Alcohol Is Bad - Starting Week 6!

For real. Alcohol is not good. But Friday night my friends and I went out to a bar, and then a couple-friend invited my GF and I back to their place for a nightcap, which turned into two, which left us sleeping on their couch for the evening, which sucked. Saturday was basically a wash as we slept and recuperated, although I did get a run in. I had intended to bike, but it seemed like too much of a challenge, so I just jog/walked around the lake. Felt better afterwards, but seriously, by the time we fully returned to humanity, it was around 7:30 in the evening.

Today was better! I got a great morning of writing in. I went to work, finished a project I needed to finish, then I hit the gym.

Swapping Up My Workout Days

I'm swapping my workout days. My classes are on Tuesday and Thursday, which are also my cardio days, and it's just too hard to get a decent cardio workout in around my classes. It's easy for me to lift weights over lunch, so I decided to shift my schedule. Hence the lift today, on what's technically supposed to be my off day. Tomorrow (Monday) I'll do some biking indoors, but on Wednesday I'll bike into work (the weather looks great). Biking into work is an awesome workout--fourteen miles, each direction. The first bike of the season always hurts, but it will be good for me. I'm behind on my training for the MS150, and that's a race you don't want to screw around with!

Read more...

Finance and Workout Updates for Friday

Financial Update: Free (Bill Pay) At Last!
So I've been sucking up these charges for my Bill Pay account at Wells Fargo every month for a few years, and like everything, those fees recently went up. $6.95 a month! I still think this is a service that is worth the cost, because you save a good bit of money just in stamps, but other places offer it for free. I started using my credit union's bill pay service, which I didn't have to pay for, but I grew to hate it. The interface was okay, but the sticking point for me was that it treated each type of payment individually. E-payments were immediately deducted from my account, payments to businesses that were sent as checks came out three days after the check was sent, and (I just found out) payments sent to private parties weren't withdrawn until the person actually cashed the checks. It drove me batty, and I could see it rapidly spinning out of control. I called to ask if there was any options, and the customer service rep laughed at me. For real. And it wasn't one of those "I understand the boat you're in" kind of laughs, it was a snide chuckle that wasn't meant for me at all.

So.

I sheepishly called up Wells Fargo, as I should have a long time ago, and asked them if they could just wave the Bill Pay fees. Sure, they said. (That dull thud was the sound of me smacking my hand against my forehead). They upgraded my checking to a (free) souped-up account, and I then had to open a savings account and automatically deposit $75/month into it, but I'm also able to set up a second auto-transfer to put the money back the next day, so it really wasn't an issue. I asked Dustin, the nice guy I was working with at Wells, if he could give me back some of my old service fees I'd paid into Bill Pay, and he said he could go half-way, and then hinted I could probably get more back if I sent a letter or something, which I'm not interested in doing, because half is fine.

A while ago (I can't find the post!), I noted that Wells Fargo had drastically improved their customer service, and they seemed to have kept up this commitment. A few years back, they were jerks. I was too young and too indebted and too uncertain of my finances to switch accounts, so I stayed. I'm glad I'm with the new and improved Wells Fargo. They're still a big bank, so there's still issues with their fee schedules, especially with lower income people, but they have a really fantastic online interface, and they've really improved their customer service. I'm now officially happy to be with this bank.

Workout Update: End of Week 5 in Body for Life!


End of Week 5! Or almost. Things are going very well. I hit every workout this week so far, although I have to say, last night was rather hellish. I slept very little Wednesday night and I was just dragging myself through the day. Despite the overwhelming feeling of this sucks, I got into the gym for a quick run. The run did not go well, but I feel better for having done it. I definitely need to switch to biking for a week or two, however, because I'm starting to develop some shinsplints.

I'm just over a third of the way through the program and I'm starting to see benefits. My shoulder, arms and pecs are definitely getting larger and more defined, and I think my stomach is trimming down. I can see that by the end of 12 weeks in this program, I'm going to be looking pretty damn good.

