Days 1 and 2 are down... how'd it go?
Well, Friday night, I went to bed considerably earlier... I aimed for 10:00 and almost made it. Saturday morning 5:00 was early... I got up after one snooze and was out the door by 5:30.
I walked about a 1/4 mile to warm up and then jogged 1.5 miles, then walked the last 1/2 mile and the last 1/4 mile home.
I was surprised how far I was actually able to run*
*I use that term loosely... I actually found a video somebody caught of me while running... There was this strange girl running next to me for a bit...
No, actually, I think I was, by definition, running (rapid movement on foot, with long strides and both feet momentarily off the ground).
The rapid movement is the only thing I've got trouble with... but I did have the "both feet momentarily off the ground" thing going on.
Towards the end, it was more what my wife describes as the "old man shuffle" but I did make sure to pick my feet up enough to have it be more along the lines of stationary running in a forward manner...
This morning, I woke up and I was pretty sore, but I did manage to run another 1.5 miles and the .5 mile walk back. I sat down when I got home... not a good idea! It was tough to get up!
My wife has been getting up early too... and because of it, we made it to the 9:00 AM service this morning.
I'm already planning on walking in the morning instead of running... we'll see how I feel in the morning... maybe I'll run a bit and the walk the balance of 2 miles.
Eventually, I think I'd like to work up to 3 miles. I think it will get easier once I do this a bit more... and once I lose some of the spare tire etc...
I don't have any specific goals in terms of weight loss... but I know my starting point... 341.1
Yikes...
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Observations... or confessions
Today is my best friend Kevin's 30th birthday. Happy Birthday Kevin! That's just a sort of footnote to the day... but it's imporant on another level.
I turned 30 on June 12th. That's 159 days ago (5 months, 6 days). And I haven't really changed a thing. My life looks basically the same as it did on June 12th (well, I was a bit worse for wear after the surprise birthday party my wife threw for me on the 11th, but that's another story...), but that aside, I haven't made too many changes in my life since then.
Happy likely isn't the right word... but... content, perhaps? Satisfied with your current self?
And I'd have to say no. I've sort of been coasting through live for quite some time. So it's time to make some changes.
At Men's Fraternity this morning, Mike said "What works at 30 won't work at 50." You can be ahead in life at the age of 30 but you own't end there without discipline.
I think by pretty much any definition, I'm not a very disciplined person.
I'm regularly late to things, such as work or class, and if I'm there on time, it's just barely. I routinely don't have important things done such as have a lunch made for the day. I don't do regular devotions. Heck, I don't even do irregular devotions. Here I am, going to seminary, proclaiming that I want to become a pastor and lead a congregation of adults in ministry but I don't even really have everything together.
Now, of course, nobody has it together... we're all broken by sin and thus we're sort of behind the eight ball... but is that a cop out? Methinks so, in some respects... there are those who certainly have it MORE together than others.
But... back to the observations of my life...
So, as I said, I don't do regular devotions. I don't work out (more on that later). I stay up way too late and don't get enough sleep (couple that with being late to everything). I don't study enough for my classes. I don't help my wife enough with the kids and around the house. I'm no longer addicted to pornography... but Facebook is full of what amounts to a sort of softcore porn that doesn't show up. Speaking of Facebook, I don't know that I'm addicted to the internet, persay, but I spend so stinking much of my life glued to a computer that maybe I'm just kidding myself. If you judge somebody by where they spend their free time... perhaps I'm guiltier than I would admit.
I take things that aren't bad in and of themselves, like chess, for example, and I over-do it. I'm currently playing 39 games of correspondence chess on Chess.com. I've over-committed myself... and as such, I am not as good of a chess player... because I have to quickly make a lot of moves to be able to stay up with them all!
I've been a part of a D-III basketball message board for the better part of 8 or 9 years. I'm a pretty significant contributor on it and have followed the UWSP basketball program and the WIAC in general since my career ended back on 3/19/05 with our second national championship... but that was 2435 days ago (6 years, 7 months, and 30 days). I need to let it go. I have followed it with a greater furvor than I ever did in preparation for the seasons or in putting in work outside of practice. But I don't have anything invested in my following... I can cheer for them and hope they do well, but I'm essentially washed up and have no investment in it. It's basically a waste of my time... and I can prove it. I'm not sure when the counter was last reset, but I have spent the following amount of time on the site:
Total time logged in: 61 days, 11 hours and 21 minutes
Yikes...
