Kaizen Day 25, May 5 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 25 of that routine

I woke up at 5, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym. I did a chest, shoulder and tricep workout. During the workout I decided that between each set I would go up and down the stairs twice. By the time I was done with the workout I had climbed 56 floors.  I then rode my back back home. I was back home by 7:30 AM

For breakfast I had a couple of eggs and some bread

I worked from home, had a bunch of meetings and did a fair amount of troubleshooting

Before work I installed CTP 2 of SQL Server 2017, I checked out the new SELECT INTO FileGroup functionality and wrote a short post about it: SQL Server 2017: SELECT INTO File Group

I didn't eat lunch but I had some fruit and cheese during various times of the day

For dinner we made Mexican food since it was Cinco de Mayo. May 5th is also Bevrijdingsdag in the Netherlands. Bevrijdingsdag is celebrated each year on May the 5th to mark the end of the occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II.

For dessert I've been a bad boy and had cookies and cream ice cream...


My goal was to climb 100 floors, I ended up with climbing 101 floors. I did 45 of them at home, most of them were done during phone calls with work (backlog grooming, story closing and daily stand up)

Here is what the rest of the activity looks like

Total steps:  15,837

Total floors: 101

Total distance: 7.6 miles

Kaizen Day 24, May 4 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 24 of that routine

Whenever I plan to go to the city I set my alarm to go off at 4 AM. I will always wake up by myself around 3:57 AM, the alarm will almost never go off while I am still sleeping. Today I woke up at 3:50 AM. I decided to get up...what is the point trying to get another 10 minutes of sleep in

I made myself a cold brew coffee the night before and I drank this between 4 and 4:30 AM

I left the house at 4:30 AM, walked to the train station, this took 40 minutes. I caught the 5:20 train, I read about 30 pages of the book Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen . The train arrived at  Newark at 5:55 or so, got on the PATH train and arrived at the World Trade Center station around 6:20. I then walked to the New York Sports Club gym on Broad street and did back, biceps and legs as part of my workout.

I then walked to the office and snapped this picture below from the 33rd floor




For breakfast I had a burrito, avocado and cherry tomatoes



For lunch, I had something that wasn't too healthy, it was a buffalo chicken steak sandwich


On my way home I saw this cool vehicle at the New York Stock Exchange... I originally though it was a hummer. I is actually a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle

Joint Light Tactical Vehicle

Here is what wikipedia says about this vehicle

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) is a United States military (specifically U.S. Army, USSOCOM, and U.S. Marine Corps) program to part-replace the Humvee^[3] with a family of more survivable vehicles with greater pay load. The JLTV program was approved in 2006 to begin early studies.

On the train ride home I listened to Tim Ferriss podcast show:  Exploring Smart Drugs, Fasting, and Fat Loss — Dr. Rhonda Patrick

Walked the usual 2.2 miles from the train station home

For dinner I had leftovers from the day before, baked ziti, we also had salad

For dessert I had some pineapple and a kiwi


Here is what the activity looks like.... is that half a marathon?

Total steps:  27,498
Total floors: 46
Total distance: 13.1 miles





Looks like I need to tighten the belt by 1 hole any day now, my jeans are starting to get a little loose

Kaizen Day 23, May 3 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 23 of that routine


Today I didn't do any cardio or workout to the gym. I had to be home with the youngest kids while my wife had to drive the oldest kid to school to catch a bus to NYC as part of a class trip. He went to see the play School of Rock and also visited Radio City Music Hall

I decided to take the stairs every time I passed them as kind of a workout today


I did my usual 2.2 mile walk to the train station, I arrived with 20 minutes to spare , I walk around the train station. I noticed the lighting in the tunnel looked kind of cool, I took a picture and you can see what it looked like below

Tunnel at Princeton junction Train Station

At work whenever I went to use the restroomI decided to take the stairs down and then up again
The goal was to hit 50 floors for the day

I also decided to do a 24 hour fast, so dinner will be the first solid food I will have today. I had coffee with half and half but no solids


For dinner my wife made baked ziti and we had cauliflower on the side


At the end of the day I actually did 77 floors, not too bad at all. I noticed at least 4 people going up and down the stairs in the office around lunch time

Here is what the rest of the activity looks like

Total steps:  24,874
Total floors: 77
Total distance: 11.3

Kaizen Day 23, May 2 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 23 of that routine



Whenever I plan to go to the city I set my alarm to go off at 4 AM. I will always wake up by myself around 3:57 AM, the alarm will almost never go off while I am still sleeping. Today I woke up at 3:45 AM. I decided to get up...what is the point trying to get another 15 minutes of sleep in

