So its been a while since I posted here.

Not too much has been happening. I built another cigar box and might in the near future get some wood to bend.  I first need to make myself a bender, I think I may go with a pipe bender with a light bulb in the center.  I also have been contemplating making a youthalele from the UU maker Brad Donaldson.  So I will see how that goes there is no bending required there so might be a good start!!

I also made the head stock on my gourd ukulele a slotted head stock. I found the angle I made it was not sharp enough to make the action low enough to play good!  So I did that as well to my new cigar box I made as well!!  So hopefully will pop in here more often!! Uke On!!

A few weeks Left!!!

So with only a few weeks left and my weight becoming more stable looks like this is as low as I go.....
Seems like now muscle is going on and it weighs more then fat so looks good! Still got a little belly but hey not bad!!!!! Also looks like another UUBLer is gonna win the prize, oh well a new uke would have been nice but the weight loss is just as good!!! So I will continue my quest to loose some more but looks like mostly muscle is building now so that's a good thing!!!

On a side note last week our uke group met up and we played locally again by the river which was cool on a Sunday afternoon! Well till next time we meet I am learning new songs so I can keep up with these people in the group!!!! Have fun and till next time later!!!!!

2 Weeks???

So its been about two weeks since my updates....last week I gained about 2.5 pounds but this week I lost about 3 pounds so good week it was. I think my trip snowboarding and the beers and pizza did me in.  Also this last week I did more exercise and never looked back!!!! So hopefully now with spring around the corner it will warm up soon and I will be even more active in my outdoor activities!!!! Can't wait! Till next post, later!

So bad to keep tabs...

So I am so not the blogger I thought I could be....I noticed I have not been here in a week or so. Well an update is due!!!

This last week I lost about another 1.5 lbs bringing me down to 8 pounds lost only another 12.8 to go but looks tough to do.  This is where I have been slowing down it seems.  I think I still need more exercise but overall I am not doing badly...I sill watch portions of what I am eating and am trying new exercise routines daily even if its for 20-30 mins.  I think once the nice weather is here I will get out more and exercise, jog, fish, walk and hike...fishing does burn calories!  I also this last week slipped and had Iced tea about everyday about one to two glasses but hey its not the end of the world....

Also in other news I had my first ukulele jam with a great group of people in NJ!!!! It was good to get out and meet other ukulele players in person and jam with them. A lot of the songs were oldies but hey I was playing them and didn't sound to bad. The jam was luckily right here in my town and I didn't have to drive far as well and I stayed an hour extra and jammed with the host as well, it was pretty cool!!
Well that's all I got this last week so hope you enjoyed it till next time(hopefully sooner) Later!!!

This last Week!!!

So I know I have not been blogging as much as I would like to but hey at least I am trying and that's what counts...So this last week was my birthday on Tuesday and even though that meant cupcakes and all I tried to limit myself. However today being from NJ I am watching the Superbowl and that means not so good food. I do plan to counter that with drinking vodka and cranberry which is good low calories!!  This week I managed to come down below 180 pounds and lost another 2 pounds!!! That is great because I feel as though as I work out some and get the exercise I am gaining muscle and loosing the fat so you would think I would start to plateau but not yet, I guess I have a little more fat then I expect.  This week I also was able to walk the mall 2 times pushing my twins and my 3 year old every now and then for a total of 3 miles each time!  Hopefully it will get nicer out soon so I could start to jog and loose some additional weight. Well off to another great week hope everyone else is doing great as well. Later!!
Ken

Its been awhile!

So Its been over a week since I updated my status...This last week I was down about a pound and am still watching calories and portions.  I also have continued to keep up with the water no soft drinks.  Today might be hard as it is my birthday!!!! I will try to eat good but I am sure cake will be involved!  I also have noticed that maybe my weight may not be going down as much or fast as I think I am exercising more and building muscle which is of course better than fat!!!! So I will still try to loose weight but I think that it will soon convert more to muscle only time will tell!
See you later and hope all is good!

Sundays weigh In!

