The Twelve and a Half Percent Solution

Quote du jour: Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway.

Something about a month filled with exactly 30 days makes me think in terms of challenges.

For instance, the internal dialogue yesterday went something like this:

Inner Self: Hmmn... did another hour on the elliptical today. Maybe I should stretch myself a bit more on the exercise front.

Damn Knee: Excuse me? What do you mean "a bit more"? Remember me?

Inner Self: Maybe I could do two hours on the elliptical. Or why stop there? Three hours sounds even better.

Damn Knee: The hell you say.

Inner Self: With ice and ibuprofen, it wouldn't be so bad.

Damn Knee: What do you mean by "not so bad", Kemosabe?


Um... to be truthful, the dialogue went on for a lot longer, with a bit more vituperation on the part of the knee joint, but in the end we argued negotiated a trial period of exercising three hours a day, in three separate segments.

Morning: 1 hour elliptical, or 1/2 hour elliptical and 1/2 hour yoga.
Noon: 1 hour running/walking (mostly walking) or 1 hour cycling.
Evening: 1 hour exercise DVD or weightlifting.

I don't actually know what the limits are with Damn Knee, so I'm trying to throw in some flexibility on the options. I'd like to alternate run/walk and cycling, but if the knee complains I'll switch to more core muscle exercises instead. The point is that for the next 30 days I want to move the body three hours a day.

If you figure that's there are 720 hours in September, and I'm only planning to exercise 90 of them (12.5%), then it doesn't sound too extreme. And I'm betting that it will get things moving. I've been laid up pampering Damn Knee for almost two full months, without stopping eating. It's time for one of those total body makeover months.

Exercise du jour:
1 hour on the elliptical
Done!




1 hour cycling
Done!



1 hour DVDing
Update du 10:20 pm: don't give up on me yet. Yes, I had to spend an hour or so on the phone with my mater explaining that MS Word masquerades as a Word Processing application but is in reality a software application designed to increase the sales of Prozac and Tequila is a non-intuitive piece of software.

Did 20 minutes, still aiming to finish that last hour. I want that star.
Update du 11:17 pm: okay, so we're not talking quality time here, right? I mean, the main thing is that the exercise was done. No matter how non-pretty, or the fact that I ended up doing a slo-mo version of the elliptical for 40 minutes. It was done. I gets my gold star.
Done!