6 posts tagged “exercise”

Wow, I've really done poorly on the posting for this month.  Not sure if I just wasn't that inspired by my goal this month or if I've just let myself have an excuse that I've been a bit stressed over somethings be the reason for it?  Odd how that works.  Also odd how you can have a month's worth of work behind you and it only takes a few days for you to really just jeopardize all the progress.  Need to get myself back on track. 

Thankfully, I've got a good lady that gives me the punch to the noggin when I start getting out of line.  She doesn't know  that I know when she's trying to hint that I should keep up the work but I know...you know?  She's subtle like that and very, very wise in that respect.  She runs her own business, making jewelry, while working a full time job where she has to drive an immense amount of miles each day and still finds time to fit in designing logos, planting a garden, walking 100 flights of stairs each day and going running nearly every other day.   So, anytime I get all whiney, boo-hoo, I'm tired I remember that she barely ever complains about being Super-woman.   Damn her unwavering willpower! 

So, over the weekend, we went running both Saturday and Sunday.  I'm a terrible runner.  God awful at it.  Really, I look like I'm being chased by a horde of zombies and that I've sprained both ankles and have a 50lb weight wrapped around my waist.  Now, picture that, only more pathetically.  That's me.  I like to say it's because I'm a lumbering giant with tree trunks for legs and a precariously high point of balance.  However, I also secretly realize that it makes me feel better when I think that than me saying I simply lack running experience.  I run when bears chase me or after the ice cream truck, not for the fun of it.  So, this whole running on purpose thing is a bit awkward for me.  Making my lungs feel like I swallowed a porcupine is not necessarily my idea of a nightly routine I dream about.  However!  I'm getting much better at it.  In fact, I might say I'm overcoming my exercise asthma quite nicely.   Well, that or I might have overcame that at age 15 but I just use that as my explanation for the searing pain in my lungs after running.  Either or.

Activities

Running, running and more running.

Also I've been doing push-ups and the usual not at the gym routines when there's 1,002 people at our small apartment gym all vying for the weights.  Me, I like my gym-time quick and painful.  I'm not there to chat with you talkative buff guy that wears shirts too tight for you on purpose.  Move away from me, I'm socially awkward when working out.  If I wanted to talk about how much you wish you were not living in Denver and how you never pay your rent, on purpose, I'd stop ignoring you by walking away.  Seriously, I'm a professional weight lifter now.  I have stuff to do.

I've been practicing drawing hands.  Yeah, seriously, those damn things are hard.  Somehow, mine alway turn out looking oddly similar to what toothpaste dripping out of a tube looks like, if you can imagine such things.  So, that's my other goal this week.  Draw bad ass fists and hands.  Simple as that.

Quick Facts

Weight:  247
Diet: Lots of food, really too many to list but I assure you, they were all vegetables, water and tofu, as is custom for me.

Does that rhyme?

Well, yesterday was a bit of a long day to be honest, so I completely forgot to even make a post until right before I was going to go to bed, which just doesn't work for me.  Saturday started with a 7am house-call by Comcast, or as they're referred to in this house, El Diablo.  It seems that as I previously commented, the actual company that provides cable has no real idea on how to manage it.  Yeah, I too thought this would work hand and hand as they're the guardian of all things cable but when it comes to say, turning said cable on or off it seems they never really read that part of the manual.  Lest to say, our 7am Saturday was not exactly what we're used too.  I've always just assumed Saturday's have a 7:00am just like every other day, it's rare that I've actually experienced it first-hand. 

From there, we got ready for a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to meet Sara and her esteemed Joshua for a morning of learning.  Safe to say, we all realized that these museums cater to the young, it's flashing lights low to the ground, it's buttons large and immune to the most intense smashing and even the most dull facts blinking against the wall in full neon splendor.  I won't lie, we were somewhat put off that there weren't adult lines for such things as the radio controlled Dock You Space Ship game.  Try as we could, the children always managed to get to the buttons first.  The little monsters, their lessons at sharing fully forgotten.  Well, jokes on them that they actually learned something.  I bet that kept a good deal of them up after getting home, realizing in horror they actually remember that Ben Franklin helped institute the Postal Service as they were quickly pushing buttons marked with neon-colored stamps. 

As well, it marked my first time in a Planetarium since perhaps my younger years.  We learned all about Black Holes and  I tell you what, Liam Neeson could narrate the Home Shopping Network and I would sit, engrossed, with credit card in hand as if God himself had shown me the necessity of a new set of steak knives.  A very good time was had by all yet about the time we had all left Wahoo's Fish Taco's I started feeling quite ill. 

