Wow. Just two more weeks left in Phase I. Sitting at LAX waiting for my flight. I found the shortcut through the security maze today and I'm pretty happy about that!
Tonight I'm going to work arms and core. I've only got two weeks left until Hawaii and I can't wait! I've certainly hit my target to be "swimsuit ready" by the time I jump in the Pacific Ocean for a week of snorkeling.
Battery is dying!
Peace out... :D
JH
My Father gave me many gifts. In addition to those many tangible things, he also left me with some good genes. My Father was pretty smart and so am I. My Father enjoyed movies a lot, and so do I. But, some gifts I never would have asked for.
It was no secret in our family that my Father was a hairy beast and when I was young I knew that I too would grow into a hairy beast just like him. And, it was true. (Hairy beast is an understatement)
Yes. I've got a lot of body hair. In the old single days, some women freaked out when they saw how hairy I was. To them I used to say: "Come on Baby! Once you go Furry you'll be back in a Hurry!" Sure, I got a lot of laughs with that line but it never did change the fact that I was a hairy beast.
Most of the hair I can deal with. Certain areas I take care of myself, doing man-scaping every month or so to take care of any out of control growth. But, I enjoy having a hairy chest, and Princess appreciates it. It makes me feel manly when she runs her fingers through my chest hair. But, the hair on my back makes me look more like a buffalo than a manly man. So, today, in true Beverly Hills style, I did something about it.
It is the service that everyone is talking about. Appropriately named "Sweater Removal" on the menu at The Shave Beverly Hills, the service addresses the need for men to purge unwanted body hair. And, purging is an understatement.
One proprietor of The Shave (Adam Dishell) and I have been exchanging e-mails for a couple weeks until my courage level, and the prodding by Esby, was ample enough to finally pull the trigger and schedule the appointment for today at 11 AM.
When Princess and I arrived, we were greeted by Adam. Princess, who was wearing her "I'm Blogging This" T-shirt and anxious to blog the event, was offered a glass of wine and was told to have a seat in the lobby. The service area and services at The Shave, for what I can tell, are for "Gentlemen Only".
I was asked to have a seat inside the services area and I was offered a drink. I turned down the drink offer and about 10 seconds into my browsing of a Robb Report, I was greeted by my esthetician. She took me into the Icon Room, hung a do not disturb sign on the outside, closed the door, and told me to take off my shirt. Answering with a prompt "Yes, Mam", I complied.
I got down on my stomach and she proceeded to use the clippers to shear me down like a sheep. After a brief paper change and some major hair cleanup, I got back down and she began to spread wax on my lower back. I felt warm from the wax and it was pretty pleasant. I then felt a brief rubbing, and then, RIP! Just like separating some Velcro, my first section of hair was pulled off. This was followed by another 10 - 15 RIPS! Then, area one was completed. OK... one down, three to go! It was about this time that I blacked out from the pain. (Just kidding!)
Now, I'm a really tough guy and I've been through some terrible pain in my life (For one that comes to mind, see my blog entry "Ouch! Damn Door Jams!"). I found the hair being ripped out of my back to be extremely painful, for about a half of a second. So, all in all, it was really no big deal. After a quick lunch at Hugo's, we came home and Princess pulled out a few (OK 40 -50) hairs that were missed with tweezers.
Just so everyone understands, Princess never forced or pressured me to get my back waxed. I'm pretty sure this is because she wouldn't want me to force her to get any sensitive parts of her body waxed. But, now that it is done, I'm pretty certain she is happy with the end result.
I was told to keep up my smooth, hairless back, the service would need to be repeated every six weeks. I've only got three of my commonly used words for that: Bring it on!
Peace out... :D
JH
The Shave of Beverly Hills
230 S. Beverly Dr.
Beverly Hills CA 90212
(310) 888-2898
I know I wrote the other day I was going to burn 500 calories tonight. Well, I burned 508 instead.
Too tired to blog more! lol
Peace out... :D
Jim
I used to live in the United States of Fat. A Fast Food Nation. What would happen if I'd see a McDonald's on the way to work? Wheel in the drive-thru, grab a few thousand calories. Two sausage McMuffins was my thing. I usually got them without egg, but if they gave me egg by mistake, no worries. I live in the United States of Fat. Bring it on. Add the large Hi-C orange drink (basically sugar, water, and orange color), and why not a hash brown too? Sure. Pile it on. I live in the United States of Fat.
