Thursday, September 02, 2004

Back to the salt mines...

In case there is actually someone out there who doesn't know me reading this, I should mention that my work week is only three days long.
I work extremely long hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, leaving me four days to do with whatever I'd like.
Unfortunately, there's not a lot I like to do, so the four days are pretty much wasted on me, but in any case, that's what my schedule is like.
Which means that today is my "Sunday," as I have to get up early and head in to work tomorrow morning.
Ordinarily I'd be getting up even earlier than I need to, as of late I've been heading in to work well in advance of my shift in order to make use of the fitness facilities there. However, the co-workers who are being gracious enough to bring me in to work on this car-less weekend are not, and understandably so, inclined to get up at four in the morning to accommodate my workout needs. So this weekend, as I had to for one third of last weekend, I’m going to have to call it a miss.
In any case, I’ve been going in early to work out for a while now, in an effort to lose weight, get fit, etc.
Taking an active interest in my personal fitness is something relatively new to me, and it began, largely, after I quit smoking a few months ago.
At the time I quit I’d been smoking for nearly eighteen years, so, as you can imagine, quitting was a rather daunting task.
One of the effects of the process was an abundance of energy. A friend of mine, who had undergone much the same thing, referred to it as “pointless energy.”
That was a pretty accurate description, as it was a sort of nervous energy that simply prevented you from sitting still. It isn’t any sort of energy that you can harness to engage in some sort of constructive activity. Mostly it just makes you want to pace.
The only way I could take advantage of the energy was by going for walks.
I went for a lot of walks.
I’d get up in the morning, walk five miles, come home, take a shower, sit around for a little while, then go for a three mile walk.
Then I’d sit at home for a while longer and go for another walk.
Some days I walked as much as fifteen miles.
The positive result, of course, was fairly rapid weight loss. I dropped about twenty pounds, and took four inches off my waist.
Since then my energy levels have normalized somewhat, and while walking is still a component of my overall fitness “plan,” I’m more likely to walk a maximum of ten miles on any given day.
But I have, as mentioned, ventured into other areas for fitness. My current regimen has an emphasis on strength training, and I’ve made some pretty major strides in that area.
Since losing the initial twenty pounds I’ve gained around fifteen pounds of muscle.
There’s still a fair amount of lingering flab, but for the first time in my life I’ve been sticking to an exercise plan well enough that I’m able to see tangible results, so that tends to be encouraging.
While I am pretty committed to the whole exercise thing, I think my natural inclination towards laziness has helped me keep from getting too “gung ho” and overtraining.
Of course, since I won’t be going in early to work out this weekend, I’m concerned that my laziness might gain a little too much ground.
So next week, during my four day weekend, I’m going to have to force myself to make use of the facilities here in my apartment complex. The equipment is of lower quality that what’s available at work, but something, presumably, is better than nothing.
In any event, the weekend is once again nearly upon us, which means early nights, even earlier mornings, and long, long, LONG days.
The one good thing about the weekend, though, is it leads me that much closer to the one thing in life that I have to look forward to: “Dead Like Me,” Sunday nights on Showtime.
If you haven’t seen DLM, I would recommend going out and buying Season One on DVD RIGHT NOW. Then call your cable or satellite provider and subscribe to Showtime so that you can watch new episodes of one of the greatest shows of all time.
I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this show, and there’s no way I can do it justice, so all I can say is watch this show.
Here are some sites that have info about DLM:

www.deadlikeme.tv
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348913
http://www.tvtome.com/DeadLikeMe

These sites will at least give you an idea of what the show is about and who’s in it.
After DLM, I then have fresh episodes of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” to look forward to.
ATHF is another great show, TWO seasons of which are available on DVD, though it is very different from DLM.
ATHF is part of Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” programming line, and it’s about the misadventures of a box of fries, a milk shake, a wad of uncooked meat, and their hapless neighbor, Carl.
To learn more, go to:

http://www.adultswim.com/shows/athf/index.html

Okay, that concludes the television show recommendation portion of this entry.
Anyway, for all of you (all ZERO of you, that is) who are obsessively coming back to this blog looking for new information, I’m probably not going to make too many entries over the weekend, since when I’m not working I’m pretty much sleeping. So odds are you’ll have to wait until Monday.
Yes, I know it’ll be a hardship, but I’m sure you’ll manage, and I hope you all have a nice holiday weekend.

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