2010 was a great year for me: finished graduate school, accepted to Italian Defense College, and I got to hang out a lot with my bella wife and kick-ass daughter.

2010 was not, however, the best year for me health-wise. I tore my meniscus in a race in April, and was generally a slug. I did put forth a great deal of effort during the Holidays…eating and drinking merrily. And it showed on the scale at 11:45 p.m. Dec. 31st: 217 lbs.

All OK though, because I have successfully dropped the same amount of weight before heading to Afghanistan in 2005. This time I am trying a new tactic. At an early Christmas party, my uncle and cousin both were raving about their results after trying the Primal Blueprint. My uncle has been at it for over a year. my cousin about four months. So when my wife got me a kindle for Christmas, the first book purchased was the Primal Blueprint.

I must say that I like the philosophy and since Jan. 1 I have have been following the “program.” Per previous posts from well over a year ago, I used to do CrossFit “regularly.” They recommend a similar diet to PB’s, but a little more regimented. I am going to dedicate three months to PB and then evaluate to see if I need to step it up.

It’s only been four days so far. More to follow.

Wish me luck!

Warm-up: Jump rope then 2 rounds: 5 pull-ups, 10 ring dips, 10 sit ups, 10 box jumps.

Got frustrated with DUs.  Knocked out about 25 in a row, but then could only hit about 2-3 consecutively after that.  Ring dips suck, had to use blue band throughout.  All others felt very good.

WOD: 3 rounds: 15 medicine ball cleans, 15 kettle bell swings (1.5 pood, 53#) — 5:45.

I felt pretty good with the cleans.  KBSs got sloppy in the second round; did not hold lumbar curve, but self-corrected and made up in third round.

Lent: 1/1 Days No Alcohol, No Sugar

Attended 0630 class…pretty full, about 25 CF’s, good showing.

Conducted warm-up: butt-kicks, high-knees, jog backwards, karaokes, bunny jumps.

Skill work: forget what it was called, but attempt to lay parallel to the ground while grabbing rings, stomach to the ceiling.

WOD

5-5-5 Bench press: started 135-165-165

Needed some help with 165.  Max: 135 for 5.  I have never been big in the gym, but this will definitely improve.  I need to AT LEAST getting to body weight.

For time, 5 rounds of:

30 double unders, 20 kettlebell swing 1.5 pood, 10 lunge jumps (5 ea. leg)

as Rx’d: 12:13 (last in the class)

Felt good about the DUs…most time consuming of three events, but got all 30 on each round.

Broke the KB swings up to sets of 10 and 5 starting the 3rd round

Lunges pretty easy throughout.

I look forward to doing this one again to see the improvement.  Give me a month and I am confident I can cut the time almost in half.

Today, one of the last foundation classes, focused on back squat and deadlift.

Warm-up, 3 rounds:

5 pull-ups (normal, wide, close)

25 push-ups (normal, wide, close)

10 squats (air, front, ohs)

10 sit-ups

WOD

5-5-5

Deadlift – max 195#

Back Squat – max 195#

Felt pretty good with both weights, but focus is to work on technique: heels back, lumbar curve.

2 rounds of: 5 Pull-up; 10 Push-up; 5 GHD; 5 PST/OHS

WOD 15 min AMRAP

15 Push Jerk (65#)

15 Wall Ball Shots (20# first three rounds, 16# rounds 4-6)

15 Sit-ups

Total: 6 rounds +6 Push Jerk

-Near round 4, broke Push Jerk and Wall Ball Shots into 5 rep groupings

-Felt good this morning from the beginning. Zoe was up around 5, so I just stayed up, had small breakfast.  Rode bike to the Box, about 25 min…good warm up, felt pretty loose upon arrival.

Warm-up:

2 rounds, 10 ea. Ring Rows, Ring Dips, Hip Extensions, Air Squats

-used blue band on ring dips

WOD

21-15-9

Overhead Squat (22lbs.)

Push Press (45lbs.)

4:30

Got to really work hard on the OHS.  It will come, but feels such an awkward movement right now.

Weight: 202 lbs.

Cindy “Mini” (10 min): 7 rounds

-used band on for pull-ups rounds 4-7; intermittent knee push-ups rounds 5-7

Good to get started again, but clearly sucked.  Knowing it would be difficult to get back on the ball, I still had some optimism that I would be able to jump back at the same rate as 2006…not so much.  I had never done a kipping pull-up before and was happy about knocking out some of those.