What people don't realize is once you live in the United States of Fat, you have a hard time living anywhere else. Fat, grease, sugar... all these things add to the euphoric haze of living there. Euphoria is addictive. Quite simply, eating bad feels good. If it didn't, people would eat healthy food and all maintain blogs about looking better, and feeling better.
I realized when I began this transformation that I had an addiction. I had to admit it to myself to be successful. I just had to admit that all the pull of the sugar and the compulsive eating had simply taken over. I became powerless to control my urge to power eat through 3 candy bars in one 9 minute session before bed, or consume an entire 6,000 calorie pizza as a snack.
In the United States of Fat, we are bombarded day and night with the power of advertisements perfectly geared at making fatty get up off the chair in the hotel and dial up a toll free number to get food delivered instantly. Tonight, after my extensive workout, I watched my Law and Order CI on USA and every commercial break was filled with ads for nothing other than junk food and weight loss companies.
What's wrong with that picture? One ad: Try KFC. Next ad: Go on NutriSystem like Dan Marino and look better. In other words: Eat up Fatty and LOSE WEIGHT YOU FAT PIG! No wonder the residents of the United States of Fat are so confused.
Life on the road is hard. When I get to my hotel room I've got cookies and sometimes candy waiting for me. These items are basically saying: "Thanks for staying with us. Eat up Fatty and enjoy your sugar high. You're valuable to us. You deserve diabetes and a few extra pounds."
So, Esby and I went to the front desk one night a few weeks back. We said: "No More Junk Food! We want fresh fruit, or veggies." They listened and when we got here last week there was fresh fruit in our rooms, instead of the junk food. But, this week we are back to the junk food. The hotel desk guy is really cool, and he offered us some bruised, old bananas after he realized they forgot the fruit this week. I just said, "No worries Dude. That junk food shit goes right in the trash the second I walk in the door."
Why? Because now I live in the United States of Fit. I've become self aware. I'm no longer a drone or a member of the herd of cattle that mindlessly grazes on junk food. I no longer stop at Starbucks three times a day for my Triple Shot Venti Mochas, or twice a day, or once a day, or even once a month, or once a year. Finding a Starbucks used to be one of the most important things in my life. I used to book a hotel based on how close a Starbucks was. Not anymore.
Now, one of the most most important things in my life (other than my wife, family, friends, job, etc., of course) is to some day soon be able to bust out six 60 lb hammer curls (and all the benefits that go along with being able to do that). Then, I'll want 70, then 80, and so on.
Now that I live in the United States of Fit, I'm no longer bothered by things like this Hotel sponsored TV channel line up that would have been a guaranteed Dominos a sale just 11 short weeks ago:
I choose to live in the United States of Fit. And I'm here to stay.
Peace out... :D
JH
Well, it is day five of week nine. This week I've really been concentrating on my diet, eliminating some of the items that I've been eating that are "questionable". Those items included the mashed pots at Keegans (because of their use of cheese, cream, and bacon), the beans at Chevy's (have no idea what's in them), and the "unknown contents" of Esby's sushi rolls.
We made a major food change from Sushi 101 to RA Sushi this week. RA Sushi was MUCH better. I still got to eat my Fish Market on Tuesday afternoon and Esby even joined me. I ate a new skewer dish there made up of Scallop, Fish, and Shrimp.
I've also been concentrating on working my abs a lot harder. On Wednesday night I did 25 minutes of abs in addition to my lower body strength training. I did Russian twists with a medicine ball, and the two types of love handle crunches. I also did all kinds of leg lift tortures. At one point, I was powerless to stop my medicine ball from slowly rolling across the floor to the either side of the area.
I am going to repeat this abs workout tonight (even though my abs are killing me!). All but the uncontrolled rolling medicine ball thing I mean.
Peace... :D
JH
Goto Google Maps and type in "New York, NY to Paris, France". Click "Search Maps" or "Get Directions". Scroll on down to line 24 (or so) of the directions. Good luck! lol
(Note: This post references a funny result of a search engine and may not work for that long!)
Peace out...
JH
