Justin Germino Ramblings

One of the reasons why I do blog posts about weight loss is that I used to be a lot heavier than I am now, we are talking 50+ pounds overweight, I had clocked in at about 207 pounds and only stand 5 feet 10 inches tall. I saw myself in photos and knew there was something I had to do, I had developed a bad pattern of eating too much and working out too little. It’s easy for somebody working at a desk all day sitting for 8 hours to just go home and repeat the same process of sitting and watching TV.

Just over two years ago I made a commitment to losing weight and have stuck by it, I did lose 50 pounds in about two years and at my trimmest was just over one hundred and fifty pounds. I have since added a little more muscle, and unfortunately some of my eating habits resurfaced but weight now a slightly overweight one hundred and seventy one pounds. I am a size 34, when I used to be a size 40 waist.

Instead of constantly looking for fast weight loss it is better to find and stick with a long term goal that is more easily attainable and less likely to leave you stressed out and rebound as a result of trying to overtax yourself.

Such simple steps you can put into place work well, such as the following:

Eat the same amount of food to feel full, just eat lower calorie food such as strawberries, watermelon, whole grains and oats…etc

Workout just fifteen to twenty minutes a day, it is better to get your heart beating and sweating 3 times per day at 5 minutes than once a day at fifteen minutes. This is because your heart will stay at an elevated rate for several minutes after each session and you will burn calories for an extended time.

Do not eat within three hours of going to bed.

Drink more water, helps flush and clean your bloodstream. Make sure you drink a healthy amount of water, not sugary or even diet soda’s.

Those simple tactics should lead to 1-2 pounds of weight loss per week, the more overweight you are when you start, the more weight loss you will see. It is when your body has lost weight that it starts becoming harder to lose the last 15-25 pounds. This is because you have to cut back a little more, and work out a little more to burn the extra calories needed to take off the final weight.

-Justin Germino

It is no surprise that when you have a full time job that consumes 45+ hours per week and you have a wife and two kids that you have little time for any hobbies or side activities. It is why I have a hard time keeping up with my 3 primary blogs and I have to carve out a few hours here and there to keep new articles current, research new information and provide interesting content to my readers.

My work life balance sometimes tips the wrong way (too much work) not enough personal life activities, and I regret each time I spend an hour on my PC writing a few blog posts instead of playing with my kids the extra hour. I try to keep my blogging activity to nights and some hours on the weekends, but this isn’t always feasible either.

Many bloggers have quit being unable to find a balance that works for them and ultimately having to give up the hobby to satisfy other more important needs in their lives. My wife often reminds me that I used to game all the time, Guild Wars, Starcraft, Playstation 2 games…etc and since I started blogging I have had little to no interest in gaming like I used to.

Blogging has become my hobby, it has taken over that desire to game, now I feel like writing content and articles instead of playing games as much as I do. I still play Wii games with the kids, and test out a game here and there, but primarily it is for my blogging and so I can review and report on it.

I believe it is important to have some hobbies and “personal time” to yourself, at least 10 hours per week that you can spend on your own pursuits and interests without feeling guilty. I probably carve out somewhere between 15-20 hours per week for blogging but most of it is at night when the family is sleeping, so I don’t consider that taking hours away from spending time with my family.

-Justin Germino

I knew I had a problem when last week my wife said “Your using again” referring to the fact that I had been energy drink sober for six months and had lapsed into an Energy Drink addiction all over again.   It started by being at the Shinedown concert last Monday night and socializing with a coworker at a bar until 3am.  I was just so tired I could not help but consume 5 red bulls (2 regular and 3 diet) to keep my fatigue at bay.  Monday having just two hours of sleep I barely could function so I bought a four pack of Diet Rockstar to get me through the work day and through Wednesday as well.  By Thursday I was having severe stomach pains on and off for two days and having jitters and trouble sleeping.

The withdrawals from the caffeine include migraines, stomach pains, shakes, sweats, sleeplessness and worse.  So Friday and Saturday I haven’t had any energy drinks and have gone cold turkey, this time I intend to banish them from my life as no good comes from consuming these chemical and caffeine cocktails.  Overall I am still fighting constant chronic fatigue but its better than it was yesterday.  This stuff is brutal, don’t get addicted to energy drinks because it is hard to stop and the lack of energy you have while trying to give them up really makes you want to start drinking them again.

-Justin Germino

Pardon the metaphor, but a relationship is really like a garden. It starts off being planted with the connection between couples growing like saplings, if the relationship is not cared for then it will wither and wilt rather than bear fruit. If you are at a rut in your relationship and you feel it could use some pruning and some fertilizing, then think back to the early days of your relationship during the “Wooing” phase. Find and remember the reasons why your partner fell in love with you in the first place, what were the actions, behaviors and personality traits that swept them off their feet.

It is all to often that people change over the years, and relationships change but most people simply stop trying or forget what they had that made their relationship so special in the first place. Look within to find what cultivated your relationship and plant some more seeds, we all could spend some time trying to make our partner fall in love with us over and over again.

In a quote by Mignon McLaughlin “Marriage is about falling in love again and again, with the same person”

-Justin Germino

I am looking to become the next SAM-E blogger and really could use your vote, I have a long way to go and the voting ends on October 30th. The winner of this contests gets to become the next SAM-E Good Mood Gig blogger and it would be an honor to win this position.

Vote for Justin Germino on Good Mood Gig by clicking here or the Good Mood Gig button in my sidebar please.

Wish me luck

-Justin Germino

After reading several articles on various news sources on Google News and CNN it is no secret that Swine Flu worry is on the rise again, as fears the virus could mutate into a stronger and potentially more lethal strain. The main topic that was discussed is whether or not parents or families are having Swine Flu parties where when one child gets sick with the swine flu, they deliberately invite friends and try to get everyone to become infected and catch it in the hopes that building up immunity now while the virus is mild would be better than catching it later when it could be more deadly.

