Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Dan on December 10th, 2006
Last year I posted my goal of forming a diet and nutrition plan based on Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. I wish I read it years ago! It gave me a complete understanding of how to properly organize meals and eat correctly. I’ve followed it now for a bit over a year and I’ve never looked back. Sure, there have been plenty of days that saw the consumption of foods from the list of things you should never eat. However, even on those days I still followed most of my meals.
So what does my current diet look like? I eat 6 meals a day for a total caloric intake of about 2350 kcal. Over the past 2 months I’ve raised and lowered my total intake. For over a month I was eating 2500+ kcal a day. That was a bit much so I lowered it to 2350 kcal. For my current activity level I find this to be just right.
This isn’t to say that I’ve been very strict. I was strict from when I started in November 2005 to the end of March / beginning of April. At that point I was reintroduced to my nemesis: jellybeans. Jellybeans are one of my favorite food products. Easter is prime jellybean time. I had decided that I would enjoy a few of the little balls of sugar since I had been so strict for so long. The problem was “a few” meant an entire bag in one sitting, and multiple bags per week. I had gone for so long without sugar I forgot how good it was and over compensated. That goes to show how important cheat meals can be.
From that point on I continued to follow my nutrition plan but cheated a lot more than I should have. I’d go for a few weeks without any cheating and then I’d hit the candy hard. Over the past few months I’ve gone way overboard, eating all kinds of junk food. I have developed the bad tendency of eating an entire package of something in one sitting. I never used to do that but for some reason I do now. I knew I would gain fat with the plan of losing it again before spring. At this point I think I’ve gained enough fat. I started at about 140 lbs and about 10% body fat at the end of summer. I’m now about 150 lbs and 18% body fat. Those body fat numbers aren’t necessarily accurate as they came from a scale and not calipers, but they illustrate how eating the wrong foods in excess can impact your body.
I’ve begun figuring out how I’m going to get rid of this excess weight, my “cutting plan” so to speak. For the next two weeks I’ll be sticking to my current 2350 kcal diet with some minor cheating allowed. I’ll be visiting my parents the week of Christmas. As such, there will be travel, Christmas dinners, Christmas junk foods such as candy and cookies, etc. I will still stick with my meal plan but won’t be strict. I want to spend that week enjoying myself, my family, and food. January is when the fun begins…
January 1, 2007 will be the beginning of my cutting plan. My diet will be reduced to 2200 kcal with very restricted cheating, limited to one meal per week and only within my total 2200 kcal guidelines. Those calories will be distributed as 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat. I will continue to follow the Max-OT workout plan that I’ve been following since February. I’m currently hitting the gym 5 days a week with 2 days off. That will be changing, with 5 days of lifting and 2 days of cardio as I was doing over the summer. If after 2 weeks I don’t notice much loss of fat I’ll cut my diet to 2100 kcal. That should be plenty low enough to see results. If not, I’ll continue cutting out 100 kcal a week until I see what I want. I’m aiming at losing at least 1.5 lbs of fat each week, with a total loss of 15 lbs of fat. My overall goal is 8% body fat. While I could lose it quicker than that there would be greater muscle loss, which I want to avoid as much as possible.
One thing I haven’t discussed much is my supplementation plan. I’ll be writing an article about supplementation in the future but I’ll cover my current and future plans here. Currently I’m taking a cheap multi-vitamin, a fish oil cap (for Omega 3s), 2 green tea caps (EGCG and antioxidants), 2 500mg Ester-C caps (immune system boost and antioxidants), 3 CLA caps (promotes greater muscle gain vs fat gain), 4 Z Force caps (ZMA + test boosters, questionable), and 2 25mg DHEA tabs on workout days (test booster). I always make sure to research supplements before I try them. Pubmed is your friend. I was taking Diesel Fuel before as a thermogenic and metabolism booster, but they recently changed it and added a lot more caffeine and Yohimbe. I didn’t want to take it regularly because of that, but I’m considering adding it back in at least a few days a week.
So that’s where I stand today. I watch my diet closely and know what everything I put in my body will do. Measuring and tracking everything comes naturally now. I’m not sure how I managed without doing either for 23 years of my life.
