I love looking at leaves I don't have to rake

(Alas, these are leaves I do have to rake)

Quote du jour: How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.
- John Burroughs


Video clip du jour: There's a website hosting a Dance Your Dissertation contest. No, it's not for people getting a Ph.D in Interpretive Dance. It's for people in the sciences. No wonder it's so hard for people to finish a Ph.D if they know they're going to be critiqued for the ability to do the Rumba while defending their research. Oi.

This is last year's winner. Maureen McKeague did an interpretive dance on "Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment."


Y'know, if people are creative enough to think up things like that, I should be able to figure out how to organize my life.

I've more than doubled my commute, spending more than 2 hours a day commuting. I know that's not a big deal to some people, but it's causing me to have to re-figure my day. I don't have time to spare if I want to exercise and eat and sleep as well as that work stuff.

While I can't... yet... cycle to work (it's 30 miles one way), I can save much money by taking the local light rail. And the second half of the train trip actually has free WiFi, which is totally awesome. I love the idea of checking my mail, getting in touch with people, while whizzing through the countryside.

If I play this right, I will be able to organize my time so that I can get a lot of dull-but-necessary stuff done during the commute. Maybe. And if I can force myself to get up from my desk and walk at lunch, that could work too.

Originally I'd planned to walk from the train to work, which would add three miles to my daily commute. But I'm rethinking that idea, at least for now. It would involve walking along busy streets in the dark. No sidewalk, few streetlights, sharing the shoulder with bicyclists. I might hold off on that. There is a shuttle that takes me from the train to within ten feet of my building's front door. Hard to argue with that. Plus, I get to admire the beautiful fall countryside on my way to work.

Site du jour: Speaking of beautiful fall countryside, I love the pictures on True Calling's blog.

Exercise du jour: Again, I'm going to go for the 15 minutes ellipticalling, and a 2 mile walk at lunch. No interpretive dance for me.
Done. Barely. There's something about just having to do 15 minutes that works for me... much easier to face than 20 minutes of exercise.

How to sneak exercise into your work day

I'm trying to psyche myself into finding ways to exercise more during the day.

1. Exercising on the sly can make you feel guilty. Adopt the mindset that you are entitled to exercise. Make entitlement work for you. Often I tend to think I have to be at my desk for 8 hours straight or I won't get things done. Wrong. A quick break wakes me up so that I am more effective, get more done.
   
2. Be on the lookout for low-hanging fruit on the exercise tree, such as drinking so much tea that you have to walk to the bathroom frequently. It doesn't matter what gets you up and moving -- anything that gets you up and away from the desk is a good thing.
   
3. Get a job in a place where moving is built into the routine. Seriously, it's a quarter-mile walk at this place just to get a cup of coffee in the morning. I figure that will add up.
4. Sneak in a walk. According to a map, if I walk the hallways, following the perimeter of the building on the inside, the distance is about 3/4 of a mile. If I happen to take such a walk while carrying a notepad or folder, then it will look like I'm on my way to a meeting or something, right? And therefore it really wouldn't look like I was doing something frivolous like getting exercise during the work day.
   

None of these are going to get the heart beating fast enough to count as cardio exercise, but I do believe they will help. There have been enough studies to convince me that even incidental exercise, just keeping moving through the day, helps to keep people fit.

I wish that this work place had stairs. That was the perfect way to get the heart rate up. As it is, I will have to plan some cardio in the day as well. Meager as it sounds, I'm going to plan for the following this week:

• 15 measly minutes on the elliptical in the morning
• 2 walks (1/2 mile) to and from the train, morning and evening
• 2 walks (3/4 mile) each at morning and afternoon breaks
• 1 walk (2 miles) at lunch

4 miles of easy walking and 15 minutes of ellipticalling. I'll try that for the week and see how it goes.

Done! Well, technically it's a semi-fail, since I only managed 2.4 miles of walking. But to make up for it, I did 30 minutes on the elliptical. I told myself that I only had to do 15 minutes on the elliptical. Then once I started, I was able to spin it out to 30. To my mind, that qualifies the star.

Site du jour: Cranky Fitness has some good ideas on how to sneak exercise into your day. I might be biased, since the inestimable Crabby McSlacker let me post there sometimes, but I think it's a great site.