I like to think that we eat well; no frozen foods, excessive ice-cream, candy, etc.  I take pride in knowing I haven’t had fast food since college in ’95.  It helps when you just don’t like it.  Even with good food intake though, quantities always play a major factor…AND I like my vino.  However, I will start the Zone/Paleo diet as prescribed by PCF.  More so than the workouts, I think this will be more challenging for me.

This blog will get better as I see other Crossfitter’s blogs and figure out how to illustrate my workouts and food intake.

Bottomline:  I am motivated to be back at it and have made a genuine commitment to being consistent and sticking with it.

Brang it on!!!!

“Life is not a dress rehearsal!”

One thing that came through very clear in reading this, this, and this was that the Obama campaign reached out to every possible supporter they could.

“Our goal is to make sure that each supporter online, regardless of where they are, has a connection with Obama” – Scott Goodstein

“No shi$, Dillon!  Every campaign is supposed to do that!” Well, supposed to and doing it are a lot different.

It seems academic now: everyone’s connected, almost everyone uses the internet and web 2.0 platforms.  But it was not as clear when the run-up to the 2008 election began as it is now.  Obama was the first candidate I’d ever seen through iTunes.

It is crystal clear that social media is not a fad.  Its a way of life!  I don’t think I am alone in saying that I am ALWAYS “connected.”  Here’s a standard day:

• Wake up, check time (on iPhone); check e-mail while at it;
• Go to kitchen, make coffee, check news on computer (through Google Reader);
• Go for a run (with iPod, listening to podcast);
• Take shower
• Out the door to bus stop (listening to something, checking FB)
• Commute (chin on chest, both thumbs moving constantly)
• Arrive to school/work (on computer…connected)

You get the drift.  There is very little getting away from it.  The Obama Camp must have read Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail because they were present in every little niche, providing access to the presidential hopeful and vice versa.  Obama was no longer just talking to the American people, but through them.  He leveraged the technologies available and used the tools that were giving everyday Americans a voice.

Campaigns are conversations.

So, who’ll take the cake in 2012?  It is hard to predict.  President Obama, after crossing the “finish line”, has not stopped using the social media tools that got him to the White House.  If we incorporate the logic of Moore’s Law, by 2012, we will see new innovations in technology that are 4x more advanced than this last campaign.  For example, by 2011 it is expected that wireless companies will launch 5G Broadband networks,

Campaign experts have said President Obama could NOT have won without the Internet.  If that is true, is it possible a new unlikely candidate could find the next new thing and ride to victory?  We’ll see.

I saw this post this morning and it made my stomach turn.  I read it and thought, “this must be a huge, gaudy flagpole with a massive flag, in some exclusive neighborhood,” but after watching the video, it doesn’t stand out in anyway that would make me think twice about.

How can a man who was awarded the highest of country’s medals and sacrificed for his fellow citizens be treated like this?  A rule is a rule, but there can be exceptions.  This is one of them.

Rezwan’s post talked about how bloggers around the world are living AND writing about their experience living HIV positive.  It is no surprise that 3/6 posts on the Republic of Congo’s GV page are about HIV/AIDS.  Of the  33 million people in the world living with the disease,  22.4 million people are from the region, Sub-Sahara Africa – around two thirds of the global total.

After digging into the Global Voices Google map of HIV-positive bloggers, I found two more blog sites from Republic of the Congo also related to HIV/AIDS.  Unfortunately they are both written in French and my command of that language is non magnifique.

Returning to the Republic of the Congo page, the other posts referenced corruption: Disappointment with the Presidential Elections and Investigation of African Leaders.

Separated by the D.R.C. to the east, Rwanda had a post that was very relevant to our most recent class about how different parts of the world use technology differently, specifically Africa and mobile phone usage.  (Nish, here is the answer to your question.  There’s also more info here and here.)

With the sharp increase and steady incline of cell phone usage in Africa, the Rockefeller Foundation, the United Nations Foundation, and the Vodafone Foundation said that they will be encouraging projects (e.g. HIV/AIDS education to reminding people to get vaccinations) through the formation of the Mobile Health Alliance.

Looking across the Global Voices pages I saw several topics relevant to the country, but not necessarily by bloggers in that country, (hence “global voices”). I expected to see more home grown blogs featured on the site’s pages.

I enjoyed going from country to country, and having been to many of them, you do get a good idea of what is going on and what is important to those living there.