So another week has passed and I am still loosing weight.  Again this week I lost an additional 2.2 pounds.  I think I can put that to the exercise I really stepped up to in the later part of the week.  I also drank no Iced Tea this week and watched what I ate but not necessarily the calories.  I found that if I ate smaller meals a few times a day then I managed better then before. So this week I plan on exercising more as well as continuing with the small meals and drinking water!! Here's to loosing the weight! Later!

UUBL and new uke!

So the UUBL is still going and I am still watching those calories as well as getting some exercise in. I will only see how this week works compared to next. Yesterday I also have almost completed my cigar box and I also recieved my new ukulele from Eddy Finn! I won it on a contest with youtube for most views on a video. Granted I didn't get first but still got a $200 Ef-50 T ukulele. Notice the shark fin soundhole and it also has the smell of coconuts, quite interesting, it is also a tenor model one I don't have! Well off to learn a new tune for a nother contest and get out and exercise!! Later!

Cigar Box!!!

So finally almost complete with this project just gluing down the fret board then the bridge.  I should have considered the placement of bridge as it will be going through the c of Cohiba oh well live and learn!! So here they are!!!

Here is what I started to make as the whole neck shape, but then realized that the top was to wide and it just wasn't going to work.

 Here is a profile of the neck as it tapers towards the tuners!  I then popped it out then added four coats of spray lacquer.  I would lightly use steel wool in between coats until it was looking nice!!

This is where I masked out the sound hole I was gonna do a fancy one but glued the top before I did it!!!!!

Here is a shot of my notch for the neck

Tail of neck

Here I clamped down the fretboard as I trimmed and filed the fret-wire.

Now I am just waiting for the fretboard to dry should be by tonight or tomorrow for sure as I am using Titebond.  I also used Howards Feed n Wax to coat the fretboard with a nice looking oil finish.  I think once I have everything assembled I will probably be adding a coat or two or lacquer to the body as well! Hope you enjoy it! Any questions just ask I am not an expert but had fun doing it!

Monday Night!

So I did well today, I think, I got out and walked around a bit watched portion control as well as my calories! So all in all I think I am still on track for a pound a week weight loss.  I also managed today to glue in the neck and top of my cigar box! Almost done those frets take some time to trim especially without the right tools! I will definitely get pics up tomorrow, I promise!
All together I think it was a good dayonly thing is my wife got a candle.  Now I love candles but this one smells like a brownie and makes me want one so bad!!!! Oh well better to smell one then have one!!! Later!

Week 2!

So yesterday I took off from my calorie counting but I did manage to not drink that much tea and replaced it with water. So today is my wife's day off from schools so I think we are going to go the mall and walk it a few times to burn some calories off. I also think that this may be a bi-weekly thing for me to help out!  I also am planning on maybe continuing to count calories to see how this works but maybe next week I may start to just eat small meals throughout the day to see how that goes. I really don't have a complete plan but I will see which works best! Well see you later!

End of Week one weigh in!

So today I did it weighed in and lost a total of 2 lbs.  Not bad considering I am just working on loosing 1 to 1.5 lbs a week so I am on track but I also know that some weeks I will stay the same and others I will loose more so I will see.  I haven't been able to post these last couple of days but I have still been counting calories and keeping up on what I am doing. So as far as the first week it seems like all is well.  I think for this week I will cut out iced tea, I love it but know its loaded with sugars!!! So in place since I don't like water so much I am adding MIO to it. It is a zero calorie flavoring that makes it have a little taste so I will see how that works out! I also plan on week two stepping up on the workouts more and seeing how that helps me out. 

As far as my cigar box I sill haven't had a chance to take pics but hopefully today.  Last night I started to trim up the fret-wire and file them even so I will take some pics of that today and post them later or tomorrow!  So here's to a good week and I will attempt to keep up on this blog hopefully everyday!

Another Day!

So I am still at it counting calories.  Seems like everything I grab now I look at calories then try to figure out how much I can have to allow me enough for the day.... So far I hope it has been working out as I am still not stepping on the scale to see what I am doing. Also today worked again so I figure that is my workout even though it wasn't much but it was a little!  I also restrung my gourd ukulele and finish sanded the neck of the cigar box prepping to be finished! So tomorrow I hope to work out a little more and maybe jog but will see how the weather is hopefully better then todays!

