The Best Shape of My Life!

Had a nice weekend, visiting the in-laws and my family. My wife and I didn’t do a whole lot for our 5th year anniversary, but spending time with each other (and our baby girl) was well worth it. Had a lot of fun celebrating my father-in-law’s 50th birthday! He had no clue that we had planned a big surprise party for him. He enjoyed it, and we all enjoyed it. To think that someday I’ll turn 50……   

Today I even split some logs for their wood stove. A nice (albeit fairly easy) workout for me, real-world style. Nothing to brag about as far as massive strength or endurance, but nonetheless, it was rather fun. Of course, when you grow up on a farm and you deal with these kinds of these on a daily basis, you get used to them, even somewhat enjoy them after a while. Don’t get to do things like that living in the "big" city.

Anyway, this week is another opportunity to do the best I can. I’m once again trying the morning approach to most of my workouts, and this week I’m going to attempt to go back to the full body routine, since I feel more energized with those types of workouts. I’m going to completely change my program in March, and I think I’m going to use a lot of ideas from a Maximum Fitness magazine article from the Jan-Feb 08 issue. We’ll see what it looks like once I make some modifications.

Have a great week everyone! Take some time to celebrate the important things in your life. You’ll be glad you skipped a workout or two (like I did last Friday).

My wife and I have been married for 5 years today! Feb 22, 2003, we were married. Wow, how time flies! I’m so happy to be married to her, and I love my baby girl.

Today, both of our schools cancelled (inclement weather), so we even got a "day off." We’ll have to make it up in May, but oh well. It’s worth having your anniversary to yourself. So, we’re cleaning the house a bit, getting a few things done, I’m going to go do a strength workout shortly, and then we’re headed out of town for the weekend. My wife’s dad also turns 50 this weekend, so we’re going to have a big party for him.

Just to think…in just a short time I’ll probably be writing about our 10th year anniversary! Scary that life passes us by that quickly.

Have a great (though cold for some) weekend!

It seems in my life there is always something that wants to wreck my plans. Call it "part of life" if you want…it just happens. At any rate, it seems like when it comes to achieving my fitness goals, a lot of "life" happens. Maybe I’m just coming up with excuses, but I’d like to think I’m not. After all, I love fitness, working out, and being healthy. I love being a personal trainer. But it seems that time and money are the determining factors, and neither of them do I have a lot of.

I write this because today my daughter (18 months) is sick, so I stayed home from work to be with her. Don’t think I’m complaining about that. I love spending time with my daughter, even if I have to use a personal day to do it. But events like this make me think of all the circumstances that come up that throw me off track. I needed to be at work today (it’s very hard to plan for a sub with a bunch of high schoolers). I had planned to do a cardio workout this morning before work (which I need to do more of anyway).

Will I survive? Sure. In fact, I’ve been getting a good amount of work done for both of my career jobs. I’ll soon do a little bit of work on my grad class homework (that’s a circumstance all in it’s own right). Will I suddenly become grotesquely obese because I skipped a workout? No. Will the world fall apart without me for a day? I hope not.

I guess the point is this: being "shut down" for a day requires an adjustment. I think I adjust pretty well. For instance, I’m planning on going to the gym tonight and completing my cardio workout (before meeting my evening client). As I already mentioned, I’m getting things accomplished on my "day off." So what’s the problem? Priorities. I started seriously working out about five years ago on the basis that I would become a different person (mostly physically), and that I would develop some kind of "athleticism" and strength, and I would change my overall apparence for the better.

Where am I now? Sure, I’ve changed physically. I’ve gotten stronger, faster, and I can play a couple sports now that I wouldn’t dream about a few years ago. I’ve even dropped my bodyfat from about 20% to around 10%. But I’m still not quite where I want to be, and as long as I’m not there, I’ll be bothered. And now it seems that these circumstances to jump out at me are almost set purposely to distract my attention. Maybe it’s for the better. After all, who should take priority-my daughter or myself? My daughter!

So whatever life throws at me, I’ll take it. And though I’ll never be an athlete by any measure of the term, I’ll be in good condition to take care of my family, play with my kids, and set a good example of a fairly healthy lifestyle. So I guess I’ve talked myself out of the idea that I have to have a flat stomach (a.k.a. what I’d really like is a 6-pack)…as there are much more important things in my life.

***This blog is from the Annals of Nate’s Psyche, 2008.

It wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but I did it. I completed 3 really awesome morning workouts last week! Starting at 5:30 am, or actually, about 5:45 by the time I lift any hard weight. The workouts are short, but very intense, and I felt them all day long. Really invigorating! I was only able to complete three workouts last week, though. The second upper body workout just killed me, and I was too sore to do the second legs/shoulders workout on Friday.

This week, my schedule will probably only allow me to complete three workouts. I’m out of town for the weekend, and have a grad class tonight, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to complete a workout tonight or not. I’m going to try to get in an upper body workout so I can get my two lower body workouts in this week (Tue and Fri). I don’t want to cram them all together, but I may have to.

I’m starting to feel a lot better now that I’m getting in my workouts and not quite so choked up with my allergies. Hopefully this week is a good one and I can really get back into it, even if I can only get in three workouts.

I’m finally overcoming my infection/allergies. My medication (doctor restarted the prescription) starting kicking in, and I’m feeling a LOT better. So this week I’m back in the gym, with a slightly different approach. With grad classes in the evenings, and everything else that takes up my time, I’m going back to my morning workouts.

HELLO 5:30 AM!
Yeah, early…even for a morning type person.  But we do what is necessary, and the gym isn’t as crowded in the mornings. I have pretty much free reign, so I don’t have to wait in line for a machine, the bench, or, my favorite, the squat rack. Not that it gets used that much anyway. I’m using a split routine approach now. I don’t like splits as much as full bodies, but when I only have about 30 minutes, I have to cut something.

Today I did a legs/shoulders/bi workout, and yesterday chest/back/tri. We’ll see how it goes when I repeat tomorrow and Friday with the same thing. I’m going to try and get a bit of cardio in sometime. We’ll see.

I’m just happy to be over this crazy allergy/sinus infection and getting on with my life. One less thing to have to stress about.

Allergies and Asthma. I hate them both. I have them both. Now. It’s painful, frustrating, and very irritating. I haven’t done a real workout in over a week, and I’m beginning to feel the effects of it. Some people are even fortunate enough to lose a bunch of fat weight when they’re sick. Nope! Not me! I gain weight…albeit very small amounts.

I’m going to try another workout tonight. Basic, light weight, a bit of walking…just to keep myself doing something. The medication I’m on isn’t really strong, so I have energy, etc. I just can’t breathe sometimes very well. The inhaler is getting used…a LOT.

We’ll see how it goes. I expect to get over this by the end of Feb. Usually when I get an infection like this, it covers my sinuses, ears, throat, and lungs. It’s bad, for several reasons.

GGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!