I'm known to get migraines from the most random triggers, perhaps now I can add Steak and Rice to that list.  I'm not sure really.  All I know was that my head hurt from about 2pm until we went to bed and it kept up, getting even worse as the night wore on.  Regrettably, due to it, I didn't feel up to our second plan of the day, which was heading out to hang with some of my new co-workers at a local Bar.  As well, it kept me from my daily workout theme, making me feel quite lazy for the rest of Saturday Night.  And as well, it marked my first day loading up a game, I decided to enjoy a bit of simulated flying.  Had a good time of it actually and felt like it was earned instead of expected.  Not too shabby.

However, today I worked out almost an hour and fifteen minutes to make up for it and I can say I feel completely exhausted.  I do think though I'm coming down with something though, both Nicole and I feel under the weather for sure.  Hoping it clears up by the morning.

Activities

Worked out for an hour or so this weekend, making my arms feel even more like jello.  Learning the hard way that this 30-days in a row thing is making it hard since getting to the gym, every part of me hurts in some fashion which forces me to switch up what I do each day.  However, I'm 100% positive that by May 30th, I'll be making my t-shirts explode by merely stretching as my muscles will be that deadly by then.

Set down tonight to draw up some character ideas based on my new concept for my comic and came up with a rough drawing of this guy.  He's a little more dirty sketched than most as I didn't really erase the guidelines as much this one so keep that in mind.  Trying to get him to look "strong" which I've learned is more than just making exaggerated muscles.  His jaw and head are actually cut with sharp angles to represent power, or so I'm told by my guides.

Crazy how even taking a day or two off from drawing makes it slower to start.  Proves to me that I need to make it a daily thing so I'm not constantly starting 2 steps back every time I grab my drawing gear. 

Quick Facts

• Weight: 249
• Diet: Cereal, Steak and Rice bowl, 1 mountain dew, OJ, 1 glass of water, grilled cheese, breakfast burrito, 4 cinnamon rolls (ack), cookie, coffee, 3 glasses of water, chicken-ranch footlong sub.
• I need to drink more water definitely and eat less cinnamon rolls.
  

Yeah, so reaching above my head is now a feat of incredible concentration.  Doing so makes me feel as though I've harnessed super-powers or something equally impressive.  Honestly, all this working out is now hindering my hygiene, if not my ability to participate in the wave.

Went and saw Spiderman 3 today and honestly, I liked it.  Now, I didn't love it as I did with the first two but come on, it's the third in a series.  How many of those have ever been great?  Honestly, the difference between like and love was mostly due to what seemed a somewhat scattered plot really.  Don't get me wrong, the plot was there but it just didn't feel realistic.  Granted, realistic in a ok, I can buy there's a kid with super-powers garnered from a radioactive spider-bite, a guy made of sand, a gooey alien and a guy riding a hover-snowboard but do they really expect me to buy everything?  Won't spoil anything but this iteration had a certain level of broken-immersion that really hampered the movie.  Several times did I find myself ripped from the story by some awkwardly placed cameo or scene that didn't fit at all.  It's natural though, after your movie has garnered record-breaking box-offices twice in a row, I'm sure there's a fair amount of "I could film a brick wall for 2 hours and still make a boat-load of cash as long as it said Spiderman in the title" going on in the background.  I will say, it's worth seeing only to see some of the incredible fight scenes but as far as the story and character growth that ruled the first two, it's just not there this time.

Activities

• I went and worked out for 40 minutes, working on arms primarily. Tell you what, it's getting easier as I found myself worried I was waiting too long to go the gym.  That's something that doesn't happen to me.  After a good talk to my bud Bill about routines, I got myself a little more rigid as far as doing something planned when I get to the gym across the street.  While my arms hurt and I can barely type without feeling tired, there's a good feeling as well there making me feel like I'm getting healthier by the day.  I can totally see how people get addicted to this whole exercise thing.
• As well, 34 days without touching a game.  How about that?
• I spent some time reading up on how to convert drawings to digital through Photoshop reading some tricks/tips from Penny-Arcade and a few other comics I like reading.   Lot of interesting ideas there as far laying out your strips before scanning them in.  As well, making clip art yourself to reuse in comics so that it's more of using parts for certain scenes than having to redraw each scene.  Lot of interesting stuff.
  

Quick Facts

• Weight: 250 (dammit, this better be muscle I'm gaining)
• Diet: Cherry Turnover, Popcorn, Cherry Coke, cereal, milk, 3 glasses water, 1 glass Apple Juice.
• Wow, I really didn't eat anything good today.  I barely ate at all.
  