Cartoon courtesy of brainpop_uk.

What, again? I exercised Yesterday, damn it!

Quote du jour: I seated ugliness on my knee, and almost immediately grew tired of it.
- Salvador Dali

Well fine. If I have to exercise again, then I suppose I will get it done.
Self-pitying sigh

Really, I will remember how to be an Employed Person again soon. In the meantime, I'll use guilt to get me moving.

Exercise du jour: Again, another two friggin' miles of walking. This is setting the bar so low that it is pitiable. At the same time, it's setting the bar so low that I don't have any face-saving way to avoid exercising. What I'm after right now is, like a nun, getting back into the habit.

done?it's hard enough typing On an ip ad (sic), don't expect a gold star. I done the walk.

Okay, maybe it was just a crazy idea

My knee is as strong as it was before, if not stronger, and it's a matter of getting my leg strong. I lost six years of strength in about six month's time, so it's going to take another year or two to get that leg back up to full strength, but I'm good to go so far.
Picabo Street

One of my faults is that I am so easily distracted by bright shiny things. Did almost no exercise last week. Other things took priority. My mindset went totally into Work Mode Only. I know it's possible to combine work and exercise. I've done it before. Can't remember how, but I know I did it. Just couldn't seem to get the balance this week.

Okay, inner slug, I'll give you the first week of work is crazy.
Enough of that.

In my defense, I really did the good girl thing re making a healthy lunch, full of vegetables and good calories, and taking it to work each day. Didn't help much, since people kept saying 'let's go out to lunch' each day. (I mean, you can't say 'no' to that sort of thing. You really can't, especially in the first week. But damn I am sick of Chinese food now.)

Another weird thing to note is that Damn Knee has gotten more cranky this week rather than less. All that complaining it was doing about doing more than an hour on the elliptical? It complains even more if I don't exercise. It's not as consistently loud complaining -- it more takes the form of suddenly it's painful to get up from a chair. Not always, sometimes it's fine. But sometimes -- ouch. I think I need to strengthen the muscles around the knee more.

Yes, I am babbling. Tangent woman needs to focus. I am setting the bar low so that I can get back into the habit of exercise.

Exercise du jour: Okay, inner slug, here's the deal. All you have to do is walk two miles. Given that one of those miles is covered by walking to/from the Max, that means all the exercise you have to go out and achieve is One - Friggin' - Mile. That's all you need to do today.
Done! Walked at lunch. A bit. But hey, I set a goal and I made it. Maybe this will become a habit.

Hate your job... there's a support group for that

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The whole point of this blog was that I should document my fight with my inner slug and how I vanquished it to achieve my ultimate goal of Fitness and World Domination.* What it's turned into, this past month, is a battle between Me and the Evil Bosses At Work. And by "evil", I mean people who have different priorities than I have. (Doesn't sound as dramatic that way, but it's true. They're not evil. They are -- some of them -- not seeing the whole picture.)

I took the weekend off.

Yes, that's what I wrote. I did not work this weekend.

That makes two weekends in a row that I did not work -- after about 4 months of working every weekend. The last three weeks, I worked every night until about 10 p.m., trying to make an unreasonable deadline. Now that it's passed, and I've been publicly outed for having Held The Project Back, for some reason people have started thinking that this is a good moment to start throwing in every kitchen-sink improvement to the documentation that they can come up with -- but if that holds back making the deadline, why, that's the fault of the tech writer.

Good thing I'm not feeling cranky. Or at least not unreasonably cranky. Or at least not extremely unreasonably cranky. Something like that.

I think there comes a time, after working 12-15 hour days for several weeks, where you get cranky as all hell and start writing blog posts about how unfair life is. That doesn't really accomplish much in the way of a productive result. What I've decided to start doing is setting limits. I do not want to work more than 10 hours a day, and I do not want to work more than 2 weekends in a row. I want to do a good job, but if that means sacrificing every part of the rest of my life including sleep, then I think that the powers that be need to reconsider their project.

There. I said it.

Exercise du jour: Hell. If I get a 1-mile walk at lunch, I will call it a victory. And I will give myself a gold star. I like the idea of setting for myself a goal that I might actually reach.

Well, I managed half a mile. Still a semi-victory.


