Lunar Eclipse

I was lucky enough to witness a beautiful lunar eclipse with my buddies on the roof of my building. The pictures aren't the best but I hope you enjoy them.- This was the night of June 15th, 2011.

Summer in Full Force

So it's been a while since I put anything up. I guess because I don't feel I am doing much that would interest anyone. Summer is in full force with the heat reaching 118 as the highest and 79 as the lowest. I almost thought I was going to need a jacket at 79.

When I got back from R&R my boss had another assignment for me and it was outside of maintenance. I am working some of the property transfer to the government of Iraq. So I will be doing some more traveling and things like that. I flew down to one of our small bases for a short trip, wasn't bad but then the base was hit with heavy rocket fire 10 days later killing 5 US soldiers. I will put in the chopper pictures of flying over Baghdad. I also went on a trip to the International Zone or the IZ.

The first set of pictures are just city sights, one is the Iraqi Tomb of the Unknown and the large mosque that was never finished.

 This is a picture from the 93rd birthday celebration for the warrant officer corps. John howze and I work together in US Division-center and Tim cox works up north. Tim and I were stationed in Hawaii together too.

 This was my ride back from the IZ to Victory base.

In Hawaii we grill a lot and got to the beach, so why change? This is the typical Saturday night around the CHU's, we ate until about 1am, then again the frill wasn't lit until 9:30pm.

I continue to run and stay fit. I ran 7.6 miles yesterday in an hour. I have been enjoying pullups and ab work outs since my shoulder has been hurting from bench press. I hope the next 6 months goes by quickly. More to follow and I will try and gte back to updating sooner.
Jeremy

Manushia

Manushia: a word that means going no where; having no point.

That's about the only way to describe the "groundhog" life I am leading. I have absolutely zero variety in my schedule. I won't delve too far into it for operational reasons but it's the same stuff different day. Here is a picture of a clear day and a sand storm day...pretty nasty stuff!

So now that I have whined about not having any variety what have I done to change it? I enrolled in some new classes on the Defense Acquisition University online portal. This will further enhance my resume for future employment outside of the Army. I have changed around my gym time. I was working on a journal about all the things I should and need to change about myself...wow that got pretty depressing; half way done with my life and I am not sure where I am at! I am doing a daily devotional called Yellow Ribbon and it's been really applicable to my life and I enjoy finding strength in prayer and my relationship with God. I do attend church on Sunday and for the first time in my life actually sing regardless if i sound like a cat with its tail caught in the door; The Lord doesn't care how I sound!

We do entertain ourselves with good cigars. I try and smoke once per week with friends and have some sort worth while conversation, even if we just discuss the greater good of life or opening day in baseball!

My weight is going well and I continue to make awesome strides to a healthy me. I am down to 177 on the nose and I think another few pounds and I will be done with this journey and move into a sustainment phase and life style change or eating and exercise when I return. I have struggled with self destructive behavior most of my life and alcohol has never been much of a help. When I get home I will get some beach pictures with the family, not me in my CHU. I am sure everyone is tired of CHU pics. CHU=Container Housing Unit. I balance my eating with weight followed by cardio in that order for a better and longer burn. we have been sent 10,000 boxes of girl scout cookies and I have only been attacked by them two times. The first time it was thin mints and the second time was thanks-a-lot which is a short bread cookie with chocolate on one side, very tasty but it cost me 70 minutes on the ellitpical machine.

The biggest balance in my life came 13 years ago when I met Jessica. She has an innate ability to keep me focused. I have continued to lash out but she has always managed to keep me grounded and this is absolutely the reason I have such great success in my life today. If I can give one bit of advice to anyone treat your day with you spouse as the last day you will ever see them, make everyday special, new, and rewarding. DO NOT forgot those little details in life that mean so much. I know when my boss was killed on Valentines day in 1996 he didn't know that was his last day with his wife and kids.

I should be taking my R&R leave pretty soon and I can't wait to get back to Hawaii. It's such a wonderful place and the people are so nice. The sense of family is huge and we just love it there.

later from Iraq~

Jeremy

42nd Birthday and Kuwait Trip

Well the day rolled around and I turned 42! I feel healthy, I have a wonderful wife and beautiful children. I have a stable job and a master level education. I lead a faith based life and have a great relationship with God. I couldn't be happier! This deployed has been hard because of the seperation from Jessica and the kids. Though over the last 4 months I have lost 35 pounds and finished my masters. Jessica has been using the extra deployment money to pay down our bills and she has done wonderful!
When I got back from Kuwait my co-workers had a cake waiting on me, here are the pictures:

The night of my birthday I enjoyed a birthday cigar with one of our civilian employee's John and was joined my some of the sergeants and a captian I work with.

Now to my Kuwait trip. I spent 4 days in Kuwait on Army business looking over some of the facilities. I really enjoyed the chance to wear street clothes and travel around the highways without fear of being attacked. I have always enjoyed my trips to Kuwait and this one was no different. Here are the pictures from the trip:

 These are taken at Kuwait Internation Airport. we had to drop off a guy to go on leave and enjoyed a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

 Buying something nice for Jessica!

 Yes I ate it, no it was not on my diet, and no I did not record it on my food tracker!

 In a tent for 2 days and DV quarters for 2 days.

 Ran into the washington Redskin cheerleaders in the lobby, had to get a picture with them!

Cruising around a Navy base.

On my way back into Iraq. It was a good tirp and I saw a lot of things. I will return sometime in the summer and eventually move there later in the deployment. Thank you all for the support. Love, Jeremy

G4 Activities

I kind of failed to realize that many of you are not on facebook and I need to post the same pictures onto my blog. When I sat G4 that is the section which I work in. I am assigned to the 25th Infantry Division and the staff section at G1 thru G9 and each covers a key component. The G4 covers sustainment, which is maintenance, food service, supply, and transportation. We have started playing volleyball in the section once a week and here are some pictures from the last game I played in:

This last picture is from a BBQ we had to kick off a couple of days at a big planning event. Since we are located in the Baghdad area a lot of meetings are held here. This is myself, my boss Mark, Chris our deputy, and a gal named Laura who was chatting with us. Our logistics planner Zach is taking the picture.

Okay so this is it for now. I will try and take more pictures and update a little more often. I should be heading down to Kuwait for a few days and I will take my camera.
see ya,
Jeremy

Breaking Through The wall

So I have done incredible on my 6 week program and finished it. This week I lifted heavy to my max using 3 sets 6-8 reps for set and followed the same plan as the 6 week cycle. I did throw arms in twice 3 days apart for recovery. My weight was 181 this morning, I continue to work on the cardio and my run times have gottend great. I can run a sustained 7 minute mile for 4 miles.

Now to the hard part...getting the rest of my fat off without loosing the muscle. This is going to be a balancing act with a lot of protein shakes and leab cuts of meat. Here is where I am right now:

These were taken at 185-186. I have made it a point to switch between dumbell and barbell each week and change which exercise's you are using. Please email or message me on facebook if you want the 6 week workout in excel. It does take 1.5 to 2 hours to perform each day.

I have been working a cheat day in for food and one day that I don't excise that day either. I have a couple of months before R&R and I want to look my best for Jessica when I get back to Hawaii.

I decided to add some more to this post in reference to carbs. Yesterday I was 182.8 in the morning, ate 1200 calories through the day, very high in protein, drank 6 liters of water but only had 21 grams of carbs, and worked out 45 minutes with weights, 15 minute abs, and 45 minutes of cardio, today my weight was 181 on the nose, it's nuts how this works, though my effort level is to the max and I hope I can sustain this until I get my body fat below 10% into the single digits. Here is my weight chart: