Some People Are Thrill Junkies, I’m An Exercise Endorphin Junkie

Well another fun-filled week of trying to get a little more fit has passed.  The Insanity workouts are really something!  I’m tired during and after, along with soaked by sweat.

I have never really been a cardio type person.  I was always the workout with weights guy.  I’m not really sure what made me understand that cardio will help make me a whole physically fit person but I do realize that now. I also see that body weight exercises are just as good if not better.

Again, all of a sudden things just clicked in my head.  Maybe it’s because I’m seeing results by not working out with just weights.  Or maybe it’s because I’m so close to 40 that I realize I’ll never be “Arnold-like” in physical stature.  I will no longer participate in those kill the man with the ball type sports (except maybe some lacrosse) that I would need to be that big.  Certain things might be a little more enjoyable if I was lighter such as running or cycling.  I certainly would be faster at those activities.  I can’t be much slower, that’s for sure.

Quick change in topic: Most of you know I like to give bloggyblog love to those I enjoy reading on here.  This person got me all excited about riding my bikes this year.  It was a simple (lack of a better term, cause it wasn’t simple it was awesome) post about cycling clothes.  Mountain bike clothes to be exact!  EXCITEMENT!  Yes, excitement…..some guys like to shop for athletic wear.

So before I drag this out any further I want you all to click HERE and check out a great fitness blog called JOY FITNESS AND STYLE.  Stop reading this and go click!!!!  Do it!  I’ll wait right here till you come back.

OK, you’re back now.  You liked that blog didn’t you?  I knew you would.  Joy is a pretty cool fitness gal.  I would have said fitness chick but Joy could pretty easily beat me up if she wanted, especially if the word “chick” offended her.  So I’ll stick with gal. 🙂

OK, enough about her.  It’s back to me me me time.

Hey, guess what….

I finished a full week of Insanity!  Yup, that’s right.  I’m pretty awesome.  I do have to give some props to my fitness guru though.  Here is his latest guidance:

Thanks cat!  I knew you wouldn’t let me settle for being mediocre.  Always pushing me to do better.

That’s it for me, I’m out!

All Aboard for The Bad Decision Train

Let me start off with today.  I’m not really sure what is going on with me but I have been so tired and out of it.  I don’t seem to have any energy to get past work.  I have been working out before actually going to work but I’m pretty much stuporous.  I know!  That a pretty big word for someone who is as tired as me.

Anyway, today at 4pm started a long 3 day weekend for me.  I’m not sure how I got 3 days off in a row and on a weekend of all things.  But I have absolutely nothing to do for these 3 days.  I put out an APB on Twitter and Facebook for anyone wanting to do something while I’m off but to no avail.  I guess it goes to show how pathetic my social life is.  I don’t even have a softball game on Friday to pass an hour of my life away on.

So with the emptiness of all this time staring me in the face along with my unexplainable lethargy I caved and ordered a pizza for dinner.  I figured I might as well throw a little pity party for myself.  I knew it was a huge mistake right after I hit enter.  I even thought of just not going to pick it up because I knew it was such a bad mistake.

I couldn’t bear knowing I wasted the money on a pizza and not even pick it up.  So I yelled, “To The Batmobile!”  And my two Jack Russell Terriers, Moose and Kenai, ran to the car to go for a ride.  I guess my mistake got us out of the house for a bit.  We got back and I fed them pizza crust and of course they loved every crumb.  I choked down 1 piece and regretted every chew.

Yeah, I just made one big cookie

It doesn’t stop there.  I felt so horrible for even getting the pizza I ate some cookies after.  I know!  Stop it Mike!!!!  I guess it goes to show that once you make one bad decision more follow. Now I didn’t just open a bag of store bought cookies I had stored in the pantry.  Nope!  I went all out and made some from scratch.  I just couldn’t stop.  I swear I was outside of my body just watching the fat kid inside me do all these things and I couldn’t hold him back.  I should have just made some granola bars or something better.  But since the wife is not home I figured why not use her chocolate chips, she doesn’t need them right now…..Ugh!

I even started the day off so well too.  I woke up early and let the dogs out to play with their soccer balls while I went for a run.  I had steel cut oats with a splash of milk and some cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice when I came back.  I had a few slices of turkey and my protein shake for lunch with big plans of doing a great weight routine when I got home from work.

I also left for work 15 minutes early and sat outside to soak in some vitamin D.  I guess that is where my day went down hill.  I was sitting by a few of my co-workers that were also waiting outside before starting their day.  I knew I should have just kept on walking to a different spot but I didn’t want to be rude and snub them.  But the whole time I sat there they were all complaining about how much they hate people, work, school, life, and blah blah blah.  So negative…..

So I have a plan!

I will take up all that empty time staring me in the face and use it to my advantage.

