If you hear a loud bang emanating from the Perimeter Mall area it may well be the sound of the button on my jeans popping. It seems as if these new jeans in “my size” are a little smaller than my other jeans, and there is a possibility that my belly (though I have been exercising) is still increasing in size. Either way I am going to be miserable all day, unless I go out and buy a new, new pair of jeans.
Today’s Personal Project
Go home tonight and take care of many tasks (because it didn’t happen last night)
Today’s Daily Challenge
Lie face-up with a towel in your hands, lift your shoulders off the ground, and repeat four times.
Can you feel your abdominals working? This challenge calls on the muscles in your core in order to lift your upper body off the floor. Strong core muscles are an important part of good posture, balance, and stability; they are also necessary for everyday activities like bending and lifting. Finally, a strong core contributes to a healthy, injury-free back.
Maybe I’ll try this while lying on my new yoga mat at home.
Workout Day
I woke yesterday and though my legs still felt the affects (I picked the right word there, correct?) of Sunday’s “run” I forced myself into LA Fitness. “I should warm up the legs while working out the upper body” I thought. The morning’s weather was miserable and when I entered the gym to see a sign reading “Hot water is temporarily unavailable. Please visit our Sandy Srpings (sic) location.” I nearly turned and walked out back into it.
But. I. Didn’t!
I didn’t because I knew that I could drive my nasty self over to work and use the shower (with hot water) at my office.
I worked through most of my Monday routine, selecting lighter-than-normal weights for my shoulder routine when I tweaked my left shoulder doing lat pulldowns (bad luck, not bad form), and even throwing in a few leg presses (also with lighter-than-normal weights). And after giving it my all I had I indeed drove over to the office to shower.
ITP Flickr Pic
If you’ve lived in Atlanta you probably have seen The Majestic.
But have you ever seen it from this angle?
I took this shot with my new Nikon 1 V1 mounted to my monopod and held high above my head. The camera and kit lens are light enough to hoist high above head and take a fairly stable shot.
Rest Day
I’m feeling sore and a little tired today from yesterday’s workout, along with a couple of other aches and pains. So I’ve decided to give myself a break from working out today. I think it’s nearly as important to let your body heal as it is to work it out.
The real test will be to stop at the grocery store tonight (after purchasing petrol) so that I have the ingredients for making food at home again. If I can cook then I won’t be lured into going out as much as I currently do. If I don’t go out as much as I currently do I might have a chance of starting to lose some weight and save some money while doing so.
(Of course if I am still feeling fat later this afternoon I have the clothes necessary to go to LA Fitness and do some cardio tonight. What the hell has happened to me???)
Scheduling My Physical
I’ve never believed in the “Consult a physician before starting any exercise routine.” because I never felt I needed to do so. Today I’m a little concerned about my health so I am going to schedule my annual physical (which probably won’t occur for a few weeks due to my doctor’s booking schedule). This year I have an added incentive for getting a physical, I finally don’t have to pay anything out-of-pocket to do so!
Still Trying To Read
I’m slowly making progress through two books — The Design of Everyday Things and Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking. I might be making better progress if my new Google Nexus 7, my “book” reading apparatus of choice, had half-decent battery management. It seems that within a twenty-four hour period (not of use, just in time) the battery has drained at least 75% from a fully charged state. How is this happening? The battery management screen simply shows that Android OS is the biggest culprit, but jesus h christ I’m only using the device about three or four of those twenty-four hours, the operating system shouldn’t be chewing up that much of the battery’s charge.
My goal is to get through “The Design of Everyday Things” (I’m halfway there) and to read enough of “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking” in order to make my first loaf by month’s end.
If I can accomplish this I will be making similar reading goals for future months.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, a little concerned but getting by
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – I’ve yet to watch it, but ITP-Reader Stacy reminded me that Anthony Bourdain’s Atlanta visit for his show “The Layover” was on Travel Channel last night.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – gym day
Morning Weigh-In – I forgot to check yesterday
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~14.8 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 4
Days Of Bed-Making – 0
Vegetarian Meals – 22
Carnivorous Meals – 19
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
January Goals
– lose five pounds
– walk/run no fewer that 100 miles
– read at least one book
– dissolve Sharpened Stone, LLC
– take at least one box of things to Goodwill
– post at least ten photos in the blog
2013 Goals: Measurable
– Get my weight down to 190 pounds so that I can wear a 36″ waist pants comfortably
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Dissolve Sharpened Stone
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Completely run at least one 10k
– Fix all (or at least most) of the things which are wrong with the ITP Estate
2013 Goals: Unmeasurable
– Simplify, simplify, simplify
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
– Start, and continue, to make my own bread using my bread machine as well as using the technique outlined in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
– Read and discard magazines during the month in which they arrive (even digitally)
– Take two real vacations, perhaps one abroad
– Take a more proactive approach to meeting women (read “stop being such a pussy”)
Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2013
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
WHAT? No remarks about Anthony Bourdains show last night? Except for going off the deep end about Fat Matt’s, I thought it was pretty good and gave us a lot of ideas for places to eat that I might have overlooked. We have it on the DVR, so may use it as reference.
I think the rain will finally get here- been waiting for over a day now… almost put the horses in the barn Sunday night- which would have been a waste of time on everyones part.
Already ready for the weekend… ugh!
-FP
I forgot to give you that bread mix!
