Zen and the Art of Fitness

This morning I took the pup for a 20 minute walk, did 25 minutes of meditation, and did some writing. I’m back to a 3 day lifting scheduling, so I’ll hit the gym tomorrow.

Not too much more to write about right now. My diet was terrible yesterday (actually, pretty good until the Saints - Patriots game). I’ll get back on track with that today. Have a great Tuesday and thank goodness it’s almost Christmas.

I need another vacation to recover from the last five days of Thanksgiving vacation.

Here’s my morning so far . . .

• 20 minute walk with pup
• 25 minutes meditation
• 30 minutes strength training
• Pushups: 25, 20, 15
• Overhand pullups: 2, 2, 2 (that sucks, but I have no back strength I’m finding out)
• Lunges: 3 x 12 (with 20 lbs dumbbells)
• Crunches: 2 x 25

I’m going to be better about tracking my diet. It’s going to be hard getting back into the swing of things at work after five days off. Somehow, I’ve got to start Christmas shopping as well.

I had been trying to do the Arnold workouts from his Encylopedia of Bodybuilding. The problem is, they’re these six day workouts. I think if you have time to really sleep (like 10 hours) you could pull these off.

But for me, they were just too much. So I’ve decided to go back to what’s always worked for me, and what my bodybuilding heroes from the 40’s and 50’s used to do (Steve Reeves, Reg Park, etc). I’m doing 3 full-body workouts a week. I’ve found a great site that really emphasizes these kinds of workouts: www.weighttrainer.net.

I’m starting slow and light, because I really kind of hurt myself these last couple months or so.

• Squats (2×10) = 115 lbs
• Bench Press (2 x 10) = 95 lbs
• Bent over Rows ( 2 x 10) = 75 lbs (I need to go lighter on these)
• Overhead Barbell Press (2×10) = 40 lbs
• Stiff-legged Deadladlift (2×10) = 60 lbs
• Barbell curls (2×10) = 30 lbs
• Seated calf raises (2×10) = 20 lbs (need to figure out a way to do Donkey calf raises, without Donkey calf raise machine)
• Reverse Crunches (2×10)

I’m tracking my food at www.fitday.com.

As for the writing, I’m at 43,517 for the National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org). All I need about 7,000 more words for the month and I’m a winner.

I’m off the rest of the week. If I don’t talk to you beforehand, have a great Thanksgiving!

This morning I did legs and lower back. I then took the pup for a walk. The diet’s been better since I’ve been tracking things on www.fitday.com.

It’s a short week, and I’m looking forward to time with family and friends. In the past, Thanksgiving has been tense. We have all our family in town, and it unevitably happened that someone’s feelings got hurt because we didn’t come by, or stay long enough, or something like that.

So finally, after nearly 10 years of doing this dance, we came up with a plan and told everyone, "here’s what we’re doing."

As for our budget and our goals with that, it’s been a struggle. After trying to save our dishwasher, we finally realized it’s dead. We bought a new one (with cash — no credit any more for this cat). However, it’s kind of strapping us — we might have to wait a little longer to do our Christmas shopping.

I only work Monday and Tuesday, and then am off the rest of the week. Have a great day and I’ll talk to you soon.

This morning I did shoulders and arms. I really hit things hard, and now my arms feel like wet noodles. Today was also payday, so I made some payments towards our debts. We’re getting there.

I’m taking today off. We have sitters and my wife and I are going to see New Moon. She’s in love with this series. Me . . . it’s all right, I guess. I like my vampires a little more mean and creepy and not trying to score chicks, but the popularity of this thing proves that men and women are just wired differently.

It also proves to me that women truly do make the world go round, and that they are the ones in control. Which is just fine. We men are kind of dense.

At least you women let us believe that we’re running things now and then. We appreciate the illusion It helps our egos.

Have a great day and I’ll talk to you soon . . .

I did legs and lower back today. The fitness and family are doing well. The budget . . . not so much.

We’ve been hit with a lot of unexpected expenses this month. And then there are the coming holidays. I know, this paragraph is what all of us are facing right now. So maybe we can struggle together, and keep the straight course.

No matter how tempting it may be, do not borrow money or use credit cards to get through this season.

Work should be slower today — all the powers-that-be are out of the office. Have a great day and I’ll talk to you soon.

Today I hit shouders and arms at the gym. It felt good to hit things hard . . . Murphy is striking hard in our lives right now. He always seems to come at us full force during the holidays, doesn’t he.

These aren’t huge problems or anything, just annoyances:

• The dishwasher has a secret leak (which we can’t see) but can now hear under our feet. And the wood floor is starting to buckle because of it.
• Work has been brutal because they let go 10% of the company. Thank goodness I still have a job, but the workload has doubled.

It’s nice to take out these frustrations on weights. I feel better already.

This morning I did chest and back. I’ve been reading The Encylopedia of Bodybuilding by Arnold. What a great book, and I’ve been learning a lot from it.

Baby girl is waking up, so I will talk to you all soon . . . Let me know how you’re doing with your goals. I’ll try to write more later.

This morning I did an upper body workout, after a quick walk with the pup. Tomorrow will be a cardio day. I’ve been eating better; really watching my intake. Overall, the hardest part of my fitness program is time. I need to get in the gym at 5am if I really want enough time before the family wakes up. That’s a bit of a challenge, but I need and will do that. 

In other goals, I’ve been tracking our finances and budget in www.mint.com. What a cool site. It is to personal finance what www.bodybuilding.com is to fitness. Also, the wife and I have baby sitting tonight, so we’re going on a date.

I miss date nights with her and need to do more of that. Having family in town is a blessing . . .

This morning I took the pup for a quick walk and then did a lower body weights workout. I got some more walking in afterward.

The little one is still on the old time schedule, which is tough. Basically, this means that I have to get up about 4:30am if I want to get the workouts in. As long as I can get in bed at a decent hour, that shouldn’t be too bad.

Who am I kidding — 4:30am is a rough hour, no matter who you are or how early you get to bed. But I can do it.