Eighty Years (or so) To The Big Zero

Well I’ve started to switch up my exercise routine and am doing arm curls (biceps) and military presses (lats/delts) using my weight lifting bar. I don’t have a pull up bar in my house so I’m doing the military presses where you lift and lower the bar behind your back from a full lift over your head. Until (or if) I get a bar in the house I’ll just have to strengthen my back and shoulder muscles using these few exercises. There is a lat machine at my work but I’m not there regularly enough.

It’s a 15 pound bar and I have all the weights I own on it so I’m lifting 45 pounds total for low reps of 10 per set. I’m doing one set for now. I’m going for tone not bulk.

I was digging through my pictures and found this previous photo of me working on my back muscle groups.

Here is a never before seen photo of me doing pull-ups:

Of course that was a while ago and my skin has lightened a lot since then.

Here is a more recent photo of me doing a pull-up:  (I’ve gained a little extra weight as you can see. 8^(

I hope to one day get back (ha!) to that former glory. So when you see B(10) or LD(10) on the Road to Mt. Olympus chart know that I did ten reps for Biceps and ten reps for Lats/Delts.

On another front my cookie jar was stolen. 8^( That’ll be another entry for the end of the month.

Until then …

A Whole New You

If you’re tracking the road to My Olympus you’ll notice I finally put a 1 into the weight lifting row.

That row kinda has a dual purpose. Originally it was to be for lifting weights at my house. And it still is. But I’m also keeping track of anytime I do the circuit training equipment at my work. The what!

We have this brand new amazing PE area with perhaps a dozen stations covering all muscle groups. Last night (Friday 25Jan08) was the first time, myself and another co-worker took advantage of the machines and worked out in the room.

We’re hoping to make a regular once a week event and perhaps twice a week but that’s not until later. For now once a week is more than enough for me. There are 11 stations and you go around the circuit doing exercises for the different muscle groups. There’s also a treadmill so I may be substituting my nightly walk on Fridays for that.

So the weight lifting row is confusing because it only shows a number one, when it should show: biceps (10), triceps(10), lats(10), quads(10),delts(10),hamstrings(10),lower back(10),abdomen(10),treadmill(1.5 miles) etc. etc. Just know that for each 1 it covers a lot of areas.

Oh, on a cool note I did sit-ups in their machine and it was a flat bench, not an incline like the one I have now (a gift from my mom a long time back), and I was able to easily do 20 situps. 8^)

This morning I’m a little sore but nothing major. I can definitely feel the difference with each week. New mass update by the end of today.

Until then, I have some coding errors to track down on my other website.

A Whole New You

So I didn’t get home in time to do my walk/run tonight. It wasn’t raining tonight either like it was yesterday but yesterday was a rest day.

So I did extra sit-ups and both push-ups and dips to kinda make up for it. I know it’s not the same but unless I purchase a treadmill for the house I’m subject to the effects of weather and other obligations.

Besides while a treadmill would be nice part of walking/running is to get outside and enjoy the air. I’m shooting for tomorrow for the walk. Hopefully the weather will hold.

BTW - Talk about a freak out. I walked out of Publix the other day and there was a voice mail on my cell phone.

I listened to the voice mail and it started like this, “Hello this is Mr. Garcia from the Department of Homeland Security.” You know how your mind can run really fast and dozens of thoughts can go through it in a split second. Well I started thinking… hmmm I guess they finally caught me. Shouldn’t have downloaded Loose Change and Zeitgeist.

Then the message continued, “We’re conducting an invesigation…” great! Now I mentally started thinking of what else I might have or had done in the past that was now under review. Then the words, “on xxx yyy” Wow. They were invesigtating a friend of mine. What? How’d they get my cell phone number? Who are these people?

Well it turns out my friend is going for a position and will be working with/under/around computers used by the DHS. They were doing a background check. So a couple phone tag messages later they finally call me back at school while I was in class. I ask them to call me back in a hour. I could tell he was getting annoyed, and I really wanted to help my friend get the job, but I was in class with students. What could I do?

Later the interview was routine but there were an awful lot of “Do you , or have you ever known XXX to be a part of a subversive group that seeks to undermine the security of the US Government?” “Do you or have you ever heard XXX mention they would rather live in another country than the US?”, “Do you know or can think of ways XXX could be blackmailed?” and things like that. It was very interesting.

Then they wanted to know my mailing address. If I had said no that probably would have looked bad for my friend so I gave them an address that wasn’t my home address but a dead drop PO BOX I use in emergencies. Looks like I’ll never be able to go there again. 8^(

I hope my friend gets the job. He owes me a favor now. 8^)

A Whole New You, Thinking out loud

I totally think muscle memory exists. Without it I probably wouldn’t be in the shape I am now.

