meal. And......it's mostly very good (the beef is tender due to the 9 or 10 hours of cooking) but the dumplings are rubbish. I should have checked the best before date on the self-raising flour which does, I understand, lose it's potency to rise.
And....I forgot to buy some chicken for lunch tomorrow (I thought I had some in the fridge). Guess I'll be taking casserole for lunch!
|
|
|
Post by seltzer on Feb 27, 2020 16:03:39 GMT
That's quite the ordeal for what should have been an easy, low labor intensive meal. Sorry, but I have to admit I did get a small chuckle at your expense; possibly because I've been in similar situations. :-)
|
|
|
Post by macdiver on Feb 27, 2020 22:35:18 GMT
Like Seltzer, I laughed because these are common occurrences.
I have forgotten to defrost meat. If meat is wrapped in plastic you can defrost quickly by submerging is water and changing the water frequently. I have used expired yeast (by several years) to make bread which took 12+ hours to rise compared to the normal 1 - 2 hours. All part of cooking.
|
|
|
Post by Graham on Feb 27, 2020 22:53:18 GMT
I made things easier on myself tonight by going to the Chip Shop and buying a Pie and Chips. I ate this and had a beer whilst watching Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. I've seen it before and it's a decent film. Last night I watched Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt which is a fantastic film.
|
|
|
Post by phillydude on Feb 28, 2020 13:25:44 GMT
I made things easier on myself tonight by going to the Chip Shop and buying a Pie and Chips. I love to hear you talk LOL.
|
|
|
Post by Graham on Mar 2, 2020 19:48:30 GMT
I made things easier on myself tonight by going to the Chip Shop and buying a Pie and Chips. I love to hear you talk LOL. Is it the British dialect?
|
|