*Um... that is, domination of the world I inhabit. I tend to the belief that we all inhabit our own separate worlds, spheres that orbit the same general sun yet which hold some radically divergent life experiences. Oh crap, I'm getting metaphysical again, aren't I? Sorry. I try to refrain from that sort of thing in public.

Rewriting Shakespeare, and other do-overs

Quote du jour Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.
– Jim Rohn

As part of my attempt to 'travel light', when I take the Max to work I carry only a small purse that holds a tiny notebook and a tiny pocket edition of Shakespeare. The whole set is about 20 volumes, which adds up to about four plays per tiny book. Sometimes the Bard is good, sometimes... not so much. I'm thinking of re-writing some of Shakespeare's plays. (He'd thank me, I'm sure.)
For example:

• Instead of a measly epilogue at the end of All's Well that Ends Well, we should have a version of Whack-a-Mole. The "hero" of the play would play the part of the mole, and all the other characters would take turns hitting him. Much more satisfying ending.
• The Comedy of Errors is the Elizabethan equivalent of a cheap sitcom featuring two sets of identical twins "with hilarious results." I suggest it be re-written as a one-man play. Watching one poor actor trying to portray all those identical twins without going mad would be entertaining, in a twisted kind of way.
• Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare's version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Seems to me the least Will could've done was throw in an actual chainsaw and a Texan or two.

On the exercise front, I'm planning another do-over: I want to cycle 20 miles again. This time, instead of trying to scrunch most of the mileage into the afternoon, I want to cycle the whole way into work and then back again. See how the muscles feel about that. I figure splitting the commute up into two 10-mile rides should be easier. [Famous Last Words...]

One problem I have is that my mind still thinks 20 miles is a short distance to cycle, while my muscles are saying "Excuse me? You sit on the couch or at a desk most of the day -- why did you think you could just jump back into cycling?" The muscles have a point: I didn't bother to stretch Tuesday night, since it was "such a short distance." Wednesday, my hamstrings were so tight I couldn't touch my ankles. (Usually I can almost reach my palms to the ground.) This time, I'll take it easy.

Exercise du jour: 20 miles cycling. Okay, maybe not. It's a bad sign when you wake up exhausted. Maybe this is left-over flu or something. Today's a walking day.
Done. Two miles, but I still get me a star.

Scenes from the Max

Quote du jour: Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
- Lily Tomlin

Maybe it's just me, but if I saw someone wearing headphones and with their head down, their eyes fixed on a book, my first thought would not be "Oh! There's a person who wants me to sit down and talk to them!"

The young guy on the Max train, however, thought otherwise. Full of a twitchy kind of energy, he cheerfully launched into a full flood of conversation; all that was required of me was that I sit there and listen.

Mostly, it was the kind of talk that's hard to argue with. He said things like "I hate rain. It makes everything wet. I much prefer sun or snow." Um.... yeah.
Then he switched over to talking about how he hated the legal system. "I mean, I got a notice to show up to court, but there are two courthouses within a few blocks of each other. How're you supposed to know which one to go to? So they said I didn't show up. It's so unfair." Didn't the notice include the address where you were supposed to go? "And cops. I hate cops. I mean, it's good that they're there if there's an emergency or something, but basically they're just all pigs." Um... would you even notice if I started reading my book again?
Thankfully, he got a phone call and got off a few stops later. He kept protesting to the caller "Well, if you tried to see it from my shoes, you'd understand..."

***

The ride home was much quieter. No one felt the need to tell me anything at all; I sat and listened to conversations on all sides. It felt very peaceful. The two guys across from me were talking about boat races they were involved in; one guy held a paddle and was dressed in sporting clothes like he just got off the river. I didn't think much of it until the time came for the paddle-holding man to get off the train. That was when he unfolded the long white cane and began tapping his way toward the doors.

I don't know why it surprised me that a blind man was involved in boat racing, but it did. It's good to overthrow your expectations from time to time.

Exercise du jour: Walking day today. The bike ride yesterday, I'm embarrassed to report, left the muscles a bit sore. (Though not the knees! Maybe replacing the bottom bracket fixed things. I hope.)
Done! Couple miles, but better than nothing.

Still here...