I remember back in ‘93 a Marine buddy of mine said, “Man, you know you can overwork your abs.” and I’m like, “Really?” as I continued to grate the cheese onto the frozen pizza using my chiseled abs. My friend responded, “Yes.” as he feed curls to his two massive pythons while preheating the oven to 350 in the community lounge. Ptyhons prefer rats or mice but this guy was a little strange so we let him feed whatever he wanted to his pythons. (Have you ever used pythons in a paragraph as many times as I just did? I think not!)

Then when I went to college in Dallas there wasn’t a whole lot of space to go for a run, or walk, or drive for that matter. Driving in Dallas always took an hour. And my rock hard abs began to soften into pebbles smoothed over by rivers of beer, dew and dorritos.

When I finally arrived in Maryland and entered my years of fog and living (and working behind a computer) in a basement my pebbles had congealed into a large boulder suitable for spraypainting by overpass lovers wanting to express their forever love to random strangers on the highway. (Only to break up two weeks later because she decided he wasn’t mature enough for her, but he didn’t mind because he found out she was sleeping with his buddy Mike and was about to dump her sorry ass anyway right after some angry sex.)

But I could still feel the foundation of former structure and glory during particularly difficult moments on the throne. The power of strenous taunt muscles screaming to rip out from behind the drapes of the Ice House and sink beneath the seat of velvet Crown Mansion, to slide off the slopes of Mt. Dew and bitch slap the Red Barron and his cheap (not inexpensive) pizza.  Wait. What were we talking about? Oh yeah.

Muscle memory.

So I totally think muscle memory is going to help me reclaim some of my former status as a God of Mount Olympus. And if I’m not able to move in at the top, perhaps I could make camp at the foothills? My memory ain’t what it use to be.

I’m still fairly strong in the upper body even with the winter coat I’ve been wearing for the last decade. If I were to reduce my entire persona into a d20 attribute system it would be this:
(Note 10 is where everyone starts out and is average human skills/abilities before training or experience, max is 20 and you are basically the best in the entire universe.)

Str - 12 (I’m not an ox but I’ve consistantly been stronger than most people. It’s hidden under my winter coat but I can lift and work pretty hard when needed.)
Con - 13 (I rarely get sick and when I do it’s bad but I emerge better and with a glossier skin tone.)
Dex - 11 (Perhaps this should be 12 as I’m fairly athletic when I put my mind to it.)
Int - 12 (Me’sa so smart. I understand why 2+2=5)
Wis - 12 (Me’sa occasionally have insights.)
Cha - 8-11 (depending on the situation and audience. I once dropped a baby on its head. That didn’t go over very well but since I wasn’t sued and was invited to my own going away party a couple months later, I think it worked out all right. This is the reason I don’t pick up children/babies. They make me nervous and lower my dexerity and strength stats.)

My ideal woman’s stats would be as follows:

Str - 8-15 (If she’s stronger than I that’s great. She can help move trees. I like tall woman anyway and they are usually stronger than most men. Although I’m not saying she needs to be able to plow fields using her fingernails, lifting a fifty pound bag of cat food (or grass) would come in handy. )
Con - 10-17 (This is dependant on which of us is doing the cooking.)  
Dex - 12-16 (Nimble is good.)
Int - 11-13 (you can’t be too much smarter than your significant other, or else one would start to resent the slowness of conversation. Unless the sex was above 15 then that can modify other stats.)
Wis - 7 (Any one with a stat higher than that would see through my Charisma stats and realize they could do much better, then stop returning my calls. This would make me sad.)
Cha - 13 (I like to laugh and being able to tell a joke/story or cover up for my awkward pauses at social parties would come in very handy.)
 

How did we get onto this topic? Oh yeah, muscle memory.

So I’m hoping you are right and my previous conditions will help with this current routine. I can already feel it in the abs. Tonight I did twenty sit ups to make up somewhat for the fact I didn’t get to walk tonight. They weren’t super easy but I could definitely feel them around 18. I also did 15 dips and those only winded me a bit. I think I’ll take it back down to 10 and 10 tomorrow. I’m only in week two of a six month program.

My shins and ankles were tearing me up from Sunday to Tuesday so I took Wednesday off. On Thursday they felt much better. I’m thinking I’ll take a single day off from walking each week until my legs start feeling like they aren’t on fire with each step. When I was in the service running was the worse part of PT (physical training). It was only when I started running on my own (during that three month period where I started doing the sit-ups and crunches etc) that I was able to slowly build up my stamina and was running 4 miles in under 30 minutes. It felt so good doing those runs. It wasn’t exercise it was joy. The body was toned and racing with energy each time I went out. You feel so good you just want to keep running and running. I suppose that’s why prisoners enjoy running in circles in the yard?

Then some huge high school kid named Lewis broke my collar bone when I was on leave during a “touch” football game and I couldn’t exercise anymore for nearly six months. Then I moved to Camp LeJeune and it was so freaking hot and the bugs were terrible and they kept us doing such menial tasks, I just didn’t have the drive to get back into it. Then of course college was all about the happy hour, and after college was all about the in house bar and computer work in the basement and one thing lead to another and here we are today. Man this is depressing. jI sound like a slug and hapless loser. Who writes this crap?

