Normally I am a staunch minimalist, but I am in love with the new footers which are not just footers, they are:

Ultimate Footers!

37signals.com, the creators of BaseCamp and so much more, were not the first site to make their footer into an ultimate footer, but they were one of the first I’ve seen.

However, Rocket Theme.com had a pretty cool WordPress theme with an even more ultimate footer!

I love this thing. Finally making the footer useful instead of just that thing which finishes the page.

A Columbia, Missouri local company with a great footer is Clear Page.net. Again, I love that the footer is no longer just something to stick at the bottom of the page.

All of these websites make the footer into something usefull that prevents you from immediately scrolling back to the top of the page.

The Ultimate Footer holds you at the bottom of the page.

It might hold mostly unrelevant information to your needs,
but more than likely there’s something down there for you!

Back into the swing of things!

Only 8 days left!

Lost 4 pounds, leaving 11 to go!

Workout: 25 minutes on Elliptical

20 minutes of the Body for Life ramping up and down jumping 2 difficulty levels each minute.
3x sets of difficulty level 10 – 18
1x set of difficulty level 10 -16 and jumping to 20 for 1 minute instead of 18.

Then 5 minutes of difficulty level 12 just for some extra calories.

Burned 400 calories in 25 minutes.

My heart rate was almost perfect today, peaking at 170, and normally in the 140 range.
The trick is the higher difficulty level on the machine and keeping my breathing under control,
especially at the lower difficulty levels so my heart rate has a chance to drop back down
to around 128 – 135.

Food:

Breakfast 3 cups of oatmeal with 3 teaspoons of cinnamon and 2 teaspoons of sugar & 1 chocolate chip cookie (darn you Lindz!) (8:00 am)
Snack 1: Doughnut with White icing and sprinkles. I know! I know! So Bad! It was the car dealer’s fault… (9:30 am)
Lunch: Light Progresso Soup (1:00 pm)
Snack 2: Bananna (3:00 pm – I put it on my Google calendar)
Dinner: Half a plate of cheese fries and a chocolate malt from Steak & Shake

Crap I Ate: 3x Peanut butter & Corn flake cookies, 1x mini reeses, 1x mini snickers, 1x reeses turtle, 10x M&M’s

I wanted to eat EVERYTHING yesterday, and I almost accomplished that…

A friend of mine sent me a link to this page with a graphic visualizing all of the Bible Cross-References.

This set of visualizations started as a collaboration between Christoph Römhild and myself. Christoph, a Lutheran Pastor, first emailed me in October of 2007. He described a data set he was putting together that defined textual cross references found in the Bible. He had already done considerable work visualizing the data before contacting me. Together, we struggled to find an elegant solution to render the data, more than 63,000 cross references in total. As work progressed, it became clear that an interactive visualization would be needed to properly explore the data, where users could zoom in and prune down the information to manageable levels. However, this was less interesting to us, as several Bible-exploration programs existed that offered similar functionality (and much more). Instead we set our sights on the other end of the spectrum –- something more beautiful than functional. At the same time, we wanted something that honored and revealed the complexity of the data at every level –- as one leans in, smaller details should become visible. This ultimately led us to the multi-colored arc diagram you see below.

The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc – the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.

The website also has some other awesome graphics Biblical Social Network (People and Places) & Distribution of Biblical People and Places that make some hard data look really impressive. Go to the site to see larger versions of the graphics. Or, if you’re like me, get the high resolution graphic to make it your desktop!

Lost 3 more pounds!!! That makes 4 pounds lost to date!

My arms STILL hurt after my weight lifting Monday and the elliptical yesterday (Tuesday)!
It’s mostly my triceps which I have not formally worked out in almost a year. Whew!
Hopefully that means my body is burning fat and calories to rebuild those muscles.

Unfortunately I did not make it to the gym in the morning, my favorite time to workout.
The weather was terrible. It was really cold, and I just did not want to get out from underneath the covers.

Never fear, I will workout this afternoon though.

Luckily Columbia College has showers and I can come back to work all fresh and clean.

The Stationary Bike is the only option for today. No weight lifting, or elliptical to hurt my arms more!

Workout: (11:00 am)

10 minutes on the Stationary Bike
Burned 110 calories

Yeah! 1 pound lost to date! And it only took 9 days…

Workout:

20 minutes on an elliptical burned 303 calories.
Pretty good for only 20 minutes!

3 sets of ramping from difficulty level 10 to level 18 two steps at a time (15 minutes)

• 1 minute at 10
• 1 minute at 12
• 1 minute at 14
• 1 minute at 16
• 1 minute at 18
• Back down to 10 and repeat

2 minutes at 10. To allow my heart rate to drop back down after the third set of ramping.
Skipped level 12 and went to 14 since I spent 2 minutes at 10.
Then instead of going from 16 to 18, I jumped from 16 to 20 (machine max) for my final burn.

My heart rate hit 173 at the highest (not bad) and I averaged 145, which is really good.

My arms are killing me from lifting yesterday and then pulling on the elliptical today.
That minute at 20, which is the maximum difficulty level the machine can go,
really made me work out my whole body. The elliptical has arm bars that you pull
and push on as well as where you put your legs. Without those arm bars I would not
have been able to finish the set at level 20. But that made it a great whole body workout!