Good: I've lost 5 pounds this week!
Bad: Thanks to the flu.
Good: But it was 5 pounds!
Bad: Excuse me? Did you miss the part about getting sick? You've done no exercise except for some measly walking, for Pete's sake.
Good: 5 Whole Pounds!!!
Bad: Sigh

I'm feeling much less dead now, so that's good.
I'm planning to take the weekend off, which is better.
Hell, I might even exercise. What more could you ask for?

Alas, I did not get taken up by the Rapture on Saturday. Well, I'd heard they didn't take Catholics, so I suppose that's no surprise. But I figured that other people might have been taken, since that means the rest get to suffer and I was stuck working (unpaid overtime) until about 8 at night. Stopped off at a convenience store on the way home to pick up some yummy green vegetables frozen pizza.

I saw another woman shopping there and was struck by her outfit. She was dressed all in white: white dress, hose, and shoes. Her dress was made of a very fine fabric with a bit of a sheen to it, but it was extremely plain: it covered her from the neck down to her ankles. The only decoration was some severe pleating down the front. I'm not sure if 'decoration' is the right word; the pleats were so straight and narrow that the general effect was one of severe repression. The whole look wasn't that of a nursing outfit, and she certainly didn't resemble a bride. The impression I was left with was one of those traditional Protestant baptisms. I wonder if she'd expected to spend her Saturday night somewhere else beside a convenience store in Oregon.

Site du jour: I loved this post from Coffee Helps about the 8-year-olds in Korea explaining their view of the American Evangelical's theory of End of the World to their Irish teacher during a dramatic thunderstorm.

Exercise du jour: Walking. Sigh. Not quite up to cycling again. Maybe tomorrow.

Good or Bad? Tsk, it's all relative

Old Word Made New: Context: a text sent by a jailbird, full of convincing untruths.

Whether something is good or bad all depends on the context. It all depends on the location or situation.

Some examples:

Oh, that's interesting!
Good: If your date says that while you're making small talk.
Bad: If your doctor says that while he's looking at your x-ray.

You've won the Lottery.
Good: The I.R.S. doesn't know where you live.
Bad: You're in a Shirley Jackson story.

Oh, honey, I've missed you!
Good: When your significant other says that to you at the airport, after a long absence.
Bad: When your significant other says that to you on the firing range, while they've still got lots of ammo.


Summary du week:
Cycled 40 miles
Walked 5.5

Good: Got some exercise.
Bad: Not as much as I wanted to.
Good: Look, be glad for what you got, okay?
Bad: Okay, okay, fine, enough already.

This week, it's a short week. Lots of relatives, few opportunities for working out. Regular exercise will re-commence next week.

Life's a bitch, but motivation is a bastard

Quote du jour: People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily. -- Zig Ziglar

Can't I just lay me down to sleep and stop with the exercising already?

Okay, I'll confess. I did it! I murdered Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the wrench! Motivation has been rather thin around Chez Merry of late. It's about the only thing that could be described as thin.
But why bother trying?
What's the point?
What do you mean, 'depressed'?

Since I moved up to the frozen wilds of Oregon, I can generally count on February being pretty damn depressing, as months go. Now that March has started to Ide its way onto the stage, I'm beginning to think that maybe... just maybe... that "spring" thing they keep talking about might be willing to consider making an appearance. And in spring a young at heart, though not so much in the knees woman's thoughts turn toward exercise.

Any day now, I'm going to get my motivation back.

Last time I checked, it was standing by the side of the freeway, holding a sign that read "Maui or Wherever." (My motivation isn't proud. It just wants out of here. Did it think to invite me along? Of course not. Selfish, that's the only way to describe this sort of behavior.)

Still, when spring rolls around... my motivation is apt to slink in the back door, avoiding my eye and making small talk about how bad the roads have been and how hitching a lift isn't as easy as it used to be in the old days.

It's inevitable. Soon as the daffodils start blooming and the allergies start sneezing, Mr. Motivation shows up expecting me to take up the pursuit of exercise with him as if nothing had ever happened. The bastard. One of these days, I'm just going to change the locks.

Site du jour: "Italian Catholics Picket Parade, Jealous of Irish Catholic History of Oppression"

Exercise du jour: Look, don't expect great things. Me and Mr. M. are barely on speaking terms. Expect 20 minutes on the Elliptical. Maybe a couple miles walking. That's about it.

