Chronicles: Alan B. Rowley II - Success Warrior - ECoach - P90X

Raw Food, Exercise, and Martial Arts

Here's today's Half Wit Headline:

Lawmakers Move to Curb Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Pay

Ya think?

These are the largest mortgage companies in the country and are about to go bankrupt because they have been so ineptly run.  How much do CEOs get paid to run these huge companies and our country into the ground.  The Freddie Mac CEO gets about $20 million a year and the Fannie Mae CEO gets about $12 million a year.  Some of our wonderful representatives are starting to wonder if those amount might be a bit excessive when so many average Joe's are losing their houses.

I dunno.  If I was going to be take an active part in the destruction of the USA, I would want to be compensated very nicely too.

I was up by 4 this morning and out the door running not long after that.  It was just me and the cops out at that time of the morning.  I saw 2 city cops and 2 county cops during my run.

It was windy and a bit cooler this morning.  A thunderstorm rolled through last night.  The sky was clear here but I could see lightning flashes toward Salt Lake.

6 miles later, I was back home.  Today is Tuesday which means that this isn't my long run for the week.  If you would have told me 2 months ago that 6 miles would be medium run, I would have thought you were crazy.  It's amazing how quickly the human body can adapt.  It really is.

When I got home, I went through another exercise routine with Tia.  My theory behind my workouts is to combine weight training with interval training and circuit training.  I think this is going to work out well and it's what I'm going to be using for my fitness classes.  Tia is my first guinea pig.  She has liked the first two workouts and that's good.  That's half the equation.  People aren't going to stick with a program they don't like.  The second half of the equation is the effectiveness of the program.  I won't know that for a few weeks probably.

I did the whole workout with her so that I could feel it too.  When I actually teach it, I'll probably only do a few reps and then wander around helping people do the moves correctly.

The Credit Crunch Is Over. Huzzah!

   Here's today's Half Wit Headlines:

BofA 2Q Profit Shrinks, Beats Wall Street

Stocks Higher After Bank of America Results

Bank of America still made money and so the implication is that the credit crunch is coming to an end.  I am not making that up.  That's what the second article concluded.  All's good, the worst is over.  Whew!

Oh yeah.  For the record, the market closed down 29 points.  So much for the attempted Jedi Mind Trick.  It seems to me that it's going to be harder and harder to hide the truth.  The Fed keeps changing how they measure the economy and so they reported today that the economy is still going up.  We are not in a recession.  Inflation is at the highest it has been in 30 years, unemployment is going up, foreclosures are at record levels, gas is headed for $5 a gallon on its way to $7, the stock market is crashing, but we are not, I repeat NOT in a recession.

Here's a clue about the end of the credit crunch.  It won't end until one of two things happen:

1. Everyone starts using only cash to make purchases and works at paying off their debt; or
2. House prices exceed where they were when the bubble burst so that people can start borrowing against them again.

I hate to break the bad news to the Wall Street expert that wrote the article but I haven't seen either of these two criteria met so it's my purely uninformed and uneducated guess that there is still a credit crunch and that Wall Street is going to continue its downward trend.

I started the day with a phone call at 3am from work.  Have I mentioned lately that I'm working on a plan to be out of the casino within a year?

I managed to get back to sleep by 3:45 and then I was back up at 5 for a 4 mile run.  When I got back, I ran Tia through the rough draft of an exercise circuit that I'm going to be using in September.  She liked it and there is very little tweaking that I can see needs to be done at this point.  That's good.

I started into a Turbulence Training session when I got home from work but I just couldn't get into it so I quit before I was done.  It's not like I'm not getting some exercise elsewhere.  =)

I'm sure I have more to say but my brain is shutting down for the night.  It's been too long of a day, I guess and I'm getting up early tomorrow.  Early means 4am.  I'm doing a test run from now through August to see if I can pull off teaching a fitness class for women while still working on my own fitness.  The trick is, will I be able to do it without sacrificing sleep?  Get up early isn't a sacrifice if I go to bed early.  It's just a big puzzle piece where I have to figure out how to fit in long miles of running before it gets hot, teach my fitness and martial arts classes, work my day job, fulfill my City Council duties, watch a 4 year old, and fit in a bit of family time.  No problem, eh?

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

I'm Overweight. Weeeeeee!

Shall we change to red heads for this week?  Too bad Bob doesn't read my blog anymore.

Today's Half Wit Headline is again the first line of an article:

"WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson sought to reassure an anxious public Sunday that the banking system is sound, while also bracing people for more troubled times ahead."

Things suck but it's okay.

Would you like to know what the economy really looks like?  Would you really? 

Here's the best article that I have read on the subject in a while: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article5532.html

It's on a .uk website so it's not surprising that it's more honest about the situation that American news.  It tells the truth behind the Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac debacle and also exposes why Democrats won't be coming to the rescue anytime soon.  Vote for McCain or Obama, the results will be the same.  One will just be able to sugarcoat it better.

Trey and I went for our Sunday bike rid to my parents' house.  My mom now has a Wii and a Wii Fit.  She wanted me to try out the Wii Fit.  The first part is just basics like height and age and it weighs you and then tell you what your BMI is and your fit age.  I don't remember what my BMI is, something like 29, which is overweight.

"You're overweight?" my mom asked incredulously when the results popped up on the screen.

"The machine can't tell the difference between muscle and fat," I said.  For those of you that haven't checked into BMI, let's just say that it's a completely outdated mode of measuring health.  It works fine for anyone that doesn't lift weights.  My wife recently started a new job and there is an insurance plan that rewards fit people that we can sign up for.  My heart sank when it showed that it used BMI as a measure but I found relief a couple of lines down when it had the word "OR" and had a bodyfat measure.  Whew!

Wii said that my fit age was 43.  It uses my ability to balance on its board without practice, my inaccurate BMI, and my age to tally up a score that puts me two years older than I really am.  People are always shocked to find out that I'm 41 because I don't look 41 but the Wii obviously can't see so I'm 43 and fat to it.  In fact, it changed my avatar to a fatter version based on my BMI.  How rude!

Next time I'm over there I'm going to ask the Wii how many 41 year olds decide to start teaching fitness classes at 6am.  Yep, starting in September, I've decided to start teaching fitness classes even though Monsieur Wii says I'm old and fat.  I'll tell you more about that decision and what the classes will be like on a different day.

Tonight, my neck hurts incredibly.  Tia has offered to rub Tiger Balm into my neck and that's an offer that I can't refuse.  The good news is that the pain is only in my neck tonight and isn't in my back.  I'm hoping it's healing because I'm going to start up with some weights tomorrow.  Probably not the Turbulence Training and I'll explain that more later as well.

We had a couple of additions to the family tonight as well.  Lots to talk about but my neck needs the attention more than you do.  I promise.

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Shoe Whore Update - Jaewoo Discipline Mid

Today's Half Wit Headline is actually the first line of an article:

"A regimen of supplements and lifestyle coaching is just as effective as statin medication for reducing levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or "bad" cholesterol, and more effective in helping people lose weight, new research shows."

As long as by "just as effective" you mean that it actually gets at the heart of the problem instead of treating just the symptoms and doesn't have any side effects from putting chemicals into your body.  Then, sure diet and exercise are just as effective as drugs. 

Don't ever believe that there is a war on drugs.  There is only a war on competition.  You're supposed to get your drugs from Pfizer and Briggs.

Bonus headline.  Use it or lose it:

"Lots of Sex May Prevent Erectile Dysfunction"

How much money and how many scientists did it take to figure out that muscles that aren't used atrophy?

My new karate shoes arrived yesterday.  Sweet!  Here's a pic of one of the shoes on one of my feet.  An excellent place to put a cool shoe like this.

First a word about where I bought these shoes - Skips Martial Arts.

You'll remember that I chucked my old shoes a couple days after ordering the new ones.  I was going to wear the old ones until the new ones arrived but I thought my foot was going to break out the side before that so I 86ed 'em.  That's poor planning on my part and I was prepared to wear my Evades for a couple of weeks until my new shoes arrived.  I have karate every other day and I only wore the Evades to one class before Skips had my new shoes in my hands.  I love quick service.

On Skips website, it states that the shoes run a little small so if you're a solid 9, you should order a half size up.  I happen to be a solid 9.  I try shoes on to see how they fit as far as side to side and comfort but all my shoes are 9s.  Because of that, I was skeptical about going up a half size but I took Skips on their word and order 9.5s.  Skips was absolutely correct in their assessment.  The 9.5s are a perfect fit.

More on the shoe now.

It has more side to side stability than my old wrestling shoes had and that's a good thing for the type of training that I do in them.  I think my foot will be less likely to break out of the outside edge of the shoe.  The top mesh vents heat very nicely.  There is an extra bit of sticky rubber on the toe and toward the outside edge near the pinky toe.  This was great for some of the exercise where I'm digging my toes into the mat for traction.  The "V" cut out on the back that is made for easier extension of the foot for kicks had a bonus feature.  This shoe is much easier to put on and take off than my wrestling shoes were.  The mid-high sides offer support for side to side motion but without the bite of my Evades when you bend deep for a stretch.

I'll have to see how they wear and how they hold up but after one class of intense exercise followed by teaching karate, I am very pleased with the shoe.

I almost forgot to mention that I ran 3 miles on Saturday morning.  Here's a graph of my mileage of the last 30 days.  With my diet change, things are starting to go according to plan where I increase the mileage of a couple of the runs by a mile each week. 

I weighed in this morning and there has been no weight change this week.  It doesn't matter but I thought that I would probably start losing weight with the extra running.  It still might happen but all that really matters is how I feel and how I look.  So far, things are going great.

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Eating With A Purpose

More long blond hair.  You are looking at her hair, right Mark?

Today's Half wit Headlines:

CitiGroup Posts $2.5 Billion Loss, but Beats Expectations

Wall Street to Open Higher on CitiGroup News

Huh?  Isn't losing 2.5 billion bucks bad even if it's not as bad as it could have been?

I see that the SEC is going to be stepping in with some new rules to try to slow down the wild swings in the market's death spiral.  They might not like the results.  The wild swings up are the only positive notes they get to report.

One of the things that I've always struggled with as an early morning runner is how to fuel my run without putting too much in my gut.  If the runs of this week are any indication, I may have found something that works for me.

When I wake up, I grab a banana and my morning caffeine - White Flood.  I let that settle for about 45 minutes while I respond to email and check headlines.  On the longer runs, I put a Recovery Drink (more on those in a different post) in my water bottles. 

Today's results were very nice.  8 miles.  That's my longest run in over a decade. 

The nutrition doesn't end there.

When I get back, I mix up some Anabolic Halo and eat some fruits and vegetables.  This is when I sneak a bit of peanut butter into my diet.  I usually eat enough to take the edge off any hunger and start the muscle recovery process. 

After I shower and get ready for work, I usually grab something else and usually within an hour, I'm eating some more.  All of it raw fruits and vegetables.

The nutrition doesn't end there.

Because with my karate and running schedule and next week I start the Turbulence Training again, if I'm not recovering from a workout, I'm getting ready for the next workout.  It doesn't really start with a banana and White Flood.  My day starts that way but my exercise nutrition doesn't have a start or an end.

I've only been doing the copious amounts of fruits and vegetables for 2 weeks now but I really think that my endurance has improved because of the change.

Not that the purpose of all eating needs to be fitness.  You can certainly eat for the pure joy of the taste of food or as a social event.  I will say that there should be a purpose and that you should give some thought to your default eating. 

Today's success story is another one of those fun events in my life that people would call bizarrely coincidental.  I've come to expect them.  Law of Attraction, and all, you know.

I got this email this week making the timing perfect for the term coincidence.  This is Dennis Rowley.  For those of you late to the party, my name is Alan Rowley.

Before you ask, let me give you the answer that I always give when people ask me if I'm related to someone: probably.  If you trace different Rowley branches back far enough, they probably converge somewhere.

If you're a Christian, the answer is yes, of course.  Everyone came from Adam and Eve and let's not forget the genealogy tree bottle neck of the Noah incident.  All Christians are the product of a couple incidents of severe inbreeding.  I do mean severe in the case of Adam and Eve.  Did they have daughters or were Cain and Abel the original mofo's?  I haven't studied that part of the fable.

In the last bit of serendipity, guess how Mr. Rowley lost all the weight.  He switched to a diet of mostly raw fruits and vegetables.  He gets his protein from salmon, raw nuts, and protein powder. 

He also runs 4 - 5 times a week and lifts weights 5 days a week.

He lost 70 pounds with this plan.  Maybe I can lose 15, eh?

The lost pounds is actually the smaller of his victories.  Before starting his exercise and nutrition plan, he had "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, acid reflux, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Diabetes 2, arthritis, allergies, and a chronic cough," and now he doesn't have any of those things.  Even his allergies are gone.  Amazing.

I'll finish today's post with a bit of Ron Paul news.

The Republican Party officials for Nevada have decided not to call the convention out of recess.  Instead of voting for delegates, the party is just going to appoint McCain supporters as the national delegates.  You're only allowed to vote if you vote for a Corporate Sponsored Candidate.  Otherwise, they have to take things out of the hands of the people.

Ron Paul supporters have filed a law suit against the Republican officials because Nevada law clearly states that the convention is the only way to choose delegates for the National Convention.

I'll bet you don't hear this story on MSM.

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Shoe Whore Update - UnderArmour Evade

  Interesting list of top headlines this morning:

JP Morgan Chase Profit Falls 53 Percent on Loan Losses

Continental Slides to 2nd Quarter Loss on Fuel Costs

Coca Cola Co. 2nd Quarter Profit Drops 23 Percent

And the kicker:

Stocks Head for Higher Open on Upbeat Earnings Results

I am so convinced that the people playing with the market are completely clueless.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning and was wide awake so I decided to just get up instead of lay in bed wishing that I could sleep. 

I think it was the nightmare about the alien in my stomach in the shape of a slice of pizza trying to eat its way out.  Just kidding.  I'm feeling much better this morning.  I did have a weird dream but I'm one of those people that can't remember a dream much past waking.  I just remember that it was weird. 

I caught up on some favorite blogs, the weird business headlines, and then went out for a 4 mile run in my new sock and shorts.  I also wore shoes and a tank top, in case you were wondering. 

I ordered some new shoes this week.

I don't know that I'm a shoe whore but maybe a potential shoe whore.  I covet shoes but I have restraint because besides work and exercise, I have very little need for shoes.  Having lots of shoes would mean that either I have a job where I change outfits often or I have a social life.  I have neither.

I started the day wearing my Nike Max Airs for running.  I switched to my New Balance 790s for work.  I love these shoes.  It's almost like being barefoot but they are starting to get worn.  That's why I was looking at those Vivo Barefoots.  After work, I was barefoot and then for karate I wore my UnderArmour Evades.  That's it.  That's how most days go.  I don't usually wear the Evades for karate but . . .

   My Asics have seen their last day of karate.  This pic was taken in the driveway mere seconds before the shoes went into the garbage.  Lucky for you, the Paparazzi was outside my house at 6am waiting to see what I throw away and snapped this shot. 

The Asics were troopers and have lasted for years but the only thing keeping my foot from coming out the side on the lunging motions was that white stripe and that was starting to look a little brittle.  The Evades are taking up the slack until the new shoes arrive.

This was the first real hard cross training test that I have put the Evades through so here's my review.  Going from running shoes or my 790s to these is a huge difference.  The sides are stiff because they are made for lateral motion.  As you all know, sometimes stiff is good.  On a couple of the stretches, the side at the ankle kind of bit into my foot in an uncomfortable way and I hope that goes away with use.  The sides of my foot were a little sore and while they did their job, it felt good to take them off when I was done.

One final note for today.  While I was waiting for the pics to upload I scanned some headlines and I saw the Pelosi called King George a failure.  "Hello Pot, this is Kettle."  She was voted in to rein King George in and she didn't.  That makes her a spineless failure.  Congress still has a lower approval rating that the Prez.  It's in the teens now.  Is that some kind of record?  How bad do you have to suck to have an approval rating lower than the worst president in history and only 18% of the people think you're doing a good job.  Not even Democrats think Democrats are doing a good job.  18% of the people, who are obviously high on something, think Congress is doing their job.

It's time to replace them all.  Can we get a do-over?

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Conditioning and Deconditioning

I may have found someone that can help me with my injured back and neck.

<--------------------  =)

My day started with a 3 mile jaunt that went very nicely.  Do you like that?  Jaunt.  Now that I'm doing 6 mile runs, I can call 3 miles a jaunt. 

This Friday I'll be aiming for 8 miles.  Yikes! 

My UnderArmour order arrived today.  In case you're interested, their stuff is great but they are slow in processing orders.  You'll get a few NetFlix DVDs before you get your UnderArmour gear.

It's worth the wait but I ordered HeatGear stuff, which keeps you cool in the heat (hence the name) and I was starting to worry that I would be needing ColdGear stuff.  Now knowing this, I'll be ordering my ColdGear stuff at the end of August so that it's on its way for winter.  Since I run early in the morning, the runs will start getting cooler even when the days are still warm.

Tomorrow, I'll be trying out some new shorts and socks.  I'm sure that I'll be able to run faster in my brand new UnderArmour Pacer shorts than I did in my 10 year old WalMart POS shorts.

Okay, maybe I won't be running faster but maybe it will look like I'm running faster.  Or just running cooler.  My feet will be extra comfy with the extra padding on the ball of my foot and heel.  Maybe it will add extra spring to my step.  Maybe I'll just look like an idiot prancing about trying to test the limits of the cushiness. 

I'm meeting with Rachel tomorrow about creating my new shirts.  I'm changing my shirts from super cool Blue Tiger shirts to super cool Success Warrior shirts.  She has my logo and we'll be discussing colors and fabrics tomorrow.  I'll be proudly displaying one on this blog when they are complete.

Should I get to the point of this post's title?

I've been doing this raw food thing for about 10 days now.  Not 100% but probably close to 90%. 

First, while I continue to not get to the point of this post, let me state that I feel better.  My karate workouts are easier and I'm putting out more effort.  My running seems to have less ups and downs.  Fruits and vegetables must act as a counterattack to moon gravity.  I'll be interested to see if that trend continues. 

Now, my point.  Tia and I went out to dinner tonight while Trey went to a birthday party.  We chose Pizza Hut because it's the quietest restaurant in the city and we could sit and visit.  That part went exactly according to plan.  It was quiet and we sat for a long time discussing her new job and the future of my karate school.

What's lasting even longer than our discussion is that pizza sitting like a rock in my gut.  Good gawd!  What strikes me most about this feeling is that pizza was on the ordinary list of foods a year ago or so.  Can you believe I started P90X a year ago?  July 12th 2007, I believe.  How time flies.

Anyway, we (and I include myself in the "we") can train our bodies to get used to very unhealthy things and think that feeling is normal.  I thought I would have some pizza as a treat tonight but I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon.  I hate puking but at this point, it really might not be that bad.  Feeling this way and remembering back to my youth when I could and would eat half of a large deep pan pizza just makes me wonder what the hell I was thinking.  That just couldn't have been good for me. 

So, to sum up, raw food good, pizza bad.

Now, where is that nurse, I'm not feeling so good.

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Exercise and Sleep - A Good Day Off

Trey and I both slept in until 8 this morning.  I always feel like I've lost out on time when I do that but on the other hand, it did feel good.

I went for a 6 mile run and it went very well.  My Shuffle and water bottles make a big difference.

Trey and I went to my dad's restaurant so I could work on his computer for him.  He fed us and that's always a good trade.

We came home for a power nap.

I had a special City Council meeting that I'll explain when I have more time.

I came back and taught the exercise portion of my karate class.  I was sweating buckets but it felt good and I can tell that my conditioning is getting better.

Then it was back to City Council meeting where we discussed big budgetary items for the next few years.  I'm still pretty lost when it comes to City Council meetings.  I'll be going to training in November and hopefully that will help and I'm going to start visiting the different departments next week.  I have quite a bit of reading to catch up too.  I imagine that a lot of it will sort itself out over time.  Many of the things that are discussed have been discussed previously so everyone else knows what's going on and I don't just because I'm a recent addition.

After this post, I'm going back to bed.  My neck and back felt quite a bit better today but they are really starting to hurt now.  It's been the same pattern for the week.  The later it gets, the more it hurts.

Have a great night!

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Money, police work, and money . . . and shoes because I love shoes

Think he's rich?

So, I started my day with a 3 mile run that went fairly well. 

After that, I've done pretty much nothing for the day except work and putter a bit around the house. 

Trey and I did go to the park and play a little basketball.  He wanted to play on the slide but there were so many kids that he didn't get a chance.  I told him that we would go back tomorrow.

Tia is out of town for a couple of day for training in her new job.  She works for the Sheriff's Office now on the Utah side.  When we moved, I was burned out on police work.  She wasn't and she has decided to go back into it again.

I'm glad that I don't update my financial blog anymore.  Things are not going well.  I try not to look but I peek between my fingers sometimes because it's too hard not to look.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are about to go under.  If they do, things will not be good.  If they are bailed out by the government or the Federal Reserve, things will not be good.  At this point, it's all about trying to keep the impression that this can be turned around without much pain while at the same time trying to convince Americans that attacking Iran is a good idea.

I know King George is hoping to keep things afloat until he gets out of office but I don't know if things will go that long.  There's only so much that illusion can cover up before the American people figure out that the whole country is bankrupt.  The longer the illusion is held in place, the harder the fall will be when reality hits and the longer the depression will last. 

I'm hopeful that we will be able to turn things around but it's not going to happen until the people of this country turn off the TV and go looking for answers.  They aren't going to like what they see but until they seek it out, they're going to keep getting McCain, Obama, and American Idol. 

If they really want change, they have to change.  Even if Obama was for real, one man can't change the country.  Americans have to change themselves first.  The rest will follow.  Harshly, most likely, but they can't keep looking for the magic pill.  It doesn't work for weight loss and it doesn't work for government.  People have to take responsibility for themselves and their government. 

Back on the subject for this blog, I received the first DVD in the Tony Horton One-on-one series.  It's Tony Horton in his home gym doing exercises.  I watched about half of it tonight to see if it required weights because I'm on the no-weight recovery for my neck and back.  He used a 4-pound medicine ball and that's it so I'll probably be giving this workout a try later this week.  It's for legs.

This is a great concept.  Each month a new DVD is mailed out from Tony Horton.  It's great for keeping things fresh.  I can add it to my workouts and I can look at his exercises to see if there is anything that I want to adopt or adapt for my karate classes.  For someone like me who is always looking for new things, this is a great idea.  If you're interested, visit my Team Beach Body site and subscribe for yourself.  You have to keep things interesting and fun if you want long lasting results.  This is one way to achieve that.

Ever heard of VivoBarefoot? 

I'm thinking about getting a pair of these.  I love the feeling of being barefoot but there is something messed up with the heating and cooloing of my feet.  When I don't wear something on my feet, they sweat but they feel like they are freezing.  I wore moccosins for a long time but wore them out.  I've worn water socks too but they disintegrate far too quickly.  These might be the answer that I'm looking for.

Anyone ever tried them or heard of them?

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Fry Day, Saturn Day, and back to Sunny Day

Ouch!

Friday, true to my word, I didn't lift any weights.  I went for a 6.5 mile run though and it felt good.  Part of that was probably from taking some time off from lifting weights.  Some of it may be because of my increased consumption of raw fruits and vegetables.  Some of it was probably because of a decrease in moon gravity.

My back and neck still had me in pain. 

I did security for Diamond Rio. 

Saturday I chose not to run.  Despite my run of 6.5 miles, my weekly mileage went down because I missed 2 runs.  I know that it will all fall in place as I keep at it.  The long run gave me hope and I won't be lifting weights again this week so my back and neck should recover.

I did teach my karate class and we had a great workout.  We cut several minutes off the workout while increasing some of the reps.  That's progress.  I don't track the time exactly but I do make a mental note of when we stop and this was the fastest that we have made it through this particular workout.

I did security for Boston.

Sunday I didn't go for my early morning bike ride because I'm still trying to sneak in a little extra sleep hoping my neck and back will heal up.

Trey and I did go for our usual bike ride to Grandpa's house where we were treated with snacks.  Tootsie Rolls for Trey and granola bars for me.  Trey is getting stronger with the bike riding.  He rode up hills today that he has never made it up before.  He's also getting better with the balance.

That's the extremely short catch up version of the weekend.

I have done pretty good with the raw food but haven't really been trying to be too strict.  Just about every day, one meal isn't raw.  The good news about this is that it's still healthy and maybe I can avoid all those detox symptoms.  They sounded nasty.  Over time, I may take out that last meal and one day this week, I did eat all raw food except for my supplements.  I may end up cutting them out down the road too but for now, I'm keeping them.  Where I thought I would keep them forever, it's interesting that I'm already considering dropping them.

No weight change this week but I think my definition is still improving.  I'll be taking some update pictures soon and you can decide.  Weight isn't the important issue but it is one measure.

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Thor's Day

I started Thursday by sleeping in.  My neck was in no shape for exercise so I used that couple hours in the morning for some extra healing sleep.

In the afternoon, I went in for a massage to see if she could help loosen all the muscles up.  She said my Rhomboid was pretty inflamed and suggested that I take a break from lifting weights for a few days and ice the muscle.

I decided to follow the letter of the suggestion.  I'm not going to lift weights.  I did however teach karate that night and put my all as usual in the workout.  No weights though.  =)

My neck and back hurt this morning but aren't worse.  Next week is my scheduled recovery week which means more yoga and less weights.  I'm probably going to go with no weights for the whole week and see if my back will heal up.

I am loving the karate classes this summer.  So much fun. 

That's the quick update for yesterday. 

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Wed Day

Out of devotion to you, I'm typing this post but it's going to be short.

I started the day with Turbulence Training and then went out to make a bold attempt at a 3 mile run.  Turbulence works the legs pretty hard so that makes the run a little more difficult.

My neck muscles continued to tighten up through the day and I'm just about to the point of doing the Doctor Evil thing of turning my whole body to look at things.

The pain runs from the base of my head down to my shoulder blade.  On top of that, I had a blinding headache.  Probably from all the tight neck muscles.  I came home at noon and went to bed.  The headache was going when I woke up but the neck just continued to get worse.

We went to see WallE tonight.  Very good show.  That's my short review.  I'll go into it more tomorrow.  I'm going to lay down and not move.

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Two Day

"Twins Basil."

I started the day by somehow pulling a muscle in my neck on my very set of chin ups.  What the hell?  I felt that something wasn't right and it just got worse through th day.  Not that I let that stop me from doing anything in any way.  I kept on doing my chin ups and as much as I complain about how poorly I do at them, I think I'm getting better.  I alternated them with curls as usual. 

Then I went for a 5 mile run and the planets must have been in alignment because I was able to run the entire 5 miles.  Maybe it was the raw fruit and vegetables. 

My water bottle holder got here yesterday so I took that with me for a test run.  It's a Nathan Speed 2.  The water bottles are about 10 ounces and the little pouch is big enough for half a Power bar or something.  I put my house key in there today.  Lots of room for a house key.  I don't take any food with me yet but that might change as my mileage goes up.  My iPod Shuffle clipped nicely onto the belt instead of tucked in my running shorts.  That puts a a couple layers of clothing between my skin and the metal clip, not that it had bothered me.  But again Basil, when mileage goes up, small things can add up.  Just wearing a shirt can make your nipples bleed.  Luckily, I've never run that far but little things can add up over miles.

So, the moon's gravity was in my favor today and no Rick and Cherise, I'm not going to do an Amazon review.  Don't bother asking.

More thoughts on the raw food deal.  I've already said that it's not going to be perfect because of the supplements but on top of that, I'm probably going to eat a few normal meals a week.  Tia and I are fairly busy people and to keep touch, we're going to be doing lunch a couple of times a week and dinner once a week.  I plan on eating regular food most of the time because choices will likely be limited. 

The bottom line of course is the same as I've said many times before.  It's what you do most of the time that makes a difference.  There might be some extra benefit to being totally raw but most things in life have diminishing returns.  For a lot of things, it's what you do 80% of the time that makes the biggest difference.  At least that's what a lot of people believe, including me. 

If you follow that logic and you eat 42 times a week, 8 of those meals could be something off the charts and you'd still be doing good.  My 3 or 4 meals a week with Tia are probably not going to significantly change my health.  Eating 38 meals with raw fruits and vegetables on the other hand has to be good for me.

Anyway, that's my thought on the subject at this point based on my extremely limited knowledge of a raw food diet.  I'm going to keep doing research and as always, I may modify things as I go.  Nothing in this life is permanent and I don't even try to fight that.

My karate workout went very well tonight.  I had a great time.  The exercises are hard but I just have a great time trying them and trying to do a little better each time.  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.  Moon gravity you know.

Seriously, there are so many factors involved in day to day exercising that's impossible to guess and there's no sense stressing about it.  You do what you can and as long as you give your best effort, everything else is fine.

Speaking of fruit, I suppose you've seen the article that says that watermelon is as good as Viagra.  Once again, the media puts its subtle spin right into the name of the article.  It's like, well if you can't afford Viagra or can't convince a doctor to give you some or can't order the stuff from the spam you get, you can downgrade to watermelon but it will make you pee.

I mentioned the article some time ago that said exercise is as good as antidepressants for treating depression.

Both of these are misleading and would be better stated by changing the comparison.

Viagra as effective as watermelon at treating the symptoms of erectile dysfunction.

Antidepressants as effective as exercise at treating the symptoms of depression.

Neither of the meds actually address the problem, only the symptoms.  They are a short term substitute while the person makes the changes needed to fix the real problem where possible.  We pretend to fight the war on drugs while we promote drug use during every commercial break on TV and every other page in a magazine.  Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow Pfizer will give you a pill.

***

If you have a fitness goal and want a support partner, I'd love to help.  I offer my ecoaching service at no charge for people with fitness goals.  If you want to take advantage of this offer while it lasts, sign up at my Team Beach Body site (again, no charge) and drop me an email and get started creating a healthy, fit you.

If you have any questions you would like answered, you can ask in the comments section or you can send me an email and I'll get an answer to you.

If you would like to take it one step further and become a coach yourself, I can help you do that as well.  If you're committed to your own fitness and would find it rewarding to help others achieve their fitness goals, you'll love fitness coaching.  Visit my Team Beach Body site and click on Be A Coach for more information.

Moon Day