Dan on December 3rd, 2006
Seeing how it has been nearly a year since my first goal was posted I thought it would be suitable to review my goals. I haven’t looked at this list in quite a while and the results are mixed.
Goal #1: Sell One Item A Day
This goal was short lived. I did manage to sell off a lot of my extra junk over the past year, but not one item a day. I probably have enough stuff to get rid of that I could continue this. Not a high priority, but something I could start doing again.
Goal #2: Write A Blog Entry Every Day
This is another goal I followed for a while and then gave up. With polyphasic sleep I had plenty of time to blog. After I was done I lost all that extra free time and lost some of my interest in the site. I don’t plan on posting EVERY day, but I do plan on posting frequently again. I have plenty to write about.
Goal #3: Attempt polyphasic sleep for a minimum of one month
Goal #3 was accomplished. I followed polyphasic sleep for a month. When I went back to school I had to switch back to “normal” sleep because of my long schedule. Towards the end I was having frequent oversleeps. An interesting side effect I found over the past year is that my “normal” sleep went from 8 hours a day to 7 hours. Over the past month and a half or so it slowly increased back to 8 hours. I’m going to try to get another month of polyphasic sleep in once this school semester is over. That should give me time to work on some projects and possibly get that hour back again.
Goal #4: Between my personal net worth and the value of any companies I totally control I have a total worth of at least $1 million by the age of 30
Goal #4 was very ambitious. Making $1 million in 5 years is no easy task. Over the past year I’ve been met with a number of setbacks. My biggest investment had a bunch of issues. Overall I made quite a bit off of it but I was relying on it for income when they ran into trouble. They had to freeze accounts for a few months and I lost 40% of my principle. I was forced to take money out of my trading account to pay the bills. Fast forward to a month ago. I sold my investment property that never worked out. I paid off the bills, put some cash in my bank, and have the money to open another brokerage account.
I would love to have a high net worth at 30, and I think it’s still possible, but it is no longer as important to me. I will have that money at some point but it may not be as soon. I will outline what has changed in a future post.
Goal #6: Fix My Diet
Goal #6 was completed last year. I will be making another post about my diet and exercise but I’ll summarize here. Overall my diet has been good. Over the past month or two I haven’t been as strict but I still follow the basic guidelines.
Goal #6 2: Exercise
Apparently I numbered 3 of my goals 6. I never caught that before. Anyway, this goal was specific to my exercise goals. I met them. I was at about 10% body fat all summer. I decided I wanted to ease up on my food restrictions and bulk up so I started eating a lot more in October. My body fat is a lot higher now, around 17%. I plan on cutting in a few months and losing it all again.
Goal #6 3: Forex Investing
I had planned on developing a trading strategy and using it to earn a decent return. I did develop a few strategies that work but they require trading at times I’m not usually available. I haven’t made any trades in a while. The last few I made months ago were based on news trades and were profitable. I may do more news trading in the future. As I’ll cover in another post, I’ve taken an interest in economics and that can help predict the outcome of a news release.
Goal #7: 5 Year Financial Goals
These goals still stand. I’d like to have my income come from passive sources in 5 years.
Goal #8: Achieve a minimum GPA of 3.8 at my new school.
By the end of this semester goal #8 will be achieved. Last semester I got one B and the rest were As. I’ll probably get all As this semester, bringing my GPA up from 3.7 to 3.8 something.
Goal #9: Ambidexterity
I haven’t done much with this goal. I still write with my right hand at times when I’m bored in class. My handwriting is at a low elementary school level with that hand. Next time I’m at a store that has them I’m going to check out children’s handwriting books. This is a low priority goal so I haven’t put much effort into it.
There you have it. I’ll be outlining some new goals soon. The results from this past year have been mixed. How did your goals turn out?
Dan on December 2nd, 2006
My first post was one year ago tomorrow, December 3, 2005. My last post was months ago. I haven’t had much of a will to update my blog in a while but that has changed. I’ve decided to start posting again. Along with that I’m going to be doing another face lift and software upgrades.