Done! Hey, some days (like this one), 20 minutes exercise is a friggin' miracle. I seem to recall reading that the ancients considered March to be the beginning of the new year. Maybe my body is simply responding to the rhythms of my Celtic ancestors. Hell, it's as good an excuse as any. For today, this was a victory.

Lent, Chocolate & Vicodin

,
see more Very Demotivational

Nag du jour: Last chance to enter the giveaway for Jennette Fulda's memoir: Chocolate & Vicodin.

Exercise du jour: Since I'm now (hopefully) past the worst of the work-pressure, at least for the next week or two, it's back to finding some form of exercise. Today, I'm going to take it easy and aim for walking. Surely, anyone can do that. Probably.
Done! Well, a coupla miles. In my current depressed decrepit condition, that's something.

Snow, Chocolate & Vicodin

Got out of bed, opened the curtains, and what to my wondering eyes did appear?


All the branches are loaded with snow.




















Everywhere you look...

Ha. That's one way to make sure I get white camellias!











Giveaway du jour: Want to win an iPod shuffle or gift cards? It's easy. Link to Jennette Fulda's new book, and you'll be entering into a drawing.

Actually, I was going to link to her site anyway, because I loved the book trailer she created to go with the release of her memoir: Chocolate & Vicodin.

I can't imagine having to deal with a headache that doesn't go away -- for years. It's all the more impressive that the book trailer is funny.
Warning: contains bears.



Exercise du jour: Walking. Slowly.
Done! And not all that slowly, actually. Turns out that a mad, frantic rush for the Max train is good exercise. Thankfully today wasn't icy. I need to do more exercise that will push the boundaries. Maybe I should run for the Max more often.

Back to work, back to exercise... yeah, I'm enthused...

If you want to 'get in touch with your feelings,' fine — talk to yourself; we all do. But, if you want to communicate with another thinking human being, get in touch with your thoughts. Put them in order; give them a purpose; use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce. The secret way to do this is to write it down and then cut out the confusing parts.

- William Safire

Site du jour: I loved this news story: Philly homeowner forecloses on Wells Fargo.

Weird du jour: I don't know if you've ever read Young House Love, a blog written by a young couple who love buying older houses and renovating them. They posted about a note that the previous owner had left hidden in their house when they bought it.

It reminded me of another note, left beneath a pond in case the pond was ever dug up, which I thought was funny, albeit in a very dry and sarcastic way: "One of the more bizarre reasons could be that the removal of the pond was the direct result of a bite on the ankle from a Wildebeest, but I shall not speculate."

Whether the note was funny or just strange, what amazed me was the number of people who commented on it. The thread denigrated into a series of insults on the subject of Obsessive Parenting, Obsessive Note-leaving, and Obsessive Crank-commenting. Damn, but people take life on the internet seriously.

Exercise du jour: Usually, I know ahead of time what exercise I'm going to try for. Today, it depends on whether the weather listens to the weather man (i.e. nasty, in which case I walk) or good enough (in which case, I wanna bike). It was over 50 degrees on Monday, sunny and spring-like. Hard to believe that it's going to be snowing in another day or so.
FAIL. Didn't exercise morning, noon, or night. I decided to oversleep through the morning exercise, work through the lunch-time hail, and have a headache in the evening. I suspect the first two influenced the third.

Appreciating simplicity

Not sure if he's checking his deodorant or realizing that he could've had a V-8.

Quote du jour: I realized that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.
- Charles Lindbergh

Site du jour: Hummingbird webcam. Phoebe the hummingbird keeps coming back to this back yard in Southern California, year after year, to nest in one of the rose bushes. The owners finally set up a webcam so that people could watch. The webcam has developed quite a following.

Exercise du jour: Small goals today, after last night's marathon of talking someone through connecting to a wireless network when they have trouble getting around a computer. Walking. It's simple, it's basic, and I can do it no matter how tired I am.
Done! That's the great thing about small goals. Easy victories. I think I should throw one in more often.

Photo courtesy of Tabercil.

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.

A gloomy gray Friday deserves a great photo

Yes, I know it's sexist to put up pictures of scantily clad males on this blog.