Now, to be true, I frequently am logged into the site when I'm listening to basketball games and providing updates, etc... and then also for pregame and post game thoughts. But that could be at 3 or 4 hours a pop.
I could do the same for other message board sites... like for games like SimCity 4, that I used to play a ton when I was in college and after too...
I found an interesting cartoon:
I wonder what our great grandpas would think if we started talking about life online and life offline. Probably of circus performers or something.
But, isn't the above situation (respected in real life, online life be damned) what we really want to be the case? Life isn't online... it's offline. It started off being a tool... but it has literally become all some people do. And I feel myself getting hooked into that and trying, perhaps, to compete with that lifestyle. And I hate it.
It's not like it's required by any stretch of the imagination... I know some people who don't have Facebook, for instance... and they aren't worse off for it. And, weird, but they don't sit in front of a computer for hours. They actually DO stuff!
So, if I was going to look at changing things... I'd say that I need to take a deep, hard look at what I'm doing with my time when I'm awake. The first thing that seems like a no-brainer that has to go would be Facebook. I sit in front of a computer for extended periods of time and I play stupid, mindless games on the thing... and to what end? I might level up. Woo hoo?!?
Also, the temptation to start looking at peoples' pictures (which aren't always appropriate) is there too... and while as there's a pretty clear line in terms of what's porn and what isn't on the internet, when you're on a site like Facebook, you can go from appropriate to inappropriate pretty quickly.
Ths next thing I need to deal with, I think is when I'm awake. I get home at about 5:30... and I regularly stay up until about 1:00 or 1:30. In order to get 7 hours of sleep, I need to sleep until 8:00, and I work at 8:30... not much margin for error there.
My dad always used to say that one hour before midnight is worth two afterwards... I guess I'll have to try it out and see!
So, I'm going to start going to bed considerably earlier... because I'm going to start getting up considerably earlier too. In bed by 10, up by 5.
This will allow me to do so much more before my day begins. Like work out. I have done JACK since I stopped playing basketball. With the exception of the two years I played CCLF basketball, the only working out I've done has been occasional workout tapes of my wife's and briefly training for a 5k that I never did.
I also need to get back in the habit of doing devotions. Getting up at 5:00 will give me at least 2 hours before Kate and the boys get up to run, shower (AND SHAVE! I'm a lazy bum who LOOKS like a bum with my appearance), eat breakfast and do a concerted devotion.
OK, so I admit that this is a lot of stuff at the outset... Why not take baby steps instead of jumping in head first? Well, I want to have drastic results... so I need to make drastic changes.
I am likely going to need help with this... so that's where the guys from my small group come in! I'm going to need you guys to keep on me about doing what I've set out to do here!
I turned 30 on June 12th. That's 159 days ago (5 months, 6 days). And I haven't really changed a thing. My life looks basically the same as it did on June 12th (well, I was a bit worse for wear after the surprise birthday party my wife threw for me on the 11th, but that's another story...), but that aside, I haven't made too many changes in my life since then.
Happy likely isn't the right word... but... content, perhaps? Satisfied with your current self?
And I'd have to say no. I've sort of been coasting through live for quite some time. So it's time to make some changes.
At Men's Fraternity this morning, Mike said "What works at 30 won't work at 50." You can be ahead in life at the age of 30 but you own't end there without discipline.
I think by pretty much any definition, I'm not a very disciplined person.
I'm regularly late to things, such as work or class, and if I'm there on time, it's just barely. I routinely don't have important things done such as have a lunch made for the day. I don't do regular devotions. Heck, I don't even do irregular devotions. Here I am, going to seminary, proclaiming that I want to become a pastor and lead a congregation of adults in ministry but I don't even really have everything together.
Now, of course, nobody has it together... we're all broken by sin and thus we're sort of behind the eight ball... but is that a cop out? Methinks so, in some respects... there are those who certainly have it MORE together than others.
But... back to the observations of my life...