Friday:

Run – 3 to 5 miles……we’ll see how hot it is before I make up my mind

Bike – plan is to do 20 – 30 miles around the base flightline

Work on the glamor muscles – Found Arnold’s old arm routine and will give it a shot: Here it is

Standing Barbell Curls
5-8 sets of 8-12 cheating reps

Incline Dumbbell Curls
5-8 sets of 8-12 reps

Concentration Curls
5 sets of 10 reps

Alternating Dumbbell Curls
5 sets of 10 reps

And if I can still feel my arms I will do pullups as well

Saturday:

Run – 3 to 5 miles

Let the butt recover, no bike

Fertilize the yard, better known as “the football field”

Leg Routine – Compliments of Johnny O Jackson

Leg Extensions
Sets 1-4: 25-30 reps
Set 5: (drop set) 25 reps each

Free Standing Squats
Sets 1-3: 25-30 reps
Set 4-5: (drop set) 25 reps each

Incline Leg Press
Sets 1-2: 25-35 reps
Set 3: 60 reps

Smith Machine Lunges
3 sets of 10-15 reps

Lying Leg Curl
Sets 1-3: 10-15 reps
Set 4: (triple drop set) 10-15 reps

Sunday

After 2 days of heavy lifting I think I will need to pull it back a bit

P90X Core Synergistics and maybe Cardio X

Walk the dogs

Do Laundry

Pre cook and prep some meals for the week

AND in dedication to one of our own from the Blogosphere:

Stephanie @ My Glorified Journal

I will go carb free to honor her accomplishment of making it to and through her first figure competition.  If you are in some need of any kind of motivation to get fit, you need to just read or watch one of her posts.  I guarantee you will feel her intensity and see the results of her dedication to her goal.  Good Luck Stephanie and we look forward to hearing what it was like to be on the big stage.

Ok peeps….do something constructive this weekend and be safe.

That is all

Fitness, Reality and Random Crap

So it has been a while since I have written.  I know…you miss me!  But you can follow me on Twitter or on Facebook on either my fan page or my personal page.  I’m a nice guy, lets be friends 🙂

A lot has been going on since I wrote my last post Debate of The Week #7.  It has been almost 2 weeks for heaven’s sake!

Today is my first day off for the week.  It is kind of like a double edge sword.  I still can’t believe I get to say I have a day off but then my days off are fairly random and usually in the middle of the week, which sucks.  But it is nice to be able to say that my ogre of a boss finally gave me a day off.  Not that my boss is an ogre nor my boss for that matter, she is my supervisor, which is not a boss but a person that supervises my work.  I still don’t know who the boss is nor does it matter.  I’m not that important cog in the commissary process, so I will probably never need to know.  I am just the face of the store for the customers as they pay for their items and finalize their shopping experience.  So I’m not that important…..

Work is fun and interesting but can be a back breaker at times.  It is nice to be noticed by my supervisor for my exemplary work ethic by moving me to the busiest registers during the day to keep the cattle moving through with a smile.  The bad thing about it is that the other employees resent me a little because I always have a smile and seem to enjoy the job.  Just yesterday I was asked by, lets call him “The Grumpy Old Man,” if my niceness and cheery attitude toward customers was real or an act.  It is obvious he can’t tell the difference since he hasn’t had a real feeling in years and wouldn’t know how to show it.  He is the most gruff person I have ever met.  I can barely tell if he is asking questions or making statements to customers.  Everything he says is in the same tone and with no feeling.  I think I made him smile yesterday though.  It was either that or he had gas.

So yesterday I got to sleep in a little.  Which was nice.  8AM seems like I’m sleeping till noon now.  It’s crazy!  I had 2 hours before I had to leave for work so I read a few of my favorite WordPressers and made a few comments.

One of them being, Stephanie @ My glorified Journal. She has been pretty motivating in her posts.  If you haven’t been following her you should be.  Let me fill you in if you haven’t.  She is taking on two challenges in her life right now.  Her one goal is to compete in a body building/fitness posing competition.  She is rapidly closing in on that day and well on her way to probably becoming a fitness model.  Her second goal is to become the next female face of Under Armour.  She entered into that competition a few weeks ago and asks her followers for some ideas to complete the UA tasks.  Anyway I was pretty motivated by all she is doing I decided to try and do a little workout myself before work.  By the time I got to workout I felt I only had time to pump out a few hundred pushups/shower/shave and dress for work.

It all turned for the worse in a flash of a second after I left for work.

A little back-fill: I have this thing about being super early for things.  I think it is a nervous mental thing I have but I just need to be early for everything I do or my stomach gets all knotted up and I get sick.  Weird, I know!

So I had a few extra minutes before I left for work but wanted to get there early anyway.  Hey, you never know what traffic could be like (I only live 2 miles away from the base).  Anyway, I am sitting at the last red light before being on the main drag for the base main gate.  There is me on my side of the light and two cars in the oncoming light, one was in the turning lane but didn’t have their turn signal on.  that should have been my first clue of this person being a dumbass.

The light turns green and I take off……and so does everyone else!!!!!  The dumbass, in the oncoming turning lane, tries to make a left hand turn into me, head on!  WTF!!!!  Lucky for me my Mazda 3 and I are one with reflexes and responsiveness in our evasive maneuvers.  The dumbass just misses the front end of my car with not as much as a tap of the brake by them.  I saw it was some old lady realizing her mistake by grasping her mouth with one hand and punching the gas to make sure her car is going much faster than mine in order to pulverize me, if she hit me.  Probably so she can go on in her own miserable life and leave me rotting in the intersection.

Really?  I mean, REALLY?  She was probably texting……

So out of this whole experience I learned that I should have taken 5 more minutes to do some situps or something and not worried about being so early for work that I make barely any money at.

But as I was walking into the building I witnessed something pretty profound.  All along the side of the building there are flowers and roses and other smelly pollen makers blooming.  This lady just stops on the side walk and bends over to smell a few of the different flowers.  My whole attitude changed from heart pounding rage to realizing that what could have happened to me, didn’t happen, and I should maybe slow down a bit and smell the roses for myself.  So the rest of the day I tried my hardest to be the nicest person anyone would meet that day.  I also picked up some Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream for my wife to show I was thinking of her.

Everything is better after ice cream!