I haven’t found any verifiable reports that these type of parties are being done, but if they are they should be taking the children away from the parents who would even consider this. The best way to try to avoid flu is to get a flu shot, and a separate swine flu shot then use hand sanitizer like it was going out of style. Always cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze, and hand sanitize immediately and often. To deliberately attempt to get your kid sick can lead to serious risks and unintended consequences. Who would deliberately try to get their child sick or a group of children sick anyway?

It is a backwards world we live in, seriously.

-Justin Germino

So Barro’s Pizza finally opened a few short months ago in Casa Grande Arizona and it is our first Barro’s in the area, I had enjoyed Barro’s on the few times I visited in Tempe and had gone three times in the past two months.  In summary the Pizza is chicago deep dish style, the crust is thick and soft and the toppings generous.  Their Hawaiian pizza is one of the best I have had in any Pizza restaurant, but I wasn’t overly fond of their Boneless Mild or Boneless BBQ wings.  The flavor of the wings aren’t so bad, but the boneless chicken meat they use is already pre-seasoned with spicy seasonings, so even with mild or sweet BBQ sauce the wings are just too hot for my taste buds and spicy for my guts.

When I order mild or sweet BBQ, I don’t expect my tongue to burn for fifteen minutes.  This may not be a negative for most people, but it is for people with sensitive stomachs who can’t handle spicy foods.  The mozzarella cheese sticks were fairly good, but the marinara sauce is not as good as other restaurants for dipping.  All in all Barro’s is a fine choice for a different kind of Pizza in Casa Grande, AZ but it is not as good as T&M Pizza which is by far the best Pizza place in the city.  Geno’s Pizza which is located on Florence Blvd also is fairly good but has the same issue with spicy mild wings (seriously, mild should mean mild guys, why bother calling it mild).

-Justin Germino

The last several days the temperatures have dipped into the low 60’s at night with it only becoming in the low 90’s during the peak of the day, this now starts among the best times to live in Southern Arizona where you can wear shorts all day long and not feel too uncomfortable.  This is the time where I take my kids to the playgrounds much more often in the late afternoons instead of the very early mornings, and the time to start enjoying Arizona.  It makes you forget about the dreadful summers when you experience the wonderful warm winters.

Casa Grande particularly has a slightly different temperature and weather pattern than Phoenix or Tucson, reaching higher temperatures than Phoenix in the Summer, but lower temperatures in the Winter, we often can be five to ten degrees colder or warmer on average and are always warmer than Tucson.  Also when it rains or storms in Tucson or Phoenix, often it skirts around Casa Grande and we see far less rainfall than the surrounding areas, we barely had any Thunderstorms this year and I do miss them.

-Justin Germino

I just got finished doing a twenty minute workout on the new Wii Fit Plus which was released today, I was at Walmart bright and early to pick up my copy. I burned a measly 74 calories with my varied workout. How do I know this? Simple, the new Wii Fit Plus tells you at the end of every workout how many calories you have burned, which is a welcome and excellent addition to the game. It does however demoralize a little knowing that after sweating and working out for almost twenty minutes I only managed to burn through the amount of calories in less than one Special K cereal bar. Barely denting the two plates of Pasta I had for dinner.

However, there is so much to like about the new Wii Fit Plus game, not only can you create and combine custom workouts that you tailor to how much time you have. You can create workouts in 3 set bundles, from 6 minutes to an hour or more in length of time. You can specifically focus on what type of workout you want (build arms, lose weight, tone, trim belly fat…etc) and the Wii Fit Plus will tailor your workout routine and vary your activities so you seamlessly transition from one activity to the next.

There are also a slew of new activities, and tonight alone in my custom routine I was throwing snowballs, rollerskating, doing Kungfu moves in a class style where you have to time your moves in sync with everyone else, in addition to the familiar jack knives, tricep extensions and more. There was one move which was a very nice routing called a balance lift which has you sitting your bum on the balance board and lift up with one leg straight out while you push up with your arms and hips. This one really works out the hips and arms and was among the more intense Wii Fit routines I have seen.

I haven’t even tried the multi-player or the fun “weigh your pets and kids” function of Wii Fit plus, but the fact that you now can just jump on and measure your BMI and Weight without fiddling with the Wii Fit Age screen saves you time so you can weigh in every morning and dive right into a routine that fits your schedule.

I have been a huge fan of Wii Fit, according to my own Wii it says I have had it for 540 days (though since my kids lost my original Wii Fit Game Disc last month, it had been over 40 since I actually worked out with it).

Wii Fit Plus is an excellent choice for entry level fitness and a steady and healthy pace to lose weight and start toning your body, if you are out of shape you will be sore the next day, and if you are in shape you can just increase the amount of time and vary the routine to get more benefit from the workouts. Each little workout is around 1-3 minutes long and and combining them really adds up to help you sweat and tone your body.

I highly recommend Wii Fit Plus to anyone.

-Justin Germino

I found something amusing and somewhat sad the other day.  My wife had moved her computer and desk downstairs so she can work on her production company web stuff and be closer to our little one while she worked.  As a result when I am working on my computer and she is working on her computer we aren’t on the same floor anymore.  None of our TV shows had started yet to watch so I actually DM’d her on Twitter, “Just DM me when you want me to come downstairs”.  Really seriously, in my own house I am communicating with my wife on Twitter because she is on another floor and we ask each other questions on Twitter?

That my friends is amusing but somewhat sad.

-Justin Germino