The Pig Race is on!

Dear friends,

A couple of months before Elin and I got married we decided to lose some weight. Said and done, I lost about 5 kgs (11 lbs) and Elin did a good job too.

After that it has all been downhill and I have since become a lard ass. So extreme circumstances call for extreme methods. And extreme over weight call for The Pig Race!

Starting today I am a pig racing towards health. I will blog about eating habits, the aerobics class, ten-beers-or-not-ten-beers, my weight, my waist-line and outdoors activities such as hiking, running and walking to the mail box.

Perhaps a few of you will even be inspired to grab yourself by the waist-line and start hunting that hog.

Goal:
a) To lose 15 kgs (33 lbs) before my birthday on 1 July.
b) To have 90% of my t-shirts fit instead of 10%

Terms:
a) I will bring updates at least once every week.
b) All my friends are allowed to bully/mock me here on the blog.
c) You may also cheer on if you feel like it.

Stats: Day 1

Weight: 88,2 kg (194,3 lbs)
Waist: 102 cm (40,8″)
BMI: 26,1 (“over weight”)
Comment: “It feels good to sit after walking up the stairs.”

With those numbers the Race is on!

And the joke is on me.

Stats: Day 6

Weight: 86,4 kg (190,5 lbs)
Waist: 100 cm (29,4″)
BMI: 25 (still ”over weight”)

The Pig on “working out”: No doubt about it, after almost one full week I’m off to a slow start. I have lost almost 2 kgs (4,4 lbs) though just by walking a lot. (Got a flat tire on the bicycle on my way to a bar actually – I intend to fix the tire but more than so I need to exercise properly.

The Pig on “food”: Since work started again after the holidays I do watch what I eat. Lots of salads, some low calorie shakes, cooking without too much oil etc. This will give heavy effect soon.

The Pig on “friends”: Well, the mocking is off to a good start. The lot of you took the chance at sucker punching. Good for me coz I need the daily fisting. Also, I must say that I have inspired some. No less than three friends have signed up to join in or compete with me but before all that I’m off to work.

If you can’t be good, be bad, baby!

Stats: Day 12

Weight: 84,6 kg (186,5 lbs)
Waist: 99 cm (38,9″)
BMI: 25 (still ”over weight”)

My only exercise so far has been walking which is a shame. To my defense I can say that I have a bad cold and that I have been walking an aweful lot. So the 3,6 kgs (7,9 lbs) I have lost so far is an effect of better eating routines.

I eat stuff like the above and it’s not fair but it’s healthy. I also make sure I eat something every 2-3 hours. Fat-free stuff, no candy, no soda, no nothing.

The good old bad habits. While cleaning out a room we are renovating I found a picture of me from years and years ago. Though partially staged it says something about which lifestyle lead to this pig form of mine.

Now I’m walking out to do some work.

Might as well lose some weight while at it.

Stats: Day 14

Weight: 83,2 kg (183,4 lbs)
Waist: 97 cm (38,2″)
BMI: 24,6 (”normal weight”)

This is going all to well. Piece of cake! Without the cake. It’s been easy: I can’t have the cake and I can’t eat it. Period. I’m down 5 kgs (11 lbs). It’s almost like I’m losing weight too fast! I’ll end upp looking like that skin-stealin’ alien from Men In Black.

I have inspired quite a few people allready: One friend has written down “life rules” and Sandor is bloggingabout the very same things as me. He was even in local paper about it two days ago. Then there is Jo. He was joking when he said: “I should join the pig race”.

Two seconds later he was drafted.

Stats: Day 30

Weight: 82,2 kg (181,2 lbs)
Waist: 97 cm (38,2″)
BMI: 24,3 (”normal weight”)

Down by 6 kgs (13,2 lbs). Sandor has his own diet blog called Fat Donation and he’s raving about losing weight through just eating fat; kind of what they call Atkin’s Diet. I’ve been toying with it a bit and I haven’t gained anything at least.

Me and Elin are considering going to Israel together some time this year. I was there almost three years ago. Don’t know if going there made me thin but the above show’s evidence of my not-quite-so-piggy self.

Kiss kiss bang bang!

We are doing some work on our apartment. A lot of bang bang actually. Smashing a wall and raising another. When all is said and done we will have an extra guest room, which means that we will have two proper guest rooms which is why we moved to this place in the first place from the old place.

While waiting for pictures of the new place we might as well show you the old place which was an incredible place to live. And cheap, like the new place.

Remembering: Sleepwalk (2001)

When we both lived in Halmstad on the west coast, me and Martin Prahl founded a band called Pride of Mine that eventually became Sleepwalk. That was in 2001. As I remember he wrote two songs and I wrote two, but probably he did a bit more. Also, without him the recordings would never have been completed at all. I then destroyed the band by moving home to Veddige which I really shouldn’t have done.

