"Daddy Issues" Review

• Title:  "Daddy Issues"
• Author:  Jonathan Watkins
• Finished:  July 24, 2012
• Synopsis:  The extended description at the Smashwords book page is the best way to describe this book.
• Impression of the book: This is the second book in the Bright and Fletcher series by Watkins. It is a great follow-up to the first book, "Motor City Shakedown."
• Read Again Scale: 6-7
• Although I mentioned this in my previous review of Watkins first book, I will say it again. The new Kindle has opened a much bigger library to me, so my read again scale needs to be recalibrated.
• Read Another Book by the Same Author: 10
• Watkins includes a teaser for the 3rd book in the series. I am pretty sure that I am becoming a loyal reader. Although I kind of like recurring character series, I think I would like to see Watkins try a stand alone novel.

"Daddy Issues" was the first book that I ever purchased at Smashwords, and it was worth the $2.99 that I paid for it. I will read Watkins next book in the series (due out soon). He has put together a pretty good duo in Bright and Fletcher, and he still has a few threads that go back into the first book to work out along the way. I would recommend giving "Motor City Shakedown" a FREE read. If you like that, then you will definitely enjoy "Daddy Issues."

"Motor City Shakedown" Review

• Title:  "Motor City Shakedown"
• Author:  Jonathan Watkins
• Finished:  July 8, 2012
• Synopsis:  The extended description at the Smashwords book page is the best way to describe this book.
• Impression of the book: The book has a "Grishamesque" feel to it. Lawyers are acting outside their job description. In this case, they are trying to clear the reputation of a client who has been murdered.
• Read Again Scale: 6-7
• Ordinarily, this book would rate higher on my read again scale, but the new Kindle has opened a much bigger library to me. So, it may take a while to get back to it.
• Read Another Book by the Same Author: 10
• I have placed "Daddy Issues" in my hopper. I plan to purchase it from Smashwords soon.

I downloaded this book to understand the process for doing that at Smashwords, and I ended up with a VERY entertaining and funny legal mystery. Watkins keeps the pace going nicely and provides a good foundation for the beginnings of the Bright and Fletcher series. I will be buying "Daddy Issues" after Watkins provided "Motor City Shakedown" free at Smashwords.

Insanity Cycle #2 - Day 1

So, after a 3 week hiatus to recover and contemplate my next fitness goals, tonight I started cycle #2 of the Insanity Challenge. You may recall that the first day is Insanity's "Fit Test" that determines the baseline fitness level before the "60 days" begin. I weighed 188 last night which is 5 pounds lighter than when I started this madness the last time. Since finishing the first cycle, I have seen as low as 184 on my scale. My goals for this cycle are to be at 180 or less at the end AND have some sort of maintenance exercise program in the hopper.

Here are the results from today's workout (C2 Day 1 Reps) compared to the same results from cycle #1:

Exercise	C1 Day 1 Reps	C2 Day 1 Reps
Switch Kicks	35	51
Power Jacks	26	46
Power Knees	53	90
Power Jumps	22	42
Globe Jumps	6	8
Suicide Jumps	8	13
Push-Up Jacks	11	23
Low Plank Oblique	22	48

If you followed along before, you will notice that the beginning of cycle #2 is down about 10-20% from the end of cycle #1. That is what 3 weeks of decomposing buys you.  I can tell that I will be sore in the morning, and the soreness was non-existent at the end the first cycle. Also, it felt like I was REALLY starting over. I know that I am in much better shape now than 4 months ago, but it doesn't feel like it during the workout.

Tomorrow, I am doing the "Plyometric Cardio Circuit" on Day 2. I am planning to stick with the workout poster again, but I may add the "Cardio Abs" that are missing from the first few sessions of "Pure Cardio".

Day 50 - Day 63, End of Cycle #1

The last 2 weeks of my Insanity Challenge went according to schedule. I squeezed in 3 workouts on the road (2 in Livermore and 1 in San Francisco). Today marked the last day (Day 63) on the calendar and the only Sunday workout called for during the challenge. The workout for today was a simple Fit Test session. The results from today's test are in the table below with the Day 1 results for comparison.