So, yeah, thought about it and having multiple day counts in a title is somewhat...lame.  I'm still working on my comic from last month, just need to scan some things in again to prove it.  Until then (tomorrow) you'll just have to take my word on it. 

As far as my workout goal, I've met it 3 days in a row.  That's something I haven't done since college and even then, that was something that was incredibly far and few between.  3 consecutive days of working out?  That should mean that tomorrow, my body will literally fall apart from exhaustion and I'll be forced to ride my Rascal to work.  Yeah, its a HEMI.

Little have I thought about the fact that this working out routine endangers my modus travelus so to speak.  My not having my Jeep anymore (moment of silence)...

...means that I'm dependent on my ability to move my legs to go to and from work.  Knowing full well that I'm on the verge of my 3 days of running / working out catching up with me, due to my possible limping and cries of pain that could possibly accompany my walk to work tomorrow, I may have people throw change at me from their car-window in hopes I'll use it for something other than alcohol. 

Aside from that though, I really do feel great.  It's been a long time since I've sweat this much in a 3-day period from something other than temperature.   Add with it, I've still not touched a video game (making this officially day 33 of that), and that I had a large amount of ideas that I wrote down in my headpad on my morning walk to work today regarding my comic, I thought this day was just too good to be true.  Then, out of the blue, my wonderful bosses gave me a gift-card simply because they wanted to let me know I was doing a great job.  Yeah, I'll let that sink in for a little bit Corporate America as the thought of a boss, let alone two presenting their employee with a token of appreciation without guilt or threat of lawsuit is something I know is unheard of.  Yet, it happened to me today.  I swear to Hasslehoff, I'm a grown man with a fine standard of not getting emotional but it's insane how a $20 gift card and a note saying thanks for the hard work can make even a six-foot-eight guy like myself get a little verklempt. 

I tell you what, I'm somewhat feeling like things are getting increasingly better and aside from getting a new job, which has helped a lot, but even more-so, I would like to believe my current attitude about life in general has had a big part in that.  I'm no hippie mind you, not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'd say that a good amount of luck and good fortune is a byproduct of how you perceive the world and yourself.  Won't get all Dr. Phil here just yet though.

All in all, feel like if I can keep this working out thing going, that by the end of May, I might be able to finally feel good about my physical-self which standing in front of my mirror the last few years, has been hard to do.  Not that I'm yelling at myself while I cut all my hair off or anything hollywood like that but I've definitely been upset some mornings when I get a glimpse of my washboard stomach in the mirror.  Add in I've got one hell of a lady, that I'm getting really far on my drawing and having a comic and having a job I really feel accomplished at means I'm on track to getting myself together once more and back on track. 

Now, if only my father could find a job and I wasn't constantly worried about his and my mother's well being as they hit their ninth-month of having no income at all,  I think things right now would be pretty damned perfect.  I have to believe that something will come up for them because I'd rather not think of what would happen if something doesn't.  Anyway, way-off topic there but sometimes it's just nice to put it down on paper and out of my head.

Activities

Got home and went to the gym at our apartment.  Ended up working really hard on my chest/shoulders/arms.  After that Nicole and Koda had just come back from their run I ran with them back the two blocks to our apartment.  Oddly enough, being around everyone in the gym makes me realize that I've somewhat lost my idea of proper lifting techniques.  Makes me think I need to call up some of my more in-shape buds and ask them for some ideas.  While I'm not trying to life a bench press with my ankles or anything like that, I do think I could be doing things more efficiently.  I was happy that I got about 16 lifts from the bench press today.  Not at all the weight I'd like to have hanging from the bar mind, especially when I look big which is something I can't help but be mindful off as I do my weights as guys next to me half my height lift small SUV's over their heads like it's as pillow.  I could go into my theories of why height plays a large part in being able to lift weights but I'm pretty sure that might get into the excuses area and I'd like to avoid that for now.

Quick Facts

• Weight: 248
  
• Diet: Bagel, French Dip and french fries, 5 glasses of water, grilled cheese, 1 cheese cracker, 2 glasses of OJ, 2 glasses of Mountain Dew.
  

So, figure that I should keep track of multiple numbers as I'm doing multiple things.  As to make things a bit more historic for myself, I'd keep the counter going for multiple things.  I have to make sure I remind myself I have two objectives still and not fall victim to dropping one in favor of the other which has already started to happen and something I want to deter.