So, as I said, I don't do regular devotions. I don't work out (more on that later). I stay up way too late and don't get enough sleep (couple that with being late to everything). I don't study enough for my classes. I don't help my wife enough with the kids and around the house. I'm no longer addicted to pornography... but Facebook is full of what amounts to a sort of softcore porn that doesn't show up. Speaking of Facebook, I don't know that I'm addicted to the internet, persay, but I spend so stinking much of my life glued to a computer that maybe I'm just kidding myself. If you judge somebody by where they spend their free time... perhaps I'm guiltier than I would admit.
I take things that aren't bad in and of themselves, like chess, for example, and I over-do it. I'm currently playing 39 games of correspondence chess on Chess.com. I've over-committed myself... and as such, I am not as good of a chess player... because I have to quickly make a lot of moves to be able to stay up with them all!
I've been a part of a D-III basketball message board for the better part of 8 or 9 years. I'm a pretty significant contributor on it and have followed the UWSP basketball program and the WIAC in general since my career ended back on 3/19/05 with our second national championship... but that was 2435 days ago (6 years, 7 months, and 30 days). I need to let it go. I have followed it with a greater furvor than I ever did in preparation for the seasons or in putting in work outside of practice. But I don't have anything invested in my following... I can cheer for them and hope they do well, but I'm essentially washed up and have no investment in it. It's basically a waste of my time... and I can prove it. I'm not sure when the counter was last reset, but I have spent the following amount of time on the site:
Total time logged in: 61 days, 11 hours and 21 minutes
Yikes...
Now, to be true, I frequently am logged into the site when I'm listening to basketball games and providing updates, etc... and then also for pregame and post game thoughts. But that could be at 3 or 4 hours a pop.
I could do the same for other message board sites... like for games like SimCity 4, that I used to play a ton when I was in college and after too...
I found an interesting cartoon:
I wonder what our great grandpas would think if we started talking about life online and life offline. Probably of circus performers or something.
But, isn't the above situation (respected in real life, online life be damned) what we really want to be the case? Life isn't online... it's offline. It started off being a tool... but it has literally become all some people do. And I feel myself getting hooked into that and trying, perhaps, to compete with that lifestyle. And I hate it.
It's not like it's required by any stretch of the imagination... I know some people who don't have Facebook, for instance... and they aren't worse off for it. And, weird, but they don't sit in front of a computer for hours. They actually DO stuff!
So, if I was going to look at changing things... I'd say that I need to take a deep, hard look at what I'm doing with my time when I'm awake. The first thing that seems like a no-brainer that has to go would be Facebook. I sit in front of a computer for extended periods of time and I play stupid, mindless games on the thing... and to what end? I might level up. Woo hoo?!?
Also, the temptation to start looking at peoples' pictures (which aren't always appropriate) is there too... and while as there's a pretty clear line in terms of what's porn and what isn't on the internet, when you're on a site like Facebook, you can go from appropriate to inappropriate pretty quickly.
Ths next thing I need to deal with, I think is when I'm awake. I get home at about 5:30... and I regularly stay up until about 1:00 or 1:30. In order to get 7 hours of sleep, I need to sleep until 8:00, and I work at 8:30... not much margin for error there.
My dad always used to say that one hour before midnight is worth two afterwards... I guess I'll have to try it out and see!
So, I'm going to start going to bed considerably earlier... because I'm going to start getting up considerably earlier too. In bed by 10, up by 5.
This will allow me to do so much more before my day begins. Like work out. I have done JACK since I stopped playing basketball. With the exception of the two years I played CCLF basketball, the only working out I've done has been occasional workout tapes of my wife's and briefly training for a 5k that I never did.
I also need to get back in the habit of doing devotions. Getting up at 5:00 will give me at least 2 hours before Kate and the boys get up to run, shower (AND SHAVE! I'm a lazy bum who LOOKS like a bum with my appearance), eat breakfast and do a concerted devotion.
OK, so I admit that this is a lot of stuff at the outset... Why not take baby steps instead of jumping in head first? Well, I want to have drastic results... so I need to make drastic changes.
I am likely going to need help with this... so that's where the guys from my small group come in! I'm going to need you guys to keep on me about doing what I've set out to do here!
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