Exercise	Day 1 Reps	Day 63 Reps
Switch Kicks	35	56
Power Jacks	26	53
Power Knees	53	96
Power Jumps	22	53
Globe Jumps	6	9
Suicide Jumps	8	17
Push-Up Jacks	11	27
Low Plank Oblique	22	50

I have debated whether I am happy with my Day 63 results or depressed with Day 1 shape. I think it is a little bit of both. After much thought over the last couple of weeks, last night I decided to take the "after" picture (for public consumption) even before I did the Fit Test. For a little perspective, here is the "before" picture taken on February 25, 2012. (WARNING: Incredibly white pasty skin below. You might want to stop here if you have a weak stomach.)

Before (February 25, 2012)

Although Josh suggested shaving my chest and oiling up for the photo, I did not. You can thank me for that later.

After (May 12, 2012)

I am pretty happy that you can actually see a difference. It feels like it should be more than the 7-9 pounds of weight loss, but there are mitigating factors (I had three business trips - eating out 3 times/day for ~13 days). Hopefully, I will be getting my T-shirt in 4-6 weeks.

Let's be clear -- I absolutely HATE the Insanity workout for about an hour a day. I am fine with it for the other 23 hours. I really don't think that you can fail with Insanity as long as you make a commitment to do it whether you feel like it or not (or how good of shape you start with). Blogging about the daily workouts really helped me the first half of the cycle until the commitment became a habit. I will likely start a Cycle #2 in a few weeks because my body needs a break and I don't feel I am ready for the Asylum. Thanks for playing along with me over the last 2-3 months.

Day 37 -- Day 49

Ok. You probably think that you can tell that my dedication to blogging about my Insanity challenge has fallen off just a bit. Well, it's not so much that I have lost the dedication as it is a lack of time after all the stuff that been going on. The last 2 weeks of the challenge have gone mostly like the calendar advises. I had one switched rest day last weekend because I was too sick to do the workout.

Today, I decided to do the "Fit Test" on the Rest day because I wanted to find out my progress, but I didn't want to spend 25 extra minutes tomorrow when the scheduled workout is already an hour. Sophie "helped" count the reps and Eliza "helped" during the Push-Up Jacks and Low Plank Obliques. With those two things said, I am pretty pleased with the Day 49 (50) results. They are in the table below with the Day 1 results for comparison.

Exercise	Day 1 Reps	Day 49 Reps
Switch Kicks	35	52
Power Jacks	26	53
Power Knees	53	92
Power Jumps	22	43
Globe Jumps	6	9
Suicide Jumps	8	16
Push-Up Jacks	11	25
Low Plank Oblique	22	46

I have doubled (or more) the reps on 4 of the 8 exercises.  I may double all of them when I take the final test 2 weeks from today.

~ Notes ~

• My resting heart rate is now in the high 50s to low 60s bpm.
• My blood pressure is in the normal (115/65) range after working out.
• When it feels like an earthquake at night, that is a muscle spasm.
• I have gotten out of bed twice and wandered to the living room to ask Kristy if she felt an earthquake.
• The spasms are likely caused by muscle exhaustion mixed with an slight electrolyte imbalance.
• I am ready to be done so that I can get a real rest for a week or so before deciding what to do next.

I am stuck at the 5-6 lbs of weight loss, but my body is definitely changing. I am still trying to decide whether or not to post my before and after pics on the blog.

Day 36 - Fit Test PLUS Begin Max Interval

I finished off the Recovery Week by missing only the Thursday session. I was too exhausted from traveling back from Albuquerque to do the Core Cardio & Balance session that night. This week marks the beginning of the REAL Insanity Challenge as I found out about 26 minutes into the scheduled workout. The 60-day calendar has "Fit Test & Max Interval Circuit" listed for today. As I remembered, the Fit Test took 25 minutes and the results compared to Day 1 are below:

Exercise	Day 1 Reps	Day 36 Reps
Switch Kicks	35	48
Power Jacks	26	50
Power Knees	53	82
Power Jumps	22	33
Globe Jumps	6	8
Suicide Jumps	8	14
Push-Up Jacks	11	21
Low Plank Oblique	22	44

I felt pretty good about my progress while I loaded up the Max Interval Circuit session. The timer on the session read "60:00." This means that after my 25 minutes Fit Test that I only had an hour workout left in the evening. I know that you are probably thinking that this is just a hyped up refresher on the moves that I have been doing for 5 weeks, and YOU would be wrong! Don't feel bad, so was I.

The whole workout was like starting over at Day 1. My shirt was dripping as were my shorts and socks. My socks were the grossest thing ever (see Kristy's blog for details). Anyway, I am still on the train. I now have just about 27 days until I attempt to get the free T-shirt. Tomorrow is a "Max Interval Plyo" session. I have a feeling my tail is going to get kicked again.

On a related note, I don't think that I will do that Fit Test again until Day 63 (there is one scheduled for Day 50). The time commitment of an hour and a half is a little much.

Day 23 - Day 30: Still on the Horse

My Insanity challenge has continued for the last 8 days. It appears that my dedication to the workout program is much greater than my dedication to blogging about it. On Days 23-28, I finished off Week #4 of the calendar with a slight hiccup. On Easter weekend we had company, so I switched the Rest day and Plyometric Cardio Circuit day -- no big deal. I was actually able to work my way through that strange calf muscle issue. I have some optimism that the injury or strain or tweak is finally behind me.

Day 29 and Day 30 (along with the next 4 days) are sessions with the "Core Cardio & Balance" DVD. This DVD is a bit different. The goal of this disc is to allow you to keep what you have gained over the last month and give your body a rest from the hammering it has taken over the same period. It would be a bit easier EXCEPT that I am in Albuquerque (elevation ~ 5400 ft) for the week. That means that my recovery week has actually become altitude training. I must say that my timing is pretty good (lucky really) because I don't think that I want to be doing anything associated with Insanity that starts with "Max" at altitude for the first time.

I have had some strange conversations with a few people over the last month that mentioned that they had gone 35 or 45 or 50 days into Insanity before stopping. I have high hopes that I won't have that story to tell in a little over a month. I am rapidly approaching the halfway point, but looking at the calendar, I don't think that it is downhill from here.

Day 20 - Day 22

Since none of the workouts are new until next week, I thought that I would summarize these 3 days of my Insanity challenge into one post. Saturday (Plyometric Cardio Circuit) was a tough one for me. The calf injury started to reappear late in that workout. I nailed the session scheduled for Sunday (OFF), but we have already discussed that the OFF sessions were my specialty for at least 10 years.

Today was the much despised Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs workout. I am continuing to improve on the effort that goes into it, but I can't see ever looking forward to it. Tomorrow is another Cardio Power & Resistance session, but I will be in Walgreen's in the morning looking for a way to keep my calf and Achilles tendon from hurting so much.

~ ~ ~

We are getting a new family member tomorrow. Bentley currently lives in Ft. Smith with a couple that has to travel a ton, so boarding him is expensive and he hates it. Sophie is so excited that she can hardly control herself (not really all that different from non-excited Sophie). Eliza loved chasing Lily (the Wheaten terrier down the street) a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully, we have happy girls and a happy dog this time tomorrow night.

Day 19 - No Injury

Well, this time I made it through Day 19 without an injury during the "Cardio Power & Resistance" session. When I finish the "Plyometric Cardio Circuit" tomorrow, I will be 1/3 of the way through the Insanity Challenge.

- - - Notes from Day 19 - - -

• I need to start the workout before 10:30 pm. It will take forever to cool off enough for sleep.
• There is a whole lot of jumping on this particular DVD.
• Kristy claims that I made a funny noise. It must have been my thoughts because I couldn't have said anything -- I didn't have enough breathe.
• I am starting to think that if you aren't REALLY sweating and hurting a little, then you probably aren't doing enough to lose weight.
• I also think that doing ANY workout for 55 out of 63 days will cause you to be in much better shape, but Insanity is good for those who have an athletic/competitive background.

Day 18 - Curing Soreness

Day 18 of the Insanity Challenge is a "Cardio Recovery" session. After the Pure Cardio and ab work yesterday, I had a lot of delayed onset muscle soreness. The session tonight got my blood pumping enough to make me feel a little better. Tomorrow is a "Cardio Power & Resistance" session. I am hoping to be fully recovered from my soreness.

- - - Notes on Day 18 - - -

• I don't find myself flat on the floor begging for mercy at the end of the Cardio Recovery. I was definitely there last night.
• Based on the sessions, it is clear that my overall muscle strength level has not declined near as much as the cardio health over the years. I was more consistent with strength work compared to any other type of exercise.

~ ~ ~

On a funny note, the first email in the hopper this morning was that I had a "Message on Facebook that was urgent." It turns out that the urgent message was about the logos and color schemes of the hats of the Hendrix Warrior baseball team from 1993-1996. I guess the definition of urgent varies from North Carolina to Arkansas - right, Jaybird?