Archive for February, 2008
February 29, 2008 at 4:57 pm · Filed under Better Health
As I had more or less exhausted the weights in the office gym for my fitness goals, I went and joined
24 Hour Fitness. There are two located very near to the office, so I will be there every weekday morning at 6am to workout. Happily, there is another just minutes from my house, so Saturday you will me there as well.
Anyway, the deal ends today, but I got one-year of all Sport Club (and lower) access for $199. That comes out to around $17 a month, less than the cost of two lunches plus tip.
If you miss the offer, don’t worry: they have a new one every week I stop by the site.
February 19, 2008 at 6:15 pm · Filed under Better Thinking
…details from US News & World Report.
There’s plenty you can do to slow the effects of aging. Here’s how to keep your thinking and memory sharp
As I am now closer to 40 than 30, and as I appreciate the fact that Alzheimer’s seems to run in at least one side of my family, topics like this continue to be of growing interest.
In fact, I even intended to buy one of those jumbo crossword puzzle books to sharpen all those synapses, but - well - I forgot.
Note to self for tomorrow.
February 19, 2008 at 6:00 pm · Filed under Better Health
In one of the introductory posts on the site, I mentioned how - after being generally disturbed by the gelatinous quality some parts of my body had acquired - I decided to get serious about getting back into shape. The journey began sometime in November, and since then I have gone from nearly 200 pounds down to 180. I still have another 10 or so of the jiggly stuff to drop, but I’m well on the way.
So, naturally, I thought you might be curious how I have been going about losing weight and gaining muscle mass. If you’re not, hey, you just spent 30 seconds you’re never going to get back, might as well cut your losses now (or, since you’re invested this far, read on).
Either way, we’ll still be friends and - yes - we’ll always have Paris.
(musical interlude)
OK, so what did I do to lose weight?
The simple explanation is that I got my butt in gear. My workout schedule is weight-lifting on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with cardio on Tuesday and Thursday. I take the weekend off, allowing myself some tasty beers and potential cardiac arrest incidents on a bun.
I don’t bother with hours upon hours of sweat-drenched physical activity. I’m not the person who ignores the “please limit yourself to 30 minutes on a machine” sign guy. No, my routine to date has consisted of 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer, followed by 10 minutes on a treadmill.
My elliptical routine came right out of the Body for Life playbook. It’s 20 minutes of interval training, ranging from a comfortable pace to an all-out, fast-as-I-can-move-my-feet motion extravaganza. I absolutely hate it, especially the one minute called the “high point,” at least until it’s over.
From there, a quick side trip to the water cooler for a drink and then right on the treadmill.
As my colleague and I want to do a 14er or three this summer, I set the incline at 15%, the pace at 2.5 - 3 MPH, and start walking. Ten minutes later, I’ve climbed a few hundred vertical feet and another 120 calories or so have been burned up.
Step off the treadmill with wobbly legs, grab a drink of water, and I’m done.
That’s it. Thirty minutes. Easy (at least to describe).
Today, for the first time, I tried something new for my elliptical routine. I downloaded an interval training podcast from Podrunner by DJ Steve Boyett. The speed was a bit slow for the elliptical, so I just ramped up the difficulty level and got a good workout too (also followed by 10 minutes on the treadmill).
It runs a few minutes longer than the Body for Life routine, but burned nearly as many calories (if the calorie counter can be believed, and I’m sure it’s not accurate to any significant digits). I will probably alternate routines just for variety, doing one on Tuesday and the other on Thursday.
Check it out, let them know what you think.
And if you find any of the above helps you shed some unwanted poundage, pass it along.
Tomorrow is lower body weights day - I’ll write about the weights routine soon too.
February 8, 2008 at 5:32 pm · Filed under Better Thinking
It’s one thing you will
not find me talking about here*.
If you can’t figure out why, might I suggest you go take a science class?
And, no, watching “What the #$*! Do We Know!?” doesn’t count.
Positive thinking? Good stuff.
Believing in yourself? Someone other than your mom should, so yeah.
Looking for opportunities? Awesome.
Pointing yourself in the direction of your goals? The best way for a ship to reach its destination.
Thinking you can alter the fabric of reality with your thoughts and that the universe will just jump to your aid if you only want it to badly enough? That’s just dumb.
Or, wait, maybe my uncle really was wishing to get Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s all at once. Seems a silly wish to me, but hey, who am I to question the New Agers?
* Except using the mocking tone I reserve for, uh, mocking things.
February 7, 2008 at 8:43 pm · Filed under Better Work
While not actively looking for a new job, I have learned the hard way that it’s better to always have an eye out for opportunities rather than being laid off and wondering where to go next (at least I had several months severance and paid health insurance, which is more than many people get, but - still - lesson learned!).