So today we remember Sleepwalk as me and Elin get ready to create gingerbread bodyparts and gingerbread metal band logos and gingerbread non-correct political symbols.

Sleepwalk “In My Heart” (demo)

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Sleepwalk “Capture Life” (demo)

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A good friend gone

On saturday morning I was very sad to learn that good friend, former employer and village entrepreneur Hans Olsson passed away. I don’t really know the hows and whys but I do know that Hans will be dearly missed in my home town of Veddige.

Hans and his wife Lena were running the Esso gas station in Veddige where I got my first job. We spent countless hours together serving customers and cars, talking ice hockey and joking around.

Many a good thing can be said about Hans, but one thing stands out: He was a man of his word. If he promised you something then he would walk through hellfire to deliver. Also, he was probably the biggest supporter of our metal cover band Cruel Covers. In january of 2005 a storm hit the west coast of Sweden in the middle of the night blacking out the whole village of Veddige. Me and Sandor were not late in heading out there. We ended up at the gas station were Hans and Lena were looking after things, waiting for the electricity to return.

Sandor took a picture. We had a couple of laughs and then returned out into the cold and found our way home were we lit some candles. A mighty fine memory I will say.

Good friend Martin “Compadre” Thomander called me up last night to let me know that before last nights’ game the Veddige Vipers held a silent minute for the late Hans Olsson. Hats off for that. Hans was always a through-the-ice-and-snow supporter of the local ice hockey team. The Vipers then kicked the crap out of Hovås Hockey winning 4-1.

So, on this day we raise our glasses high for Esso-Hans who is probably allready shifting gears in the Formula 1 race across the high plains of heaven. Salute!

The need for casual blogging…

Hey deadheads,

If it used to be every day, it is more twice a year now. Blogging that is. Not lots of it. While I don’t wake up from police raids (like in Chicago) or from crazy middle easterners (Israel) stuff still happens. And I’ve travelled more since so, I just suck at writing about it. Thought I would just throw some things out there and try to write more frequent after that. Ready roosters?

1) Me and Elin celebrated six months of being married this monday.

2) I went to see Aimee Mann live in Stockholm about two weeks ago.

3) I visited Pilgrim Bestiarius of black metal band Crimson Moonlight about six weeks back – took a lot of pictures and conducted an interview that was published over four pages in Swedish newspaper Dagen. A simliar article will be published in HM Magazine which is great fun.

4) I’m watching the Vancouver Canucks play the New York Rangers right now. NYR just reduced to 1-4. It’s a re-run though from last night. The game started at 2 in the morning. The Canucks are crushing!

5) Held a economy seminare at the local University.

6) Me and Elin got identical marriage tattoos! Really sweet ones. Butterflies with skulls for bodies.

7) I started a new part-time job today. It’s for the municipality and a great job I think. I’m the controller for this collaboration between five different municipalities trying to help some hundred youngsters who’ve had a hard time getting jobs.

8) I bought a season ticket for the Örebro Vipers‘ home games. Haven’t missed a game so far. We’re aiming for advancement to the second highest division this year. Go Vipers!

9) We hosted a Halloween party… on Halloween and we had a blast. About 25 people showed up. Elin was dressed up like a dead nun (much like Freddy Kruger’s mom Amanda from A Nightmare on Elm Street). I was a skinhead. Others showed up as Napoleon Dynamite, the Devil and a Bee.

Lot of stories for you. Not enough to make up for lost time, but a good effort. I could leave you with a top three too I guess;

- Marillion “Happiness is the Road” (2008)
- Robert Earl Keen “Marfa after Dark” (2008)
- Novembre “Materia” (2006)

That’s all kids. If you are gonna chew dirt, don’t swallow.

/ Rattlehead

Out shooting

So the annual Frizon took place pretty close to Örebro. I went over to shoot some pics for upcoming interviews. The Blindside show was pretty stale (their last one ever? Who knows…).

I spent a couple of hours with Jani Stefanovic (The Weakening, Miseration, Essence of Sorrow etc) talking about his current and upcoming projects. I think I’ll try and do an article about him this fall. That show was really cool but the sound inside that tent sucked ass.

Also, the awemighty Crimson Moonlight played. A great show and their vocalist Pilgrim Bestiarius is the nicest bloke in the northern realms of the hemisphere. We decided I should come visit him in a couple of weeks and spend some time together in his un-wired cottage with no running water! Should be a blast. That is also an idea for an article that is allready sold.

Now I just need to write it.

Pictures from Belgium (2008)

We thought Elin had lost her little camera but today we found it and much to our delight and surprise it held a few pictures from Belgium this summer.

Pictures from Tijs’ and Hanne’s wedding and from the grand opening of Bart’s piano store.