Still no weight loss in Day 8…

Workout 1: (7:00 am)

Almost useless. I was completely unmotivated and crunched for time this morning.
I worked out for maybe 15 minutes at an easy pace on the bike burning less than 100 calories.

Workout 2: (10:30 am)

15x reps Bicep Curls with 55 pounds
15x reps of V-ups (ab exercise)
15x reps of Headaches with 55 pounds (bicep curl bar hile laying on bench = tricep workout )
Repeat 3 times for a total of 45 reps each allowing no more than 60 seconds of rest after each block (3 exercises).

15x reps of Lat Pull Down with 70 pounds
15x reps of Incline Sit Ups
Repeat 3 times for a total of 45 reps each allowing no more than 60 seconds of rest after each block (2 exercises).

15x reps of Rope Pull with 70 pounds (down for biceps)
15x reps of Rope Pull with 70 pounds (up for triceps)

I was supposed to lift weights yesterday (Sunday), but that did not happen. So I did it today instead.
I was hoping to get in a cardio (third) workout today as well, but I will not have time.

Workout:

I was supposed to do my arm workout for the first time today, but I overslept and did not make it to the gym.

Food:

Breakfast: Oatmeal, 2 cups of milk
Snack 1: none, Church
Lunch: Full can of green peas, 1 cup pasta, chicken (I think soy sauce, bad!), 1 no-bake cookie
Snack 2: 14 vanilla wafers (8 grams fat 200 calories)
Dinner: Fresco Bean Burrito and Fresco Soft Taco from Taco Bell. 2 Golden Corral rolls and 6 oz steak. 19 M&M’s (dropped one).

I ate terrible today! I will have to work it off tomorrow.

In the future, when I reach my goal weight and after we get back from Florida, I will probably make Sunday my cheat and rest day.

Day 6. That makes six consecutive days of 20-30 minutes of intense cardio workouts and eating healthy, low fat food 5 times per day.

What do I have to show for it?

Nothing, I have lost not one ounce.

Workout:

Stationary bike

I had almost no energy on the bike this morning and peddling at difficulty level 15 was incredibly dificult. Either my legs are just exhausted after 6 intense days, or I should have eaten something befpore I worked out this morning.

I burned a measley 233 calories.

10 minutes at level 10
10 minutes
Going from 10 to 15 twice

My workout was not good at all, however, I think I have a solution.

The real Body for Life program is a 6 day per week workout with upper body weight lifting one day, lower the next and cardio last.

Since I bicycle so much, around 1,000 miles each yeah, I am going to skip the lower body workout for now, and start doing an upper body workout every third day, starting tomorrow, Sunday Dec 5th.

This will give my legs a break.

Food:

Breakfast: oatmeal, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and two of sugar.
Snack 1: jello pudding
Lunch: 1 piece of pepperoni pizza, turkey sandwich with mustard and pickles, and a full can of mixed vegetables
Snack 2: nothing
Dinner: snacked at christmas party, 3 no bake cookies, 6 mini pigs in a blanket, mixed veggies with ranch, 1 cup of green bean casserole, and lemonade

Here’s to hoping I lose weight next week! Thank you to all those encouraging me, especially my sister-in-law with her words of encuragement and my workout wise friend for his advice.

Yesterday I was worried about my heart rate being too high, and in true extremist form, today (Friday, Dec 24) I had the complete opposite problem.

It happens to all of us. We come to the gym dressed and prepped then the unthinkable happens…

Some one is on YOUR machine!

Anyway, the softball team was working out this morning and I got stuck on the oldest and worst bike in the gym.

I was trying to maintain a healthy heart rate but that translates into a really unfulfilled workout. The heart rate range the machine says I should be in for weight loss makes me feel like I am not doing anything.

I don’t understand!

Moreover, today is Day 5 and I have not lost a single pound. However, I might have lost inches.

I will be working out twice today to make up for this setback.

200 measley callories burned in 20 minutes.

Workout 1 (6:30 am):

20 minutes on a stationary bike
Put the tension on 20 (the hardest setting)
and peddled slowly to keep my heart rate in the “fat burning” level.
This was not a challenge to me at all…

Workout 2 (3:30 pm):

20 minutes on elliptycal

10 to 18 in 2 step intervals.

Heart rate got up to 185 but it was normally around 170.

Burned 338 calories in 20 minutes!

This was a much better workout. Before starting at 10 and increasing 1 difficulty level per minute did not challenge me enough. But starting at 15 was too hard.

Starting at 10 and jumping 2 per minute to 18 is perfect.

Food:

Breakfast: oatmeal, table spoon of cinnamon and two table spoons of sugar
Snack 1: 2x carrot sticks
Lunch: Chipotle Burrito (PDF): tortilla, chicken, white rice, tomatoe, onion, green peppers, mild sauce (660 calories 14.5 grams of fat). Will not get a flour tortilla again! Alone it’s 290 calories and 9 grams of fat!!!
Snack 2: small dinner roll with half a tablespoon of jelly and two cups of applesauce
Dinner: Salad Bar, some pasta, light italian dressing

Note on Food: your body works like your bank account. The more money you have the more you feel comfortable spending. The more energy (healthy food) you eat the more your body will burn.

BUT! Deny it food and it’s like a recession. Your body will hoard the fat, slow down your metabolism and make your workouts useless!