I made myself a cold brew coffee the night before and I drank this between 4 and 4:30 AM

I left the house at 4:30 AM, walked to the train station, this took 40 minutes. I caught the 5:20 train, I read about 30 pages of the book Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen . The train arrived at  Newark at 5:55 or so, got on the PATH train and arrived at the World Trade Center station around 6:20. I then walked to the New York Sports Club gym on Broad street and did push-ups, shoulders and triceps as part of my workout. I also did 21 minutes of cardio which burned a total of 240 calories


Arrived at  the office a little before 8 AM

Had yogurt with fruit for breakfast

For lunch I had a rice/bowl from Chipotle

Left work at 4:30 PM, got to Princeton at 6:10. Read about 30 pages of the book Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen on the train. My wife picked me up, so I didn't walk home today

For dinner we had the same as last night: lentil soup


Total steps:  20,664
Total floors: 24
Total distance: 9.2

Kaizen Day 22, May 1 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 22 of that routine

I woke up at 5, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym. I did a back, bicep and leg workout and the rode my back back home. I was back home by 7:30 AM

I worked from home and did a fair amount of coding and troubleshooting

For breakfast I had a couple of eggs and some bread

For lunch I had some cheese and some fruit

For dinner I had lentil soup with spinach and oatmeal bread, I also had 2 peanut butter cups for dessert

I watched the epsisode Golden Frog Time from the Showtime show Billions. This was the best episode so far. If you are not watching this show I highly recommend it. The stars of the show are Paul Giamatti from Sideways and Damian Lewis from Homeland

Fun fact,  one of the writes of this show is an old acquaintance of mine David Levien, I once went to Webster Hall with him and some friends. It was psychedelic thursdays and we were on the upper floor listening to the Cult....

Total steps:  11,493
Total floors: 14
Total distance: 5.1

Kaizen Day 21, Apr 30 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 21 of that routine

Got out of bed ad 5:10 AM today..had my coffee and listened to some podcasts. Left the house around 6:20 AM and ran for about 40 minutes.


My oldest son made a raisin cinnamon bread the night before and today he used that bread to make french toast for everyone.

While the wife and kids went to church I walked around Princeton and listen to the London Real podcast with Crazy Legs

Richard Colón, better known by his stage name Crazy Legs, is an American b-boy from the Bronx New York City, USA. He featured in the earliest stories on hip hop dancing to appear in mainstream press, and as president of the Rock Steady Crew brought the form to London and Paris in 1983.

This brought back a whole bunch of memories from when I was a teenager. I remember watching the movie Beat Street and Breakin' and liking them. Back in the early 80s I could pull off some of those breakdancing moves like the worm.

Here is a pic I snapped near the golf course in Princeton right across the Wawa and the Princeton NJ Transit train station  

Near the golf course, close to Princeton University

For lunch I took some leftover string beans and cherry tomatoes salad, added chickpeas and chunks of Parmigiano Reggiano to it and shared it with my kids


For dinner we had a variant of chicken cacciatore, we substituted mushrooms for green beans because not all the kids like mushrooms

I had half a cookie for dessert as well as some blueberries and a kiwi


Total steps:  20,681
Total floors: 4
Total distance: 9.8 miles

Kaizen Day 19/20, Apr 28/29 2017

This post is part of my daily kaizen routine, this is day 19/20 of that routine

April 28

I worked from home today, mostly because we had a bunch of meetings, it doesn't make sense to go into the office just to dial into meetings

I woke up at 5, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym. I did a back, bicep and leg workout and then rode my back back home. I was back home by 7:40 AM

Had some eggs for breakfast, and I had a sandwich for lunch


For dinner we had pasta with kale, bacon and fontina cheese, we also had a side of salad

I had some ice cream for dinner

Total steps:  11,930
Total floors: 21
Total distance: 5.3 miles



April 29

I woke up at 5 because of a huge thunderstorm, had my coffee and then rode my bike to the gym at 6:20. I did a chest, shoulder and tricep workout and then rode my back back home. I was back home by 8:30 AM

Had some leftover pancakes for breakfast

Took a walk to the bookstore with my oldest son while the two younger kids had their tennis lesson

Had a little pasta with broccoli for lunch


For dinner we had burgers on the grill with a side salad that had string beans and cherry tomatoes in it

salad with string beans and cherry tomatoes

Total steps:  21,538
Total floors: 18
Total distance: 9.5 miles