Browsing Category

fitness

Happy Long Weekend and a Fitness Update

Posted on November 25, 2012

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and ate until they could eat no more. As for me, I didn’t actually do that much eating this weekend as I’m in the midst of getting in shape for the rest of my life.

Yes, I realize the “rest of my life” thing might be heady stuff for this early on a Sunday, but what can I say? I’m taking steps to better myself, it’s going pretty well and I feel like sharing.

Since I started eating better, not drinking booze/beer and working with a personal trainer three months ago, I’ve lost over 20 pounds and can now fit into clothes I used to wear long ago and new ones I bought thinking I would eventually fit into them. I gotta say, it’s a pretty great feeling to be accomplishing a goal like this.

I’ve still got a lot of work to do so I can’t stop just yet and start eating pizza and drinking beer. That will come around again once I get to the weight and level of fitness I want to get to. At that point, an occasional binge here and there won’t be a problem.

Until then, it’s protein bars and turkey wraps on whole wheat tortillas for me. Fortunately, I actually like eating both of those things, so it’s not really that much of a problem.

The weird part is that I don’t really miss the bad food or booze all that much. I really thought I would. Sure, I think about eating pizza or a cheese burger, having a beer or, perhaps, a bit of 21 year old scotch now and then, but I really don’t miss any of it. It just isn’t as important as I thought it was.

What it really comes down to is this: I want to live a long, happy and healthy life instead of any of the alternatives. In short, I choose me.

I think I made the right choice.

Standing Room Only

Posted on July 7, 2012

If you don’t follow me on the Twitter or Facebook or Google+ (if you don’t, why not?) you might not know I’ve been having some back problems of late. In short, it sucks. My back seems determined to thwart me at every turn.

Sitting and working for long periods is especially painful. Good thing I don’t sit and work for long periods. . . Oh, crap, I do. Well, so much for that.

To help alleviate the problem I have started standing to work and am, in fact, standing as I write this. It’s not so bad. The only downside so far is that my kitchen counter is pretty much the only place I can do this and it’s about a half foot too low.

At least I’m closer to the coffee.

My plan for the near future is to try and stand more often and just move more in general. If you believe all the latest research, sitting too much is killing us. I don’t know if it’s really killing us (probably), but it does seem to be killing my back.

In case you don’t know how bad sitting is, here’s a handy infographic from the folks at Medical Billing and Coding dot Org to give you a clue.

One More Thing

Posted on January 20, 2012

Well, it’s really more than one. Occasionally when I’m bored, or avoiding work, writing or whatever, I check out a site called The Chive. If you’ve seen it, you know what it is. If not, maybe you’ll check it out sometime.

For those of you who don’t know and don’t want to check it out, let’s just say I like to go there sometimes because once in awhile a guy just wants to see pictures of girls in yoga pants and random people doing random, and often strange, things. And did I mention the yoga pants? I think I did. Okay.

Case in point on the random tip are the photos below. I had a distinct reaction to each of them. I will leave it you you to guess what that reaction was.

I also included these photos because I may start highlighting some random photos here every friday. Or, who knows, maybe more often.

Okay, continue with enjoying your Friday/Weekend.

My Favorite Day of the Week

Posted on January 6, 2012

Welcome to Friday. I like this day quite a bit. It isn’t my favorite day of the week, however. That honor actually belongs to Sunday.

I know what you’re thinking, why Sunday? Well, Sunday is pretty much the only day I ever sleep in because I don’t really have to do anything. Saturday (and every other day) is always full of plans, work and the like.

Plus, I really like breakfast food and there’s a whole industry devoted to it specifically on Sunday called “Sunday Brunch.” So, Sunday is my favorite day.

Actually, my ideal Sunday goes a bit like this. I sleep late (which for me these days is at least 9AM). Then, I roll outta bed, get ready and head to a favorite brunch spot near the beach. After a nice spot of breakfast I take a nice, long walk by the shore while avoiding any short piers. Pretty simple really.

And yes, I just said I like long walks on the beach. I’m fine with that. It’s a great way to burn a few calories (and get more steps on my FitBit) while also getting some fresh air and taking in some beautiful scenery (including a few bikinis to be sure). In fact, it’s so great, why don’t you like doing it?

For those few hours I’m able to forget (almost) the troubles of the week, running a business, all the deadlines I have coming up and pretty much everything else except having a bit of fun. It’s the next best thing to a vacation and can be done right here in river city.

Give it a try sometime. I’ll bet you end up having a great time too.