So, I figure it’s time to get to work on updating my resume, as it is now at least three years out-of-date. I’m even more fascinating now, honest.
Yes, I know, there are numerous books, websites, and articles out there that give you instructions on how to write the perfect resume for the perfect job in a perfect world with perfect guarantees of perfect interviews or your money back.
Allow me to add to that ever-increasing mound of career-planning information with a series of posts on resume writing.
I can’t promise you perfection, but I can tell you what has worked for me, and it’s free of charge so, hey, no refunds and please don’t bother the management with complaints.
Some background…
Read the rest of this entry »
February 5, 2008 at 9:25 pm · Filed under Better Health
No, not that one.
Commitment.
I am convinced that, unless you’re of those rare few genetically-destined to be large, your weight problems (and resultant health issues) are simply because you are committed to being one way and not the other. You can say you don’t have the energy, you don’t have the time, you don’t want to look silly in the gym, but it all comes down to your choosing to be, as I was to an extent, a fat slug. You choose to be committed to your desk, your sofa, your television, your Twinkies.
Change, corporate, personal, or otherwise, takes dedicated effort. It takes a vision of where you want to be, and a willingness to commit to getting there, no matter how hard it may seem. Even when you fall off the path, you have to get right back on it and try to do better.
Check out this guy:
Two years ago, Phill Novak weighed 387 pounds.
Reality hit in January 2006 at a Pittsburgh Steelers game. Novak had gone to smoke a cigarette.
“We were walking back up to our seats, and I started getting winded,” says Novak. “I didn’t feel right, I started sweating. I didn’t think I would make it back up. My heart [was] beating a million times a minute; I thought I was having a heart attack.”
“A lot of things went through my head, about saying goodbye to my kids,” says Novak choking back his tears. “I told my friend, ‘This is it, I’m not going to live like this no more.’ ”
Novak, who was approaching his 40th birthday, made it through the football game. As he ate two double-cheeseburgers and a milkshake, he began to think about the limitations of obesity and how it was keeping him from living a full life.
The next day, Novak devised his own game plan and started his weight-loss journey.
He began simply by walking — one mile a day and eating a low-carbohydrate diet of 15-30 grams a day.
“I walked off my first 100 pounds,” he says. “Walked it off, an hour a day. I lost 100 pounds in seven months.”
I thought my losing 20 pounds in two months was impressive, but this guy has me beat hands (and double-cheeseburgers) down.
Two years later, Novak has lost a total of 192 pounds. Today, he runs 30 to 40 miles a week, works out two to three hours a day, does yoga in the morning and squeezes in a push-up whenever he gets a chance at work.
Now maintaining his weight at 195 pounds, Novak says he’s made a lifestyle change and rarely takes a day off from exercise.
I know the feeling.
I hate if a workday schedule keeps me from getting in my planned workout, and on a long weekend I keep looking forward to being able to use the office gym. I would half chalk it up to having a somewhat addictive personality and the other half would be that I am seeing real results from my efforts. Pants I used to squeeze into now fall off of me. Looking in the mirror I see muscles that, until recently, were just the stuff of my own biological rumors. Not to be a walking cliche, but I honestly believe I have knocked years off the clock (even if it only gets me back to where I ought to be).
Doesn’t much hurt that I got hit on in the elevator the other day after working out. Hey hey, look at me, Pavlov’s dog. *Arf*
Anyway, getting here has taken focus and dedication. I’ve had to eat more carefully, abstain from as much of the tasty amber nectar of the beer gods as I might want, and push myself in the gym when I think, “Wow, I’d really rather be in a meeting about some incredibly boring business topic right about now.”
As I have begun to transform myself, a number of coworkers have asked how I am doing it.
I happily provide them the workout templates, the schedule, the ideas behind what I am doing, but they quickly fall into two classes of people: those who hope to find the time to take care of themselves (but seldom do) and those who know this is what they need to do. I can easily compare and contrast two women with whom I work - one is a professional type, looking to be healthier and knowing she should, but our very first workout together was postponed because of her schedule (apparently lunchtime was reserved for caloric intake). Another woman, one of our hourly employees, asked me for my aerobic routine and I gave it to her - and she was in the gym the next day, and today as well, busting her ass to do the hardest 20 minutes of her life. When her coworkers taking leisurely strolls on the treadmill asked her how she was doing, she confessed it was hard but she was not going to quit.
That’s commitment. Commitment in the face of your own weakness and the attempts of your friends to bring you down to their level of effort (or lack thereof).
Even though I might be ahead of her in the fitness race, seeing her effort and dedication was a huge inspiration. I made a point of approaching her afterwards and letting her know how great I thought she had done, because I sincerely did think that.
Here’s hoping she (and I) keep it up!
