You call this Fat Tuesday?

Walked 3 miles.
In the rain.
Uphill both ways.
Lugging a laptop that got heavier with each mile. Must be all that water.

Mardi Gras. Huh.




I still get the star. Because I said so.



Photo courtesy of flickr.

Self-pity raised to an art form

I can pout better than a Super Model.

Time to stop feeling sorry for myself. I've caught up a bit on sleep, definitely caught up on food, and somewhat caught up on work.

Exercise du jour: Half an hour of the new yoga DVD.

Merry's Exercise Routine

Methinks time to rethink my exercise strategy.

[Photo credit:Roadsidepictures]

Happy, happy, happy... ish...

Exercise du jour: One more time, let's try Rania's personal trainer DVD, arms and abs.

Recycling electrons

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing - that’s why we recommend it daily. —Zig Ziglar

I'm recycling both the quote du jour and the picture du jour. Because it's good to recycle, even electrons.

And because I needed a good motivation quote.
And because I need to look at something beautiful, like how my yard will look in another couple months. Hopefully.

Exercise du jour: 45 minutes running at an easy pace. (What kind of a schedule do you call this, Merry? One I just made up. I'll see how it goes.) I'll try running indoors, see if it's less depressing. Follow up with Rania's personal trainer DVD, flexibility section.
Priorities: 1-work 2-sleep 2-1/2 food. The sad thing is that I'm not the one putting in the really long hours at work. I'm getting really tired of this.

Thinking Petty thoughts

Quote du jour: “You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does...” - Tom Petty

... sigh... maybe I could go back to school... again... oh hell. What would I do with a Ph.D? If you get one, then you're condemned to teach, right? The one thing I've always been sure of is that I don't want to teach. Ever. At all. Really. From the time I was a wee lass I've known this. (Did I mention that I was raised by teachers? Who were my parents, conveniently enough. When I was small, I thought the whole world got summers off. Came as quite a shock when I realized the truth.)

Exercise du jour: Rania's personal trainer DVD: arms and abs

Exercise fail. Where is Lori when you need someone to blame?

The real reason you're late for work

more animals

Exercise du jour: 30 minutes running, sprints. Follow up with Rania's flex training.
Walked 3.5 miles instead. Not feeling well.

The world's cutest camera-shy dog

This is a test of the Merry Broadcasting System.

I've never -- does it show? -- tried videotaping anyone before. Everyone tells me I'm too soft-spoken, but I never realized how soft my voice was until now.

Also, Tanji is perhaps not the best subject for a video interview -- she hates cameras. Beautiful dog, but you'll have to take my word for it. As soon as she sees a lens, the tail goes down, the ears go flat, and she gets this plaintive look in her eyes. Bad Merry, bad.



Note: I originally planned to shoot her wearing her half-knit sweater, but it kept falling off. I'll save that treat for a later date.

My social life at work: definite progress

A grunt!

SilentMan, who has worked at a desk 10 feet away from me for nearly 4 years, but has never spoken to me,* almost broke his vow of silence! He was coming out of the break room as I turned the corner and we almost ran into each other. I said "Excuse me" and he opened his mouth -- for a moment, a thrill of anticipation ran through me -- and he gave a half-uttered grunt.

Wow.
This is progress.


*To be fair, he never speaks to anyone else either. For that matter, he rarely leaves his cubicle. I have no idea what he actually does for the company, but it must involve speaking to someone somewhere sometime. Though I suppose hardware engineers don't /have/ to communicate much as a whole.

Exercise du jourRania's personal trainer DVD, abs and arms. Going light on the arms, after yesterday's 100 push ups.
Walked 2.5 miles instead.

So now what?

One thing I learned from doing the 100 push up challenge was the importance of form. It was so much easier to do the push ups, even the modified "girly" form, if the core muscles around the back and abdomen kept the body straight.
I was not happy with the way the core muscles slacked off in their duty. So that's my next challenge, to find a way to improve the core muscles.
I looked at the 200 sit up challenge and the 60 push ups in 60 seconds one, but they don't really float my boat. I hate sit ups anyway. If I'm going to be lying on the ground, I'll be floored, bored, and in general not motivated to work out.
The problem I see is that without a challenge like one of the above, there's no easy way to measure the improvement. Still working on that.
For this week, I plan the schedule thusly:
Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday - run. Throw in sprint if feel inclined. Then follow the non-cardio portions of Rania's Personal Trainer DVD.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday - Rania's Personal Trainer DVD. Concentrate on arms & abs.

Plus, I'm adding another challenge, this one food related.
I always start the week with good intentions, but I've noticed that by mid-week it's the hell with good intentions, just do what it takes to get through the day. So I'm trying to factor in prep time each night to pack a lunch. If I pack it (and remember to take it, important part there) then I'll eat mostly vegetables and healthy stuff.

Done! 30 minutes slug-speed jogging, with 3 baby sprints thrown in. My calves hate me when I do sprints, but it does feel good when I stop.

