A Fate Worse than Death

Quote du jour:
Mother: All of my friends are either dead or in assisted living.
Me: Which is worse?
Mother: Assisted living.

If ever I needed an incentive to keep fit, it's looking at the people who've gone before. My grandmother lived a full, rich* and well-traveled life until macular degeneration and osteoporosis left her blind and so afraid of falling that going down two steps while clinging to a hand rail would leave her nearly hysterical with fear. My mother took note, and took supplements, and can still see pretty well even though she's nearly at the age where my grandmother passed away. Unfortunately, she's now lost about five inches in height and is becoming extremely frail. Though the mind is as sharp as ever, the body is getting fragile.

Me, I've taken enough biology classes to know what's coming if I don't take care. Yet another incentive to load-bearing exercise and eating them vegetables.

Exercise du jour: 15 minutes stair climbing. Also, tricep dips and squats.

Done! Spent 15 minutes with Fred A. Stairs, going up and down the 48 steps 10 times. (What? Doesn't everyone name their staircase? Is it just me?) Also squats and tricep dips.

*no, not the kind of rich that you pass on to deserving grandchildren in a very material and financially profitable sense; the kind where you enjoy each new experience to the fullest.


Photo courtesy of Steve Evans. I don't know who the woman is/was, and possibly the photographer didn't either -- it's titled "Old woman of Tajikstan." I just liked the idea of a woman whose face wasn't so much lined as mapped with all the experiences she'd lived through, and who still could manage a smile for the camera.

Doing squat at work

Not an actual picture of my office... just an approximation

Word du jour: Am-knees-ia (n). A condition where you forget how bad your knees are until you try to bend them.

It doesn't actually help with getting through long tedious meetings, but doing squat turns out to be useful for other things besides challenges.

At work, there are a large number of computers that need to be kept from overheating and are not stored in a closed-off room. The office thermometer must stay on the low end of comfortable, so I tend to go around bundled up in several layers, like a globular bear. (Yes, even in July.)

Now, if I'm cold or really want to freak out annoying co-workers find myself getting sleepy after lunch, I do a few squats. Because squats use the largest muscles in the body, doing them gets the blood flowing and the body warmed up pretty quickly.

Also, doing the occasional squat helps my knees remember how to bend. Flexing the knees helps keep them from stiffening up.

Now I just need to figure out how to do squat and get paid for it. Any ideas?

Goal of the month: All vegetarian, all the time. So far, so good.
Done!




Exercise du jour: I really hate posting this goal, since I've flailed on the jogging for the last week or so. A couple weeks ago, it was effortless. I'm wondering if the difference is the temperature -- maybe I just need to adjust? Especially hard after coming back from a balmy Christmas in California.

Jog/walk/crawl 3 miles, depending on the temperature.
Done. 4 miles. Didn't crawl, at least. Plus, 30 minutes on the elliptical and 100% veggies means HBBC = 7
1/4 - HBBC 1 (veggies)
1/5 - walked 3, veggies HBBC 4
1/6 - walked 3 miles, jog/walked 3 miles, ellipticalled 15 minutes, veggies. HBBC 8


United States Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Strang

Patterns: the obligatory end-of-the-year review post

Quote du jour: My life seemed to be a series of events and accidents. Yet when I look back I see a pattern. -Benoît Mandelbrot

Things I've learned:
Looking back from the time I've started this blog, I really have actually learned things.

- Exercise is for every day, not special occasions. If you force yourself to exercise every day, eventually, eventually, eventually it becomes a habit to do something every day.

- Vegetables aren't all bad. And I love the way I feel after I eat a salad -- light, full of energy -- as opposed to how I feel after I eat a McGreasy burger.

- Even a fat chick can train to run a 5k, do 100 push ups, 200 situps, or 200 squats.

- An injury doesn't mean I need to stop exercising.

Things I still need to pound into my thick skull:

- I still react the wrong way to stress and negative things thrown at me. I want to eat bad food, drink wine, curl up in a ball under a fluffy comforter until the mean people go away. I want to be the kind of person who will get on the elliptical and sweat the anger/fear/frustration/hurt feelings away. And then go calmly confront the mean person, who probably didn't mean to be quite that mean, if you see what I mean.

- It's okay to push myself a bit more sometimes. I don't know my limits until I injure myself, but that's okay. I learn, I avoid the problem next time, and I keep going even if it's at a slower pace or through a different form of exercise.

- However, when I do injure myself, I need to stop and not try to stubborn my way through the pain.

- My exercise plan doesn't have to be followed perfectly; my diet plan doesn't have to be followed perfectly. They just have to be followed. I don't have to be perfect.

Exercise du jour: Wanna do the 3 mile jog. The sun is shining, but it's also cold out there. If the asthma kicks in and I can't jog, I can walk. Or I can whine stay indoors and lift weights. One way or another, I'm going to get a gold star up here.
Done! No, not the jog. I walked instead, but to make up for the slackness of not running I extended the walk to 5-1/2 miles instead. Very brisk walking, thanks to the cold. It was exercise, definitely. (HBBC 5)

Happy New Year!


Mandelbrot set courtesy of SiriusB.