I actually bought a huge box of the Myoplex Lite nutritional shakes a couple of days ago. They're discontinuing the double-sized packs at GNC (42 servings), and so I got a great deal. I got the box for ~$50, and I have enough to see me through a month. This will allow me to decided if they actually have a positive impact on my eating/workouts. So far? They taste good (I have the chocolate), and I like them for mid-morning and mid-afternoon 'meals.' They seem to work well--better than a snack, easier than real food.

That's basically it! Writing is going well. I got the thesis advisor I'd hoped for. He's very smart and has good, no B.S. insight into my work. We're going to meet in a week and he's got a reading list for me for over the summer.

Read more...

Chilaxing Today

Workout Updates
I had a GREAT workout yesterday. My bench is up to 155 lbs (I don't "max" -- this is what I bench as my normal "high" with ten reps). I put it up with ease yesterday. Now that I'm getting back in shape, I've developed a couple 'back of my mind' goals. I've decided I want to see if I can manage a 5k in under 22 minutes by the end of this program, or if not, by the end of the summer. I ran these times about ten years ago (and I was under this during my high school and college running days, but I'm not aiming that high); I haven't managed to do this for a long time. I also want to see if I can bench 225 lbs. That's my all-time high, but I was fifty pounds lighter when I did that, so I think I can manage it now, probably by the end of this twelve week program. That's about a 10LB/week increase, which seems reasonable. The 225 goal is more visual than anything--that means you've put two 45lb weights on each side of your 45lb bar. It just looks cool is all.

Writing/School Updates
As I mentioned in my last post, I finished another 50 pages of novel revisions. I'm going to do some casual work on it this weekend, cleaning up glaring errors. I'm going to try and push out another 50pg revision in the next couple of weeks. That will put me through the first major section of my book. BIG milestones.

Finding a good place to write is hard, and at the advice of a professor, I'm looking into renting a cheap apartment with some other writers as a writing studio place. Coffee shops are all well and good, but they offer distractions, and it's often difficult to get writing done at home. We'll see. I need to make sure it's financially feasible.

That is all!

Read more...

4 Weeks In, 1st Big Slip

Okay, so I'm 4 weeks into Body for Life, and I had my first big slip yesterday. I've shifted workouts around, even swapped things up, but yesterday was the first day I actually missed a workout. I didn't have time during the day to make it to the gym, and at 9:30, when class got out, I was tired (I only slept a few hours the night before), and I was starting to get a sore throat, from lack of sleep and (I believe) dehydration. I gave up.

Oh well. We all give up, occasionally.

What does that mean? It means, in the perpetual circle of life, I feel like I'm getting ready to let this fall apart.

If I were younger, I would redouble my efforts right now. I would do two workouts, or tell myself that I've swapped another rest day up, like I did last week. I'm okay with swapping one rest day, but two weeks in a row says I need to stop and take a breath. I'm tired. Not "I can't finish this" tired, but I need to examine the warning signs and think through what's going on in life.

To start, yesterday is gone. I'm not going to try to pretend I didn't miss a workout by shifting my rest day, yet again. I missed, no big deal. I'll do some leg exercises tonight, because I think I could use it, but I'm not going to push it.

I'm not only 4 weeks into my program, but I'm also three-quarters of the way through my semester, and that in itself is tiring. With yesterday's turn-in of my fifty pages, however, I've finished the 'big' projects. I have some reading and smaller one-page papers to write, and one small presentation, which all adds up to work, but I've done the lions share of the projects, now, and can coast a little bit on my previous efforts.

Hmmmm... well. This weekend is going to be an R&R weekend. That doesn't mean I won't get some work done, but I don't intend to push myself, and I have no real goals. Sunday will be a real rest day. No workouts!

For the next two weeks, I'm going to try to get the right workouts in on the right days, according to the Body for Life plan. I'm also going to work a little harder at having the right food. I'm doing okay, but I could be doing better. I think that's been part of the problem: when you're working out so much, you really need to get the right food at the right time. If you don't, over time it starts to wear on you.

Gotta' go!

Read more...