LittleJoe

Going to try something rare (for me): reading fiction...

It's vacation time, so I shall try to allow myself to read a little fiction. Not a tech book / manual, not a periodical focused on current events or fitness, not the newspaper... fiction. I've done this a little bit from time to time, but usually only when on a plane. It's odd that I seem to only allow myself to do recreational reading when in the air traveling; I guess something inside of me feels that this is wasted time and can therefore be spent doing something that part of me views as frivolous.

But I'm not going to take too big of a risk and just grab some random novel. No, instead I've purchased the Kindle version of The Hobbit for US$7 (how can one go wrong for that price?). I read this in the early/mid 70's, and enjoyed it quite a bit. After 30+ years, I have most likely forgotten enough that this easy read will be mostly new and I have full confidence that it will be a most enjoyable read yet again :)

Summer 2012 fitness update...going well! ...

Wow, haven't posted since MARCH!?! Well, I do post regularly on Facebook and at least weekly on Twitter. Anyway...

It's been over 3 years now since I switched to a vegan diet, and I now can't really imagine consuming meat and milk again. Exercise is a definite habit, and I regularly lift weights or do cardio, and hit these workouts hard. I've become hooked on workouts from BeachBody. I've done about 5 "rounds" of P90X (each round is 3 months), a round of P90X2, 2-3 rounds of Insanity (a 2-month program), a round or two of Asylum (one-month program), and I'm now on week 6 of the 3-month Body Beast program.

At my fattest, I weighed 172 pounds, which for my 5' 4" frame was too much. Shirley and I started WeightWatchers online (tracking "points" instead of counting calories), and along with some nutrition suggestions from the Beach Body programs, from The 4-Hour Body, and working out once or twice a day, I dumped the fat, got down to the 30-inch size waist pants that I was 30 years ago, saw better numbers at the annual physicals re heart stuff (lipid panel, heart rate, etc), and at my lightest was 130 pounds.

This morning I weighed 144 pounds. There's a little more fat on the midsection, but I'm not worried. I'm taking 5 grams of creatine morning and night, and that is known to cause a little water retention. But more importantly, our Omron electric bodyfat monitor shows me hanging in there around 13% fat, pants still fit just fine, and the tape measure shows that the biceps are about 3/4" bigger and the quads are an inch larger. I've definitely put on solid mass during the past month and a half of Body Beast. The final 4 weeks of the program is intended to get one a bit leaner. And I can always do a round of Insanity or Asylum if I want to hit the cardio hard.

It feels good to be lifting again!

http://www.beachbody.com/