The Layover was interesting……. I’ve been meaning to go shopping at the Buford Hwy Farmers Market for years now, that show really made me want to go even more.
I’m so stressed at work I can hardly see straight. I forgot to say congrats on the race yesterday Paulie! Not too many people would just jump up and do a 15K, very impressive.
and – no mention of Lance confessing to Oprah? I’m just shocked he finally did it.
I my just have to watch- see how good an actor he really is- ” I’m so sorry.. I finally got caught”
Dang. Have the bread mix out on Sunday and the first thing I will do is put it in my car.
I mentioned The Layover as the WotD, where I also mentioned that I’ve yet to watch it. I’ve not shopped in the Buford Highway Farmers Market, and now that it’s been “outed” I may have to look elsewhere. My coworker Darren shops there often, it’s where he gets most of his meat.
And I kinda mentioned Lance yesterday when I was talking about the Hot Chocolate 15k. I’m shocked that he finally broke, but it’s the only way he can rebuild his image — if that’s at all possible.
Hang in there Bob. And thanks.
I’ve shopped at Buford Highway a number of times. It’s awesome. It’s really big, so while parking is a pain, it never feels too crowded. It has a ton of organic fruits and veg for a decent price and the ethnic foods are amazing. I’m running out of adjectives…
I saw the 60 mins sports on Showtime where they talked to Travis Tygart with USADA and there is no doubt of Lance’s guilt. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of his confession.
Sidenote: it’s effects.
It’s “effects”? Really? Shit. I really thought I was right. I thought “effects” was used like “special effects” and “affects” was used like “one of the affects of running is sore muscles.” I hate my native tongue. My umpteenth English gaff is a nice lead into one of tomorrow’s topics.
I just “lucked into” a 10am physical appointment for Thursday. Apparently someone had just canceled. Had there not been a cancellation I would have had to wait until March (to get a physical with this doctor).
The rule of thumb of effects/affects is the majority of the time effect is a noun and affect is a verb. So for example, it would be “Bob’s stressful job affects his whole family” or “the effects of Bob’s stressful job is seen in his home life”…I’m just spitballing this example of course. 🙂
Laura – you really made me laugh with that one.
Too funny, Laura!!
Oh, when you put it that way it makes perfect sense! 😉
I actually knew the effect = noun, affect = verb “rule” but for some reason I couldn’t do the sentence parsing that a fifth grader can this morning. 🙁
Laura, you got it right except: “The effects of Bob’s stressful job ARE seen in his home life.” 😉 I mean, since we’re discussing grammar and all. Heh!
Paulie, WHY was there no mention about the chocolate. Wasn’t there chocolate? Please tell me there was chocolate!
Yes there was chocolate, but not nearly enough. The gave each finisher a “mug” which contained a cup of hot chocolate and a small well of melted chocolate in which you could dip pretzels, a banana, and whatnot. While the melted chocolate was good it was a bit too thick (my banana got stuck twice) and it was very messy.
Laura, what say you?
“my banana got stuck twice”, seriously just about spit my lunch out. I swear the older I get the more I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy.
Don’t blame your belly entirely for the button issues. Clothing manafactures seem to have lost the skill required to properly sew on a button or put a hem into pants that wont come undone.
Steve it’s been pouring here for two days…thankfully yesterday was a rest day and today is the trainer. Hope it stops for my run tomorrow.
Touche, Jenka, toche
Jenka, meet Laura. Laura, meet Jenka.
Now I want you ladies to have a clean fight. Keep your fists up, and no clenching. When you hear the bell sound I want you to both go to your corners…
This blog continues to bring me pleasure. 🙂
Ohmygosh you people are cracking me up today! Laura, you’re hysterical!
Interesting “Today’s Challenge”:
“Lie face-up with a towel in your hands,” …. um. Why the towel?
And now Stacy is 12 again…..
I’m not quite sure I ever progressed past 12 in the first place.
Dammit I just noticed I misspelled Touche. Blerg – my desire to be clever is AFFECTING my grammar.
Oh, no worries: knowing how annoying I am I’m totally going to STFU now.
I am smiling from ear to ear. Thank you all!
Jenka, I read Laura’s correction the first time and missed that completely- normally, that would have been one of my easy catches.
And y’all are pretty damn funny today.
Debbie just called. She got “ma’am”‘d by a guy with a walker…
Its finally slow enough here, I’m trying to figure out this Google Chromebook. Its pretty cool with that it does, but I don’t know how I’m going to remember enough to tell my mom over the phone without me looking at it. She’s gonna have to learn to call the Geek Squad. And – the touch pad (tracpad, whatever you call it) is hard for me, I always use a mouse. Trying to decide if they should get a wireless mouse.
I would go ahead and get the mouse. I just replaced my old, wired mouse with this guy http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038KTBRW/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
It is more of a berry pink than what the picture shows (and they have other colors)….but the usb receiver thing is tiny, so you can keep it plugged in all the time, which is a good thing because it is so small it would be easy to use.
So far I like it a lot, you know for a computer mouse.
We have a mouse like that (but not pink) for Allan’s laptop. But – since my mom hasn’t ever used a mouse either, I’m trying to decide if she sould even get one at all.
If she has never used a mouse then start her with the trackpad. You will have to be the one who asjusts then.
that’s why I’m trying to learn how it works, why add something else if she doesn’t know the difference