Even if it's a picture that's incredibly full of color and makes you want to go find a sunny beach somewhere far away from traffic and rain and cubicles full of work that you're behind schedule on.

But today... I don't care.

I've spent a week of being stymied and thwarted at work, and even though it's Friday I have to confess that I'm feeling
lumpy...
and grumpy...
and frumpy...

as well as gloomy and doomy.

A day like this calls for a great photo.





Site du jour: Adopt a word. The Oxford English dictionary is on a quest to prevent thousands of words from falling out of daily use, and is asking people to "adopt" one, in order to keep it alive. The random feature of the site suggested I adopt the word "yelve."

And to save you the trouble, I looked it up. Turns out that means a fork used to carry dung; such a fork used as a garden tool. Um... are they trying to tell me something? Still, it's a fun site.

Goal of the month: 30 days of throwing stuff out. Maybe throwing stuff out will improve my mood.

Goal of the week: Out the door by 7:30. Maybe if I keep trying, I'll get this done.


Exercise du jour C25k week 4.

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

* Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
* Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
* Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
* Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
* Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
* Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
* Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)


Photo courtesy of mateoutah.

100% Fail. I had such high hopes, very pretty high hopes that got thrown down and stomped on by the demands of other people. Push the run back to Saturday, shrug the rest off. Tomorrow is another day. I hope.

Remembrance

Quote du jour: "Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." -G.K. Chesterton

Goal for the month: 30 day purge 30 days of sorting, purging, donating, filing, or shredding the excess Stuff I possess.




Goal for the week: I swear, nose to pillow. 9 p.m. Me. Keep the dream alive.





Exercise du jour: Walk to/from the Max station
Done! Plus, the C25k that I'd put off from yesterday



Plus, at lunch, the 200 squats, week 2

7
11
7
7
11 !!! Ack! This seems a lot more than the last time
Done!

Photo courtesy of Beverly & Pack

No reason Tuesday

No reason for the picture. Just made me go "awwwww."

Quote du jour: Of the blessings set before you, make your choice and be content. - Samuel Johnson

Goal for the month: 30 day purge




Goal for the week: I swear, nose to pillow. 9 p.m. Me. It can happen.




Exercise du jour: Walk to/from the Max station
Done! Worked in yesterday's C25k run as well. Efficient, that's me. Also quite damp. Turns out the raincoat is not completely rainproof :(



Plus, at lunch, the 200 squats, week 2

6
8
5
5
10
Done!

Jogging along

Quote du jour: You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe day-light-savings time. - Dave Barry

Study du jour: Obesity is contagious

In the study, the team found that an American adult has a 2 percent chance of becoming obese in any given year, and each obese social contact increases the risk of becoming obese by 0.5 percent per year.

And while having fat friends increases the odds that you will become fat, befriending thin people does not appear to help you lose weight.

"We didn't find having more healthy-weight friends made it more likely to help people lose weight. It fits in with this idea of thinking about it as an infectious disease. You don't really catch healthiness," she said.

Well hell, there's a simple solution. Just don't have friends.


Goal for the month: 30 days of a sort, shred, file or purge fest.
Done! One hour's worth of sorting



Goal for the week: Put nose to pillow by 9 p.m.
Oh crap. It's already quarter to ten. Don't mind me, I'm off to pillow-land e'en as we speak...


Exercise du jour: Walk to/from work, and Week 2 C25k. Jogging didn't seem to do Daniel Craig any harm.
Done! Well, the C25k part, anyway. And it kicked my butt, too. I didn't look nearly as carefree as Mr. Craig there.

Photo courtesy of suanie.

Row, baby, row

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Quote du jour: Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. - C.S. Lewis


Site du jour: You've probably already seen this, but I appreciated this informative and useful procedure on how to put on a sports bra. (Thanks to K D James.)


Goal for the month: 30 days of a sort, shred, file or purge fest.

Goal for the week: Go to bed by 9 p.m.

Exercise du jour: 30 minutes rowing.
Walking to/from work.

Week 1 day 3 of the 200 squat challenge.
5
6
5
5
7
Done!


Failed on everything but the squats. Got home and had to spend the next two hours and thirty-seven minutes helping my mother upgrade her anti-virus software. TWO friggin' calls to support. I mean, I've been working in the software industry for over ten years, and I've never had an install that was this badly bungled. Argh!