October Wrap Up

It’s been a long time since I posted so sorry for being MIA but I’ve been super busy these last few weeks. Did you miss me? I missed certainly blogging! So what have I’ve been up to?

Fitness

I started the reverse diet 5 weeks ago on the 29th of September with 1600 calories and macros 45C-30P-20F and I increased every week slowly so I am now at 2100 calories with 55C-25P-20F. When bulking and reverse dieting, the goal is to increase carbs so I am adjusting my macros too to fit this goal.

I am happy to report that I didn’t gain any weight so far and my body handles all these calories and carbs really well, actually it loves it! I am eating quite a lot and I am not used to this much food but I feel more and more hungry every day.

Not all the food I eat is clean, I had some cheat meals here and there like a small piece of cake but moderation is the key.

I started 1-2-3 Grow!!™ 4 weeks ago on the 6th of October and I am currently on week 4. I love this program and the exercises. Best of all, I love that there is no cardio!!! I currently train 5 times per week and the workouts take about 1 hour. I can definitely see some muscle definition, I feel stronger and I hit a new PR often. I recently leg pressed my own weight which is pretty cool. I will do a separate post about the program once I finish it.

I wasn’t really doing anything else this month, just weight training with 5 minutes on the treadmill/elliptical/stepper for warmup. I went with the bike once to the gym as it was still warm outside on one of the weekends but I think I will be taking a winter break from biking because it has gotten too cold.

My plan is to bulk and reverse diet for 12 weeks while doing this program till end of December. I will start cutting from January and do James Wilson’s 12-week fat-loss program Body Earned™ followed by Kayla Itsines 12-week Bikini Body Trainer. If all goes as planned, I will build some muscle in the autumn-winter and then get nice and lean by summer 2015.

Geek

I’ve been coding more these last few weeks and I am so happy. Coding makes me happy!

I’ve started playing with Android mobile development and I am building a small game with a few colleagues to learn the basics. We’re using Android Studio and it’s been a while since I coded in Java but I am starting to get the hang of it again. Our plan is to build a game for iOS and Windows Phone as well after this.

Teched Europe 2014 is this week and I watched the keynote. I wish I would’ve been there, not only for the cool sessions and the awesome learning opportunity but also to enjoy that nice warm 35 degrees Celsius in Barcelona currently.

Fun times ahead! I will soon start preparing to upgrade my MCPD: Web Developer 4 to MCSD: Web Applications. It’s going to be tough because I have a two-exam upgrade path with 70-492 (Upgrade your MCPD: Web Developer 4 to MCSD: Web Applications) and 70-480 (Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3).

Media

Where should I start? I’ve been doing some serious TV show marathons recently since autumn is here, it gets dark so early and it’s cold, gray and depressing. In the evenings and weekends I just want to get comfy on the couch under the blanky with a hot cup of tea and watch my favorite series.

I watched all 7 seasons of True Blood and it only took me a couple of weeks. I did some serious marathons because it was so good but it wasn’t the happy ending that I was hoping for. I definitely saw some resemblance to the Twilight books and movies and I now understand why some people say that these books might be inspired by True Blood and the Sookie Stackhouse novels.

We finally have Netflix and there are so many good series that I don’t know which to watch first. I started watching Pretty Little Liars and hated it at first but it’s getting pretty interesting.

I am currently watching House of Cards and love this series. I hate the main character Frank Underwood but the story is so thrilling.

I’m also watching the new seasons of Castle and The Big Bang Theory with the season pass on Apple.

I’m finishing the last season of Mad Men, I loved the first few seasons of this series but I am not a big fan of this last season and I kind of hate what it has become of the main character Don Draper. I will just watch to see how it ends but I am not enjoying it so much.