100 push ups, 2 arms, 1 Victory

Done!
Well, I think it counts anyway.
I was so eager to see the end of this push up challenge that I went ahead without resting up before the final test.
I suppose I did cheat somewhat. After the first 30 I took a ten second rest to stop the burning in my triceps. Then another ten second rest after 20 more. Then after 15 more. By the time I got to 80 or 90 push ups, it was a ten second rest after 10 push ups. But I don't care. I did 100 push ups, with less than a minute of rest in between. So I am counting myself done with this.
Which is good, because I really need to find a new challenge.

Right after I celebrate.

Want to join me in the Snoopy dance?


P.S. I just now found a site where lots of people list their progress on the 100 push up challenge. Le sigh. Wish I'd known about that earlier.

Is the end of the push up challenge in sight? Puh-lease?

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Oh I really hope we're there yet.

Day 3, week 6 (thank you God) of the push up challenge

set 1&2 13
set 3&4 17
set 5&6 16
set 7&8 14
set 9 max (at least 50)
Done! Well, I did the push ups on Saturday. On Friday, I did my regular 3 miles brisk walking. However, I don't feel ready to do 100 push ups in one fell swoop. Maybe I could do it in several fells swoops with a few seconds rest in between? Would that still count? (Oh listen to me. Like I'm going to be graded on this test. That's the trouble with all that eddication -- gives you a guilt complex.)

I made it to Thursday...

One more day to Friday. I can make it. I think I can, I think I can...


Exercise du jour: 30 minutes running, 4 sprints thrown in for laughs. Hopefully.

Done. Sorta. Ish.
I have invented a new form of exercise. It's called plogging: half plodding, half jogging, half-assed.
Plus, I did 3-1/2 miles of brisk walking. Maybe I shouldn't bother to fix my car; walking to and from the Max is starting to constitute my main form of exercise.

Train wreck courtesy of Flickr.

The Ben Franklin approach to weight loss

Early to bed, early to rise
Your scale will show a pleasant surprise
- Ben Franklin (attributed)*

Late to bed, early to rise
Won't shed the fat off of these thighs.
- Merry

I know better, I do. I realize short-changing myself on sleep for this long is counterproductive as far as weight loss is concerned. Maybe I'll get laid off, or the company will fold, or the workload will lighten up and I can get some sleep.

Day 2, week 6 (at last!) of the push up challenge

set 1&2 14
set 3&4 15
set 5&6 14
set 7&8 10
set 9 max (at least 44)
Whew! Did it. Plus, 3 miles brisk walking. And now I'm off to sleep!

*Attributed in this case translates to totally-made-up-because-it-sounded-good

Help! My dog believes in equal rights...

I knew I shouldn't have let her watch so much PBS.

My dog is currently outside, refusing to come inside.
It is night time.
It is freezing cold.
She is refusing to come in.

Yes, I could make it a command, and being a well-brought-up German Shepherd, she will obey a direct command -- with a Look that makes it perfectly clear what she thinks of the command. But I really don't want to force her to do something she doesn't want to do. (Unless I have to, e.g. "You will let the vet stick that thermometer there.")


She's very happy to see me when I come outside, licks my hand, wags her tail, fraternizes and enjoys my company. But -- here's the thing. Because I'm so paranoid about keeping these gleaming refinished hardwood floors clean, I want her to come in the back door, onto the linoleum so I can wipe off her paws if they're dirty. She wants to come in via the sliding glass door directly onto the wood floors. Can you believe she's staging a sit out over that?

Sometimes I think she does things like this because she's trying to test my limits, see how well she can train me.

Is there a dog psychologist in the house?

Update du Dog: After 24 hours, she has decided she wants to come inside again. She keeps giving me a Look, so I think she's still plotting something. It's a hard life, being a dog. Training humans is thankless task.

Exercise du jour: 45 minutes running at an easy pace.
Exercise fail. Damn. It's pretty early in the week to have to choose between exercise, food, and sleep. If I could find a way to eat in my sleep, I'd be doing much better.

Happy thoughts? On a Monday?

Day 1, week 6 (woo hoo!) of the push up challenge:

set 1 25
set 2 30
set 3 20
set 4 15
set 5 max (at least 40)

Done! Plus, 2.5 miles of brisk walking. Much easier to keep up a brisk pace when it's freezing cold outside. Something good to be said about winter!

Do I look like God's pinata to you?

I must have some cosmic 'whack me with a metaphysical baseball bat' sign put on me when I wasn't looking.

And I ain't sweet and full of candy -- that's my last working brain cell you hear rattled around inside my head.

And I swear if I don't get a day off soon I'm going to fall off the exercise wagon and go huddle under the blankets until the world goes away.

And I might even whine a bit, in a self-pitying way.

Like this.

Exercise du jour: Well fine. Thirty minutes of running, with three sprints thrown in, if I feel like it, which leaves 27 minutes for feeling sorry for myself, thinking negative angst-ridden thoughts, and whining to the dog about how hard life is. Hey, it's a schedule.
The nice thing about my schedule is that it's flexible. Went outside and ran half the distance, then jog/walked the rest. Tried to run some more indoors tonight; the calves were against it. Feels like a FAIL, but I'm going to count it because what the hell; it was still exercise. Would love to figure out why some nights are fabulous and other nights it all seems completely futile.