Also here is a pic of my gourd ukulele before I made the necessary adjustments I needed to!

You can see the neck is thick to the top and around the gourd I am gonna fill with a little rope binding of sorts! Well till tomorrow!

still at it!

So day four here on the ukulele undergrounds biggest loser and I am still strumming along.  I had another day of good diet which started out with a green pepper, onion, mushroom and solo egg burrito for breakfast follwed by a chicken salad for lunch.  I had no snacks in between mid day then for dinner had 3 chicken tacos and a little yellow rice. I did start to drink more water which was good as the iced tea and soda I cut down on!
I also got out and went shopping today and walked around the strip mall for a bit to get a little more exercise.  I also seemed to park further out so I would get those extra steps in!  Whoo hoo!  I plan on tomorrow going to the ,mall and doing a couple laps while carrying a kid on my back(backpack) and pushing the other two in a stroller that should burn some calories just gotta stay out of food court!

On a side project today I also took my gourd ukulele and reshaped the neck so it was more comfortable.  I also got some spray  lacquer and applied four coats to it to give it a nice shine!  Now hopefully tomorrow I will be able to put it back together and restring it up and do any other final finishes on it!  This lacquer is really a test to see how it works out so when I get my cigar box completed I will know how it looks as well! Well off to finish learning a new song, later!

Day 3 UUBL!

So today I still did pretty much the same watched my caloric intake. I did manage to add a little exercise as well as I worked picking up almost 1000 packages for FedEx.  It seems like picking up packages isn't that much but I was sweating and its chilly outside!

So I am planning out my attack for the rest of the week and figure I am still going to cut calories and use my Fios on demand for some exercising.  I also want to go for a jog and might start that tomorrow as well.  So here's to continue in my loosing weight!

Day 2 of the challenge!

So I hope that I will be able to keep up at the end of every day with a little synopsis of what I did and ate and all that!  So today woke up and had a half bagel with a little cream cheese and some coffee for breakfast.  But then lunch came and I had 2 slices of pizza which was 544 calories but since breakfast was light I figured why not, right.  Then for dinner I splurged on a can of soup another 360 calories.  With my drinks I had and snacks it turns out that as of 8:15 I still have 216 left and hopefully thats it for the day!  So in my first 2 days I cut out an additional 600 or more calories so hopefully I am on the way to loose some weight!

I was also thinking about doing a daily weigh in but I think I will leave that for the end of the week.  Now all I need to do is really add some exercises, I did want to go for jog today but its 40 degrees outside and I didn't feel like bundling up.  So I am going to use my Fios on Demand for some good exercises to do during the day. Will see what tomorrow brings, although I do have to work tomorrow for FedEx so maybe that will be my calorie burning for the day! Well time to play a little ukulele and figure a good rock song to make mellow! Till tomorrow!

Day 1

Well meant to post this last night but got to busy and spaced until now.  So completed my weigh in and I wasn't as bad as I thought but still have about 15lbs to loose.  Supposedly on this lose it app I got I should be able to by March 25th not bad I am hoping for a week or two or good drops and maybe get it before then.  Otherwise today I went out with my oldest and went on a skateboard with her for about 20 minutes or more and that was exercise.  I think I might make this stick for my skateboard and use it to replicate Stand Up Paddle boarding only on dry land.  I will see how that works out but I know that would be a bunch of calories burnt and all around workout!  So off for the rest of today and hopefully will go for a run later see how that works out!

The Begining!!!

So here I am 8:00 on Saturday thinking of my UUBL!  That is the Ukulele Underground Biggest Loser! I figure that I will use this blog to journal my daily routine to see what will make me the biggest loser!  Granted I am only looking to loose 15 -20 lbs but am also looking to build a little muscle mass like when I was 20! Well I still have a lot to plan out for the next 12 weeks but it should be interesting! I have downloaded a few apps to help me I will see which works best.  So hope all works well!  I will also use this to document some of my ukulele learning along the way as well! So for now see you soon!