As with any goal, once you hit it, you consider it hit and part of you feels like that's it.  While I hit my 30 days that I originally struck out to hit, it's harder to keep in mind that the goal of the 30 day gaming fast was to get me working on something meaningful to me and that process wouldn't stop when the 30 days were met.  In a way, I had two objectives in April.  One, my gaming fast, could end May 1st as long as I kept going with the second objective (my comic drawing) past that point until I had something started.   I found that with my new additional goal of a daily 30 minutes of exercise somehow made me forget to spend the last two days also drawing or at least progressing towards my comic.  Need to make sure I keep going with building good habits each month that compound and not just monthly activities that disappear with each new month.  That's going back to my old ways where I start a project and quit it in favor of another, the real problem behind my needed gaming fast.  That's the core problem I'm looking to solve and I need to not loose sight of that.  Discipline and follow-through.  

Keeping that in mind, the days in my subjects will stand for just that.  The first Day listing (Day 32 currently) will keep track of how many days until I start my comic.  I'll stop count once I have a three installments made for my comic and have it posted on it's own website for all to see. By then, i figure it'll be self-propelled and I won't need a daily tally anymore as I it'll be self-explanatory my progress by then.  I mean, right?

The second number will list my added focus (exercise).  As usual, I'll list my Activities and Quick Facts.  I'll just be adding in what I did for exercise that day on top of any other related information.  So, hopefully this is enough explanation for my own benefit so that I don't get confused at my own system.

Speaking of being confused, how hard is it to downgrade cable? I mean, someone like Comcast, a self-proclaimed cable company, should in theory be masters of such simple tasks.  I mean, if I was a chef and couldn't turn an oven off, well, that'd just be ridiculous right?  Seems that turning off cable after you've followed their explicit instructions still means you have to depend on them doing the same thing.  Today we finally had our cable downgraded as they were supposed to do nearly 3 weeks ago.  Yet, they even messed that up.  We came home to find that we've only got Comedy Central, TV Land, the Home Shopping Network and two Spanish-language channels.  I mean, is that even a package you can request?  No ABC that means, which means no LOST, which means the one night Nicole and I actually set aside time to watch TV was denied us.  I never knew I could hate a corporation so much until tonight.  Stupid Comcast.  Stupid, stupid Comcast.

Activities

Nicole and I went running today with Koda for a good 40 minutes.  I even ran .6 miles without stopping once.  Yeah, don't remind me that there's grandmother's that can do that without breaking a sweat.  I'm not exactly a marathon specimen here.   It's no mystery you don't see herds of six-foot-eight German/Scottish males lined up to run the Boston Marathon.  We're not exactly legendary for our graceful running prowess.  However, I'm all about believing that I can be.  For a boy that was diagnosed with Exercise Induced Asthma in high-school (poor-man's asthma), I'm pretty proud that I'm even trying to do something that makes my lungs burn like they're soaked in napalm.  I don't talk about it much but running makes me feel like I'm drowning in jalapeño juice.  I paint pictures with words.
 
Quick Facts

• Weight:251
• Yeah, hold on here.  I've GAINED weight from 2 days of working out and eating pizza.  How does..oh..pizza.  Dammit.
  
• Diet: 1.5 Bagels with VEGETABLE cream cheese (does that count?), 5 glasses of OJ, 3 glasses of water, 1 cafe mocha, 3 slices of pizza, 2 glasses of milk, 2 cinnamon sticks.
• Didn't eat near enough today.  Really felt it when I went running, not something I plan on doing tomorrow as it made it much harder.
  

There's an interesting realization that happens when you realize how the human mind can make things important simply so that there is something important.  The realization doesn't happen, of course, while you're proving that this something is important by indulging to the theory.  This realization happens when you isolate yourself from this something.   The realization occurs when you realize suddenly, the only thing that has changed is a noticeable improvement without it and that what is important may at times, not be at all related to what you can do but related to what you can not do.   

Was there a lesson learned after 30 days of restraining myself from something that had become a rust on my life?  A new-found respect for what I can do instead of what I want to do and that feeling accomplished is more important than feeling busy.  I've wanted to make a comic since I was a kid, I've had ideas since then as well and for almost three years, I had sat on a pile of drawings that I was convinced stood as proof I had tried.  In 30 days, I went from memories to ideas and now I've got a detailed story in my head, a list of characters and a plot for something I had only fragmented ideas regarding.  Does it matter if in 30 days I don't have a site, a finished 3-panel intro and a syndication deal?  Not at all.  Instant gratification is for lottery winners and gamblers.  My thought is, I could have rushed something or I could have refined something and when you're trying to enter into something with thousands of competitors, rushed doesn't cut it I'd like to think.  There's being done to be done and then there's being done when it's done. 

This 30 (31 if you count today) days became less about what I wasn't doing and much more about what I was doing.  Discipline is what I feel this month was about and it was a feeling I'd allowed to become uncomfortable.  That hidden immaturity we all have where indulgence is more enjoyable than restraint became too prevalent in my life and there's a high-amount of peace I feel knowing I've targeted that immaturity.  The time where I was the most active in playing games was when I was least active in being a good person I've realized to be true. Hours behind a computer merely spending time did just that, it spent time.  It's a necessary revelation because while I lack the responsibilities associated with having a child, I still neglected those I care for, including myself and that's always the sure sign something needs to change.

In 30 days I rediscovered something inside of me that I had replaced long ago with a soft glare and mouse-click.  I had for so long neutered my creative spirit by giving it an easy target.  I've replaced an easy target with a much harder one and with that, hitting that target will be much more satisfying.  It was less about me giving up games and more about me giving up excuses.  I've built a good habit and that's irreplaceable.  The nail in the rail or the coffin now, is if I keep going.  I want to keep going and keep improving now that I've seen it's not a fool hearty venture.  And that is exactly what my desire is. Success, as my girlfriend Nicole says, is to hit a goal and then ask what's next?   So, here's what's next.

I've proven that I don't need games and that they're not a priority. What isn't important is that I stop playing video games.  It's easy to stop something if you just replace it with something easier.  What is important is that I keep making progress towards my goals on a daily basis and doing something outside of my comfort level.  Work hard, play hard is what I need to do, in that order.  As long as I keep improving myself and never settling I'll be accomplishing something. With that in mind, April I've gained a new habit, a new discipline.  I'm making a comic now.  I've improved my confidence and I feel pride every time I draw something that makes me feel inspired. 

For my next 30 days, there's a new habit I need to build momentum behind and that is my health. My dad and mom both have diabetes, both have health problems because of that.  Already, I see the same bad habits that brought them to this point present in my life.  Lack of exercise and poor diet.  For me, and this is for me, diet has always been easier than exercise.  While that of course, isn't evident at all with April's track record of dining, it's still true.  If I had to choose between running and eating a bag of carrots, I'd eat two bags of carrots.

May 1st, today, I've began my next 30-day assignment.  Today I worked out for 30 minutes, went running and lifted some weights.  Tomorrow I will work out, meaning I'll break a good sweat and do something considered strenuous for at least 30 minutes, every single day in May.

To some of you, perhaps those that already do this and more, this might sound like nothing but to me, 30 minutes a day, 930 minutes of working out (31 days in May) would be most likely 800 minutes more than I've worked out in the last five years.  Yeah, begs the question of how am I so incredibly sexy without working out at all? Who knows.  I'm no doctor.

If I can work out 30 minutes a day on top of the 30-45 minutes a day I spend walking to work, I'd have at least an hour a day during the work-week that I was exercising.  That's a huge change in my lifestyle and one I desperately need.  Yesterday, as I was walking, I nearly felt something slightly-jiggle when I jumped over a curb and as a guy, that's not desirable. Be it known, I don't feel I'm overweight but there's definitely some extra padding there, padding that makes me not want to be shirtless on a beach.

Starting tomorrow I'll start the same regimen as I had for April.  I'll still draw and keep working on my comic.  I'll still track progress on what I accomplish each day. If I decide to play a video game, it'll be only after I work out, draw and spend time with Nicole, no exceptions.  It'll be to enjoy playing a game and not to spend time.  I want nothing to do with working at playing something anymore.  As well, I'll work out in some fashion 30 minutes every day of the month of May. Am I trying too much at once?  No.  This is me committing to do something I want to do as well as another thing I should do every day for a month so that I build another good habit.  As I do this, I'll still watch and record what I eat, what I weigh, what I draw and what I do for a workout and by the end of May, my goal is to be in better shape and more importantly, not terrified of exercise. Seriously, I hate working out.  Now, if included in that I can look all Brad Pitt in the abs department, well hey, even better.

Quick Facts

Weight: 249
Diet: Breakfast Burrito, Coffee with sugar and cream, Yogurt with fruit and granola, Fruit Punch Vitamin Water, Lemon pound cake, 2 Slices of Stuffed Crust Pizza, 3 wings, 2 cinnamon sticks and 2 glasses of Mountain Dew.

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