The other interesting announcement I have to make is that I’m going to be starting a new article / blog website. I’m still figuring out the details like what the domain will be and how it will be organized. The site will be a collection of research papers and articles written by yours truly. I plan on publishing something a minimum of once a month, often split 4 ways so that I have something to release every week. The topics will range from privacy and technology to investing and economics. I already have my first 3 topics planned. The first will be about privacy: what we have left, how hard it is to obtain, the economic impact of having it, and the vulnerability of non-private data.
As far as my life goes I have many things to write about. I’ll be making a new post everyday this week about various subject I want to cover, including my goals, accomplishments over the past year, workout results, and more.
Dan on August 27th, 2006
Wow! I can’t believe it has been over a month since my last update. I have a lot to write about.
First, I’ve finally decided to sell my house. I’ve owned an investment property for 3 years now. I bought it from HUD as a rehab project and never finished it. At the time I had the money but not the motivation. After my arrest I had the motivation but not the money. After talking to a real estate agent friend of mine I decided to clean it out. The place was a total mess. Plaster and lath was everywhere. There was litterally debris 3 feet deep in the kitchen. After spending a few hours a day there for a week it was finally cleared. The place looked pretty good again so I decided to made a complete list of everything it needed and what it would cost. After seeing the list I decided it just didn’t make sense for me to put that much money and time into it so now it’s listed for sale. My agent already has a few people interested so here’s hoping it sells. I’d like to use the money as down payment on a place to live so we’ll see, maybe I’ll have a decent house to live in soon! My current lease is up on Sept 15th. I have a temporary place lined up that I can live at for pretty much as long as necessary. It’s not the ideal apt but I don’t need to sign a lease which will allow me to move if I buy a house.
I’ve been trying various things with diet and exercise. It’s a bit long to include in this post so I’ll try to make another one today. I have been working out for just over 6 months now and I am very happy with the results. Watch for another update.
Last week I took a two day trip to NYC. I hadn’t been to the city in nearly 7 years. It was quite fun. I could see myself living there if it wasn’t so expensive.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do with my life. It’s hard to make long term plans with potential jail time hanging over your head. My next court date is coming up in a week and a half. I’d like to have it end but it may get pushed forward again. We need to rework the plea and I’m not sure there is enough time.
So what do I want to do? I’ve been thinking a lot about retail fraud consulting. As far as I can find there aren’t many consultants out there who specialize in training of sales associates and store managers to deal with and prevent fraud. The ones that are out there have never actually committed the fraud they teach about so they don’t have first hand experience like me. I enjoy doing presentations and teaching others so this may be an avenue to turn my experiences into a positive thing. I need to do a bit more research on the topic but I think there is huge potential here.
I haven’t been trading much. I still follow the markets and have done some virtual trading but right now my brokerage account is just too small to work with. Right now I don’t have enough money to move to a brokerage with lower fees ($5k minimum) so I am unwilling to trade less than 10 options contracts at a time. This equates to a minimum margin of $1000-$5000 on spreads, which limits me to 1-3 trades. I hope to have the money soon which would allow me to open an account with a discount broker and have no minimums. Then I could do single contracts and spread my risk around.
I want to make another post about how my goals are progressing. There are quite a few that I haven’t made much progress with that I’d like to focus on.
Dan on June 24th, 2006
I spent Monday and Tuesday at Watkins Glen International participating in a PCA driving school. For those who have never heard of such an event, a track driving school put you and your car on a real race track with an instructor. You learn better car control, smoothness, and confidence in yourself and car. There are also classroom sessions to teach strategy and theory. These events are open to anyone with a car that will pass tech.
I believe that these driving schools should be a part of getting your license. By learning you and your car’s limits and improving your skills you improve your everyday driving ability. I know my ability has improved significantly since I participated in my first driving school in 2004. Every single day I see people who make basic driving mistakes that put themselves and others at risk because they just don’t know better. A track driving school teaches a foundation of good driving, along with being an absolute BLAST.
We also got to see the new Porsche 997 Turbo. There were 8 or so of them there for a private media event.
Pictures can be found in the gallery here.
