I’ve been stuck in a ‘routine’ of laziness for the past year or so and it’s about time I snap out of it. I told myself that it’s time to rethink my life, but decided that didn’t sound right. That’s not what I want to do.  To me, rethinking life means figuring out where I want to go with my life, not what I’m looking to change. I’m pretty happy with where I have gotten in life and I don’t intend to change that. What I do want to change though is how I live my current life. I want to redesign my life. And I thought to myself: that sounds pretty cool,… Redesigning Life. It’s an interesting idea when you think about it. Since I’m a web developer, I started thinking of it in terms of redesigning a website. I’m keeping all the same content (job, apartment, friends, family) but I’m changing the style. I need to remove clutter, become more organized, and just make things simpler. Something I can take more pride in. I tried to think back when I had been the happiest and what my days were like then.

So I started thinking of the steps I need to take in order to be successful in this redesign. And here they are:

1. Define each separate part of my life I want to change.
- Each part should be very specific. If you’re not specific with each goal then you’re leaving more room for failure.
2. Organize and order each part defined in step 1 from easiest to hardest to execute.
- Some of these may be drastic changes. Best to get a couple easy changes done first.
3. Slowly execute each goal.
- Take your time between goals. Trying to do too many at once might just discourage you.

That’s it. Simple, right? I’m hoping so. I’m currently in this process. I’m jumping around a little bit as I think of other parts of my life I want to redesign. As long as I take it slow and start getting into the routine of each change, I’ll begin another part of the redesign.

Now I’ll give you an idea of what I’m trying to accomplish with this redesign…
1: Get rid of clutter!
- I’ve had bins that I’ve been dragging around while moving, so a couple weeks ago I went through 4 bins full of anything and everything. I was able to consolidate all of that down to 1 1/2 bins. The rest was just junk, things I thought to be sentimental, and other things that I had no idea why I had kept.
- I then decided to go through my clothes. I knew I had some clothes that I had replaced with newer clothes, but I still kept the oldies around. Some clothes were gifts I got that were just too small. So all of these went into a bag and straight to goodwill.
- Lastly, I needed to get rid of the every day clutter… the random items that get put on my desk and end up finding a home there, or things under my bed/in my closet that I had forgotten were even there. All of this stuff either found it’s correct place, or joined the junk I had found in my bins.

Result: So that was pretty easy. A good start to the redesign. Only took a day, and so far I’ve been able to stop collecting unnecessary items and keep my room and apartment pretty darn clean and organized.

2. Wake up earlier.
- When? I’m going to start waking up at least by 7:30am every day (yes, including weekends). I haven’t done this yet. Though I always wake up around that time on my own, but then go back to sleep after. 7:30am probably doesn’t sound too bad for most people out there, but when you don’t start work until 9:30 – 10ish (and live 5min away), then it’s pretty easy to be lazy and sleep past 9am.
- There is a huge sense of accomplishment I get when I do wake up early and do something with that time. Whether it be get a head start at work, work on my own stuff, get some errands done, or work out in the morning. I sometimes complain there isn’t enough time in the day,… but its because i sleep through most of it! So time to change that.

3. Get back to the gym.
- Now this one has been started thanks to my friend and co-worker Keith Lam. We started working out on Tuesday are just now starting a routine. Both of us are already extremely sore, but have been able to keep motivation and push eachother.
- Our plan is for Mon, Wed, Fri to be lifting days, while Tues + Thur are cardio. Then weekends you get to do whatever you please, if we want to just rest, thats fine, or we can do more cardio on our own.

4. Eat Healthier.
- This one is a bit tougher since it is kind of harder to define the specifics. I currently am in the progress of doing so, but right now I’m just trying to use common sense and will power to make sure I’m eating healthy.

And that is all i have right now. I’m really hoping this redesign sticks. I’ll try to keep this updated with my progress. Fingers crossed!

It has been a while since i last posted.  To give you an update on what has happened since then…
1. I got tubbier. stopped going to the gym and started eating unhealthy,.. bad move.  But i’m back on the gym thing and using nikeplus.com for running and such,.. so far its prettay cool.  And Tracy Morgan keeps giving me compliments when i complete stuff!
2. I blew a lot of money.  Bad thing? Kinda, kinda not. cause i blew it on a new, to me, Jeep.  A Grand Cherokee 2010.  Went with a Laredo, i like it, I’ve had it for 2 weeks now and i couldn’t be happier with the purchase.

That’s about all that has happened since the last update here.  I decided not do to any new years resolutions this year,.. because i just let myself down.  And i don’t like that.  PLUS!!! Who needs a new year to make resolutions? Not me, i do resolutions whenever i want, i have that power.

Anyways, lets wrap this post up with some music or pictures or something entertaining… how about a old person choir singing some ridic songs?!?! ENJOY!

Typing away on the iPad. It’s harder than I think it should be but it also isn’t too bad,…. I miss resting my hands on the keyboard which you definitely can’t do with the iPad. Ya know? Well anyways, this isn’t my iPad. It’s the work iPad. And it’s just been going around from employee to employee for a while and now it’s my turn. Pretty neat right.
Currently I’m laying in bed, saddened by my misfortune in the fantasy football leagues I’ve participated in this year. Too many leagues make it hard to concentrate on one single team. Next year I’ll do 2 max.
And now fantasy basketball has started so it’ll be even harder to manage everyone and still do work, play Mario, dangle around on the guitar, and so on. Something is going to have to suffer and it sure won’t be Mario.

Next on my list,… Remember that working out stint i did. Then i stopped talking about it. Welllll I may have taken a hiatus for a couple weeks. I blame it on the busy weeks and traveling on the weekends. So just to let you all know last thursday I weighed 172 and had bmi of 23. I actually had a test for it at work and got a 100$ for being healthy. Yay me. That being said I havent completely fallen off. So tomorrow i will be starting back up. And I want you guys out there, all 1 or 2 of you that might read this on accident, to know that you are the reason i do this. I cant let you die hard Brandon fans down.
So good night and I’ll hopefully post some good news again soon.

Success! Started out today with a lil weighing Brandon action.  Result: 174.6llbs.  That’s a 1.4lb decrease in 24 hours.  Could it just be water weight? maybe,.. but i weighed myself after i woke up on both days, so i’d say it’s pretty close to having lost some weight.  Weight does fluctuate a lot throughout the day,.. but i figure as long as i weigh myself at the same time every day i should have a good idea if i’m losing weight.  And I’d say yes.  I was able to eat better yesterday and less.

Today, so far I have been successful again.  I have already made it to the gym where i had myself a small cardio day.  Started off with just 5 minutes on an eliptical, until a treadmill opened up,.. then jumped on that for 1.5 miles in 10:26.  Then jumped to the bike where i did 5 miles in 10:32.  And left plenty of my water weight on the floor of the gym.  After that i made my way to cafe to grab lunch and for a second day in a row I made it allllll the way through the salad line.  snagged up another black tea, and baked lays bbq chips, and today added a fresh fruit cup to the party.  So i’d say on still on my way to this 6lbs loss by friday.  I’m also going to play basketball later tonight for a couple hours with people from work, which always leaves me tired.

And a fun fact in the life of Brandon: I walked right by Kevin Connolly (plays Eric on Entourage) on my way back from the cafe today.  Didn’t realize who it was til too late, so I didn’t end up saying hi or anything.  But i did learn he’s not a very tall guy.  I realize he was made fun of for being little in the show, but i thought he’d be atleast like 5’7 or 5’8″, but no way,…  he was probably 5’4″, maybe a generous 5’5″.   But yea, neato gang.

Anyways. I’ll write another update tomorrow with some updated stats of my progress.