Heavy & Late

If you read my posts regularly, several posts back, I told you that I carry my virtual office when I hit the road for travel. Since I was going to be in Europe for quite a while, I thought I would streamline my bags down. I left a lot of stuff including shoes, boots and summer type clothing I wore in Las Vegas, at my good friend, Al's, in Escondido, California. Upon arrival to London, United Kingdom, I was actually idiotic enough to bring two big Rimowa suitcases. For some odd reason, I thought it was going to be pretty cold there. And, since I have lived in Holland a couple of years ago, as I recall, both London and Holland are pretty cold this time of year, and Frankfurt, same thing, and the rest of the countries I would travel too, it would be cold and probably rain. Much to my surprise, the weather was very mild and I did not need any warm weather clothing. So, I left one huge suitcase at the hotel in London, and thought I would just pick it up on my return to the UK. As I stated in the last post, I paid for a lot of overages in luggage. Turkish Air was quite liberal with the weight, though, back to the UK. Generally, when I travel, the airlines tag my bags with two tags about 80% of the time. That is "heavy", and "late". Go figure. See the little icon man bending his knees and using both hands to lift the bag? How funny is that? When I was in the Turkish airport, they have to send you luggage through a preliminary security check for metal. This bag I had to lift up onto the conveyor belt. All I really did was just hoist it up and kick it up with one knee and it slammed down on the belt. At least it did not have "late" marked on the bag.

You are probably thinking, "Why has Amber resorted to such a boring photo?" Well, I know I have spoiled you with the past several months with cool photos but I think this little tag was so funny. It's the little things in life and the stupid things I do that make me laugh at myself.

On a sidebar note, I know I have been a bit slow in posting here. Again, I have taken the liberty to settle into my training routine, my house, and friends here in Albuquerque, and attend to my website business. I have also taken over my old training partner's client, Jason, and told him I would help him train. We have made amazingly great partners thus far. I just show him certain exercises and how I like to be spotted. He is catching on very well, and is eager to learn. It inspires me, too, because I am forced to teach, and become more of a leader with him.

I have been amazingly strong, and I will post some videos soon of my progress and training in the gym. I have been regularly close grip bench pressing on the Smith machine around 275x10 reps for triceps. I just want to pile the weight on a get stronger. I love getting bigger, too, but being stronger is more important. I have always enjoyed training for power, speed and functionality. That's way more important to me that anything else. Getting bigger is just a cool byproduct of training heavy. My bodyweight has held steady at 210 pounds. My goal is to get leaner and harder without losing any weight. I would accept a few pound weight loss, but the idea is to gain lean body mass. So, I am on the quest to accomplish my goals. Jason is a hunter, and he just got a 4x5 elk this season, and he has been giving me some elk steaks. I eat a lot of bison and ostrich as well. I just love wild game. I think we all need to have a more Paleolithic diet and eat more wild game, vegetables, roots, and some fruit. More of a hunter/gatherer diet where we foraged for our food. Think about how hard we do not work for our food nowadays. I can roll out of bed and be at Trader Joes in 30 seconds! My ancestors had to go out and hunt the bison. Our bodies really are not used to processed grains and obviously anything processed. The only processed thing I will easily accept is vodka. Oh yes, and my red wine. That's not so bad, is it? I always say, "Never trust anyone that doesn't drink".... I am not suggesting encouraging heavy boozing, but I think you understand what I mean.

I am just going through some of my travel photos and will be posting some of them soon, as promised about my journey to Europe. I thought I would be way more tired from the trip, however, conversely, I feel quite invigorated!