December 2018 – Michael Cocchiola

Journal Entry 328 – 2018 Recap

December 28, 2018Leave a comment

This was by far the busiest year of my life. Let me try to make this in a list format in chronological order:

Shifted departments at work.
Traveled to Greensboro for an epic Rehearsal Dinner and Wedding.
Marriage!
Honeymoon to St. Lucia.
Moved out of the apartment of 1.5 years.
Bought a house!
Moved into that house. (A lot of work)
Bought a Shicon (Shih-tzu and Bichon) and named him Luke! (After Luke Skywalker)
Became a Wine Club members at Cooper’s Hawk. (Free bottle of wine each month.)
Benched 225lbs for the first time in years.
My niece Abby was born!
Bought a PS4. My first game system in 5 years.
Bachelor Party for my friend David.
David gets married in October.
Washington DC trip.
Coming soon this year:
Bachelor Party for a good friend of mine.
Another very good friend of mine will be married at years end.

This is a long list. I’m really hoping this year is much more laid back. Now that we are in the house and settled, I think it will be a much less chaotic year. I do have a few personal goals I would like to achieve this year. Again not in any particular order:

Learn to play the guitar. Aiming for 30 minutes a day.
Bench 250lbs by years end and get 225lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps easily.
Drop down to 175lbs again.
Stress less and relax more. Should be easier this year.
Listen to music more often.
Read more books. I like books where I feel like I’m learning something.

There is probably more than I am thinking of here, but this is all that is coming to mind. I have always wanted to know how to play the guitar, especially the electric guitar. It is not an easy instrument to learn, but if I do it every day for 30 minutes to maybe an hour I think I’ll make good progress. Sarah has a list of goals as well. She definitely wants to start eating better more consistently, so that is another goal for 2019.

Panda Express – Chicken Teriyaki, Stringbean Chicken, Veggies

Mezeh

Knob Creek – Gift for my Manager

Closet Renovation

High Protein Bread and a Bang Rainbow Unicorn Energy Drink. The drink is 5 out of 10. Monster wipes the floor with this drink.

PIEtech party!

Gift from my manager! Fine Whiskey.

Steak and Sushi.

Vino.

Holiday food.

Zorbas Greek Med Platter.

Big D and Luke.

Zorbas Chicken Salad and huge Roll.

10 eggs with high protein bread.

Journal Entry 327 – Christmas Shopping / Low Fiber

December 9, 2018Leave a comment

The end of the year is approaching quickly. It has been a very busy year for sure, but a good one. I’ve done a lot more Christmas shopping this year than in years past. I decided to buy something for each member of my team (6 people) and also have the family to buy for as well. I got a nice Amazon Gift Card recently though, so that should come in handy.

It is actually snowing here pretty good today. We are expected to get around 3 inches or so, so maybe working from home tomorrow. I only had a 1.5 day weekend, since this was my long work week. However, this was the last long week I will ever have as our hours have shifted back to Monday thru Friday. 🙂 No more rolling weekends.

I plan on shifting to somewhat of a Carnivore / low fiber diet for the time being. My diet has been good for the most part, but somewhat too chaotic for my liking. I tend to overdo it on fiber sometimes and rely too heavily on green vegetables and beans. These foods taste good, but it leaves a weird sensation of having a full stomach (and bloated stomach), but not really being satisfied in terms of hunger. I’ve been eating a very high fiber diet for a long time and I think the low fiber will act as somewhat of a “Gut Reset.” I plan on keeping the carbs low as well, however, I really don’t think white rice or low fiber bread will cause much of a problem if I did eat it. For example, a good Chipotle order would be a bowl with white rice, chicken, veggies, and salsa. No beans. The fiber would be pretty minimal in this meal. For meals made at home, I’m shooting for half a bag of greens max. The rest would be meat. I also plan to minimize Quest Bars and other “Low Carb Products” that tend to be jacked up with excess fiber. Coffee, jerky, hard-boiled eggs and protein powder during the day.

The main reason for trying this is sometimes when I go long periods without food, I really like the way I feel. I feel light and my stomach is super flat. However, when I eat a lot of carbs or fiber after (this is often for me), I lose that feeling. It takes a long time of no food to get rid of that “heavy” feeling. I noticed if I keep the fiber low, especially low carb, I can eat without the feeling. This diet is definitely worth a shot. The low carbs also flush excess water weight and inflammation that too many carbs can bring. It’s also minimalist in nature, which suits me well.

Costco steak jerky is where it’s at. Very good value tastes great and it has much lower sugar than other brands. I also got some Bison from Aldi which was $7.99 a pound. That is about as cheap as it gets.

The Giants almost blew it again last week, but we managed to get the win. Although it still probably doesn’t matter at this point as we have lost too many games. I’m also playing Uncharted 4 on PS4. So far so good!

Lentils with Brussel Sprouts. (Not going to be eating this on the new diet ;))

Stirfry

Chickpea Pasta with chicken and veggies

Chipotle Chicken bowl

Kickback Chicken Philly and Fries

Funko Pop for the Desk 😉

Snow!

Panda Express

Keto Pancakes

Journal Entry 326 – Date Night

December 2, 2018Leave a comment

It’s going to be a short post this week. I had a very busy week at work, even though it was only a four day week. It tends to slow down after the Holidays, but not so far. We probably had our busiest week to date recently so hopefully, it slows down a little for the rest of the year.

Sarah and I had a date night this Friday at Cooper’s Hawk. The wine tasting at Cooper’s Hawk is great. They pour a stout amount from each wine and it is always at least 8 wines you may try and can even try a couple more if you ask for it. I also had a $15 birthday credit from my wine club membership that you can use on food or alcohol. We decided to go to the bar after and get some sparkling wine. I went with Almond and she went Raspberry. Muy bien. Due to the perks of being a wine club member, you get a free bottle of wine each month, so I picked a Blueberry based wine, which tasted amazing.

The Hokies had a great game yesterday and earned a bowl game. A little last minute “season-saving” on their part. The Giants snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against the Eagles. Unbelievable. They had the game wrapped up in the first half and then decided to stop playing a little early. There goes our season. However, the Cowboys SOMEHOW beat New Orleans, so they are likely to win the division regardless at this point, so it may not have ever mattered anyway.

Another week of training plateaus. I plan to maybe back off strength training to 2 times a week with 3 days between each day. This way I can hit it at full strength. The days in between I plan on doing stretching and bodyweight movements, but nothing overly stressful. I plan on taking at least one day completely off as well.