Still exercising

I realize that I haven't been posting. I get the feeling that I just don't have that much to say these days. Is it me? Is it my life? Actually, these are essentially the same, aren't they. In any event, as I stated over a month ago--that would be exactly two posts ago--I am trying to bring my energy level back up by exercising.

I wrote previously that I have lost almost ten pounds. Well, I've stopped lifting weights as that doesn't allow me to loss the weight that quickly. I know, I know. Lifting weights to tone the body is good, but watching the numbers on the scale go down is quite motivating, so I've stopped. When I started on the health kick, I weighed a hefty 178 pounds--pretty chunky for 5'6". Yes, I'm short. They don't call me Mr. Miyagi for nothing. It was the most I had ever weighed in my life. I had reached 175 before, but that was virtually with no muscles. Not that I have a lot of muscles now, but about 15 years ago I had never worked out with weights, had done little manual labor in my life, and was a pretty sorry (read: blubbery) sight.

After working out on the treadmill last Friday, I got on the scales and was gratified to see that I had broken 160 pounds. Yes, the meter read: 159.5! Woo hoo! Of course, it was right after running for 90 minutes, and predictably I was back above 160 the next day--162 to be exact--but it felt good nonetheless.

0:30, 2.43

Early Halloween...

I leave campus a little after 7 PM most days, take the Metro train to the last stop on the Orange line and walk home from the station around 8 PM. I used to take a short cut that went past a parking structure, then beneath an overpass that finally led to a small community of townhouses that is just across the street from where I live. But about ten months ago, I began to notice the unmistakably pungent odor of piss as I walked beneath the overpass. A few days later, I saw a dirty sock on the path. I casually looked around and then up, and dangling from the three-foot vertical space between the overpass and the concrete buttress, was a filthy, moldy-looking blanket.

From all appearances, somebody was sleeping up there. It kinda freaked me out. Perhaps it was just a harmless homeless person, but the thought that someone could be up there looking down at me and any other passers-by was unsettling. So I started taking the normal route home along the main road on the north side of the station.

But last week Wednesday, I decided to take the short cut again. I don't know, it just struck me as the thing to do. So I went past the parking structure, beneath the underpass and was almost through the townhouse community. I turned the corner before crossing the street to my house, when suddenly I felt someone kick my heels from behind.

Bump, bump.

What the... and for a moment, I thought Musubichan had been waiting for me at the station, shadowed me on my way home and tried to scare me. The fraction of a second it took me to come up with that scenario and then whirl around wasn't long enough for me realize that she had never before waited at the station for me unannounced. But even if I had realized that, it would not have prepared me for what I saw.

No one.

What?!? I looked around and there was not a soul. There are invariably three or four other commuters who use the same shortcut from the station, but there were none that night. So I looked at me feet. Maybe I stepped on something that flung up and hit the back of my shoes, but again there was nothing. Oh man. I stood at the corner waiting for a couple of cars to pass before I crossed the street. Whatever it was, will it kick me again, sending me forward in front of the oncoming cars? I stepped away from the curb and looked back at the area I felt my heels being kicked. I was starting to get paranoid. When the cars drove by, I ran across the street and practically dove into the safety of my own home.

I still don't know what happened that night. I have tried to think of a variety of reasons as to why I might have felt something bumping my heels, but I can't come up with a reasonable explanation. Can you?

1:30, 7.25

Fighting my age

I am definitely reaching that age. And how old is that age? Well, I suppose that it is different for all of us, but I am referring to that age when you feel your age. Well, this past summer, I felt 51. FIFTY-ONE!

It wasn't any one thing that made me feel my age. It was the accumulation of a lot of little things I think. Yes, time goes by much faster now. Yes, my knees have started to audibly complain when I bend them. Maybe most dramatically was my loss of energy. I don't have enough energy to grade. I don't feel up to painting the ceiling. I don't have the vigor to write on Xanga. It is all depressing.

Of course, I don't want to be a downer here on Xanga. I'm telling you all this because I've figured out what was wrong.

I don't exercise enough.

Yes, it was as simple as that. So since the first of August, I decided to fight the inexorable urge to give in to my age and have begun to exercise, again. On the first day, I huffed and puffed as I walked on a nearby trail for about an hour. I swear I was sweating like a pig. Oink, oink. How could I let myself get so out of shape? but I stuck to it, and in a week I was walking more briskly. By the third week I could walk and jog a bit. By the end of August, I could sustain a light jog for 45 minutes to an hour. Even M was impressed. You have such an obedient body. It responds exactly as it's supposed to.

I've lost nary an inch from my waist, but I have lost ten pounds, even as I have been lifting some light weights. Since muscle weighs more than fat, it means I've probably lost more than ten pounds of fat! Woo hoo! Anyway, since I'm doing butterflies with 25 pound dumbbells, I may develop cleavage to go along with my girlish figure. Nah... Too many inches in the waist yet...

Anyway, I feel a bit more peppy these days, thankfully, and just in time for football season! Hahahahahha!. So, I've been watching less drama--if you can believe it--and instead am listening to music when I squeeze in exercise time into my school schedule, although I still listen to J-pop. The song below by UVERworld keeps me going during my last legs when I jog. I focus on the beat and the legs keep churning.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Holy moly! I just realize that I haven't written an entry in over a month. Heck, in a couple of days, it'll be two months. Are you fonder of me now? Hehehehehehe

Oh well.... For those of you who care: I am not dead. I am alive and have spent perhaps the most unproductive summer of my life. Even in my youth when I did not produce anything, I at least read a book or two. Hmmmm. This is nothing to write home about.

Well, school is starting and I have to get back into gear. Hopefully, that will mean a bit more writing on Xanga as well, as I will need an excuse for my procrastinating ways. ")

Space Time Continuum

It's nice to realize that the space time continuum is consistent and time is still relevant. Do you remember--or perhaps still experiencing--the difference in the speed of time? When you are waiting for the end of the Fall semester, October and November seem to go by so slowly. And yet, when Winter break arrives, it seems to end in the blink of an eye.

Well, these days--and those of you working stiffs will probably agree--that time in general seems to have sped up. Have a deadline? It arrives in no time. Christmas? Is it here already? But I've come to realize that one's personal space time continuum remains constant. While time in general has sped up, this summer--when I'm really not doing much and just relaxing as I do some research at a leisurely pace--is going by at light speed. I swear, I go to sleep on Sunday night--actually Monday morning--and when I wake up its Thursday... THURSDAY! Who the heck deleted Tuesday and Wednesday?!?

What gives?

So while I'm pleased at the consistency of time, I'm beginning to get stressed--and losing some of that energy I thought I was recharging--because I am not accomplishing as much as I wanted to this summer. Ugh...