But not anymore. I’m back on the train baby! and it’s going straight to the top.

“But first I’m gonna go buy some donuts.” - W.A.

A Whole New You

So I went for a walk today even though I didn’t feel like it. It was 5:30 and getting late. I had been at work all day in very uncomfortable shoes, I drove home in traffic and I was feeling blah.

But I put myself into a mindset and changed cloths and headed out. I went too fast and my ankles and shins were killing me half-way through the walk so I slowed it down. The sun was barely shining light and the traffic on the road was getting busier. I kept on walking.

At one point an old 1970’s white Ford pickup truck came barrelling down the road. I had just stepped to the side of the curb when it came whizzing by and barely missed me. What if I hadn’t moved? That’s a little concerning.

Anywho… I’m finally getting home and my feet are feeling better.

I go into the house, go to the sit-up bench and begin my sit ups. I’m on auto pilot and start doing them and begin counting. I was thinking of something when suddenly I realized I had done ten situps without even trying.

That felt really good.

When I first started the sit-up routine last Tuesday I felt some serious pain in my upper abs and it hurt to lay on my stomach when I slept. I had considered rotating the sit-ups to every other day until I got better but by Friday I was feeling much better.

Now I’m doing sit-ups without even trying. Granted it’s only 10 but 7 put me in mild pain not a week before. That’s how it started when I was in the service in 93. I started out with 7 sit-ups a night and in three months I was doing one hundred situps, one hundred crunches and one hundred leg lifts all in one sitting - no pun intended.

I’m not sure I’ll get to that again but it is a goal. As the father in Contact said, “Small moves. Small moves.”

PS(The Hawking My Wares page is now up. Buy my stuff. You won’t regret it.) 8^)

A Whole New You

I created the icons and exercise chart table on the “Road to Mt. Olympus” page. I considered Ripped like Buddha (because it’s much funnier than my current title and more … umm.. accurate) as the title but considering it’s a page keeping track of positive progress I didn’t want to be too negative even for a laugh.

I’ve gotten a lot of good advice and all for recipes and cooking. Something that seems like a good idea is getting a rice cooker. There is a $20 one from Target with a steamer at the top.

I’m debating whether the cost of a rice cooker to cook healthy food is warrented since I can cook rice in a pot at any time. But there are advantages to a rice cooker. I definitely need new pots and pans. The ones I have now I’ve had since 1998 (and longer) and the non-stick surface and bottoms are looking really bad. I’m cooking with a copper bottom pot my mom got me a while ago and that is keeping up nicely if a pain since I only have one and must constantly clean it. I looked into getting new pots and pans before this year started but I just didn’t know what I’ll need for these recipes and what I may be cooking and since they were all $20+ per pot/pan I decided to hold off on that.

If I’m to eat better in this experiment I may need to purchase better tools toward that end. I’ll give January a trial run with the kitchen stuff I have and then make a decision in February.

See, being reasonably frugal already. (Did you know all right is two words? Alright - which I have used for nearly two decades - is considered nonstandard English and wrong. Just a little something I picked up the other day. All right then on with the post.)

I’ll be posting as time permits and I begin to more fully fill in the static pages of the site. As always free to post comments and suggestions. They are always welcome and helpful.  

Well that’s all I have for now. I’ve bought better food, I’ve got some links to consignment shops in my area which may be interested in my extra clothing, electronics and such to get additional income, and I have an exercise plan ready to be used. I’m all geared up for the new year.

Should be interesting.

A Whole New You

So on the 25th of this month I had one cup of Cookies and Cream ice cream, a bowl of Cape Cod 40% Fat Free potato chips (I really don’t think it matters), and a bag of buttery Orvelle 94% fat free popcorn. That night I slept from 10pm to about noon the next day.

I think getting back on a healthy track may just override my financial goals this next six months. They are fleshy neck and fleshy neck in the running.

So the next day I went to the Grocery store and bought some tomatos which I’ll put into my rice and chicken. I bought some watermelon and cantelope bowls for snacking and apricots. I really like apricots. But as I opened them up after a night in the fridge and was eating a few, I read the top. “Sulfur Dioxide used as a preservative.” !!

That’s the pillowly gas that comes out of volcanoes. It’s the stuff that is used to make acid rain. And I looked it up online and it turns out it doesn’t really preserve the food from rotting, only the appearance of the food so it doesn’t look like it’s not rotting. So you could be eating rotten apricots and not know it because the apricots look perfectly yellow-orange’ish and is still firm yet squishy.

I took them back to Publix and got my money back. Maybe I over reacted. Maybe it’s best not to know how food is actually stored for months upon months at a time in warehouses before being delivered to the local store?

But if the alternative is farming out my food in the backyard I’ll just be a little more careful when buying stuff next time. (Have you seen my backyard? I have and there’s no way I’m eating anything that grows out of that soil.)

A Whole New You