I started the Medifast Diet one year ago. While I’m up a few pounds today (169#), I’ve managed to stay within 5 pounds of my goal weight of 165# for since October. I also decided that it’s safe for me to stop counting my calories every day, but I will continue to track my weight to make sure I don’t sway too far off track.
Gogol Bordello: Lessons Learned in Caffeine, Punctuality and Randori
Delayed blog post alert!
I saw Gogol Bordello, a gypsy punk band, perform in Burlington, VT on June 6. I learned a few things, and validated others which I already knew. Continue reading “Gogol Bordello: Lessons Learned in Caffeine, Punctuality and Randori”
Aikido Seminar with William Gleason Sensei
This weekend I attended an Aikido seminar with William Gleason Sensei at Shobu Aikido of the Berkshires. While it would be somewhat pointless to discuss much of the subject matter in this forum, it is sufficient to say that training with Gleason Sensei is, at the very least, awesome. His grasp of Aikido is unique among anyone with whom I’ve trained, and I highly recommend any aikidoka who have the opportunity to train with him do so.
Gleason Sensei will be teaching a seminar at my home dojo, Shobu Aikido Vermont, in August.
Medifast – 11 Months, Still Not Fat
I went on the Medifast diet 11 months ago today. I started at 208#. Four months later I was down to 165#, and I’ve stayed within a few pounds of that ever since. Yeah!
100 Push Ups, Summer, and Aikido
I haven’t been paying as much attention to my personal blog, but have been rather active over at the corporate one instead. Continue reading “100 Push Ups, Summer, and Aikido”
Biking and Bears
Today I took a bike ride with a friend on my lunch break. We stuck mainly to a class 2 and class 3 road, although we did a little off-roading on a newly-cut driveway (still very fresh). It was great to get out on my bike on my lunch break, something I haven’t done in years.
While we were returning, on the steepest part of our uphill climb, I heard a loud noise to our left. I looked and saw not one, but three bear cubs between 30-40 feet from us. They were running on what appeared to be an intercept course, so I yelled for us to stop. Fortunately, said bears were running toward the nearest pine trees, which they scaled with amazing speed! Once I realized they were cubs, and they weren’t a threat, we moved as fast as we could to get out of there, just in case mama bear was around. Given that thought, the rest of the hill went down pretty quickly!
This is not the first time I’ve encountered bears while biking, but they were definitely a lot closer to civilization this time. It makes me a bit scared, as I don’t like thinking that they need to be coming this close to humans for food. Hopefully they were just kids getting into trouble without mama’s permission.
Push Ups Progress, or Lack Thereof
Okay, this push-ups thing is getting on my nerves. Last night, prior to Aikido, I tried, and failed, to do a single push up. Apparently I was still really sore from push ups on Saturday and weapons class that morning, so I decided to do them again today.
I restarted week 4, and could barely finish day 1. I never claimed to be brilliant, but somewhere, I think, there’s a problem with the “progress” I’m making.
100 Push Ups, W4D2(r2), FAIL
Darnitall! I was unable, again, to get through day two. I failed out on the fourth set of 25. ARGH. I am sick of starting over! One possible reason is that I had sword class this morning, which may have drained some of my upper body strength.
On the sit-ups front, week 3, day1 went much more smoothly, and I banged them out with relative ease, which is to say, barely.
Book: The Mindbody Prescription
At the suggestion of one of my online friends/fans, Forkmantis, I just finished reading The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain
100 Push Ups Wk4(r2) Day 1, 200 Sit Ups Wk3(r2) Initial
Okay, I’m starting to confuse even myself with this, but suffice to say I’m back on track, albeit a bit behind, on my push ups AND now back with the sit ups again!
So last night, I restarted Week 4 of the push ups, doing sets of 21, 25, 21, 21, and 25, and then followed it up with an initial test of sit ups, ending at 45. “More than 30” was all I needed to do to get into Week 3, so I’ll start there maybe today at lunch time.
Are you doing sit ups or push ups too? Let me know!