Tag: #running

  • Running Again, Mask-Less

    So, I did it yesterday. I started running again. It has been over a year since I tried any form of exercise, and it felt like it. I ran around the local park in my neighborhood, and there was a noticeable jiggle to me, which caused me to get itchy in the jiggly parts. I wasn’t crazy, I knew that I needed to pace myself. I had a thirty-minute time limit, and I knew to jog, then walk, then jog, and then walk. I didn’t want to hurt myself on the first day, though I knew my legs would start aching soon enough. And that occurred last night about 3am.

    Chalk one more up to getting “back to normal.” I was out running without my mask. In fact, I didn’t even bring it. As I ran, pretty much everyone else was also mask-less. The parks are filling up with people around here, and I have to say that half of the non-exercising people are without masks. A few people who were jogging had a mask on, but on the whole, not many.

    I am trying to follow through on the things I have been promising that I would take care of after I got vaxed. Get around in the City on mass transit was one, and now, getting myself back in shape. The kid is very supportive in this effort. When I got back from running yesterday, she looked at me and said, “I think you lost weight.”

  • No More Late Night Snacks

    Spring is here and Summer isn’t too far away. The seasons of rebirth and change is upon us. I think I have mentioned that I have put on twenty pounds of the course of the pandemic, and before that, I had put on a stress ten pounds from my former shitty job situation, my mother’s death, and moving away and then back to NYC. Food was the only thing giving me any comfort, and ice cream was my best friend. So, I’m front loaded now; just completing my slow transformation to middle aged white male – balding with a belly. As you can read, I’m not too happy about this.

    I am trying to wrap my head around getting back to a healthy lifestyle, as I don’t think I have really ever had a healthy lifestyle. I just sort of lived, and it all took care of itself. Well… those days are over, and I have to move this to the forefront of my thinking. This week, I am starting small; no more snacking after 9pm. This might be low hanging fruit, so to speak, but I think it is the lynchpin of the issues I am having. Mainly, no discipline. I want to see if I can go a week without snacking, controlling my behavior. If I can do this, then I think I can move on to more complicated things.

    And the complicated things are; running, maybe daily; eating better, or at least what we all can agree on as a family; and the really ambitious one, hiking.

    But before I can get there, I have to say goodbye to my 11pm ice cream break.

  • Covid Weight Gain

    I put on some weight over the pandemic. Let’s say it’s close to twenty pounds. And when I say that it’s close to twenty pounds, I mean that it is over twenty pounds. I have put on over twenty pounds. In fact, I just weighed myself, and it’s 21.3 pounds. Mind you, I was a little pudgy around my middle before the pandemic, but that was due to driving everywhere in California, and not walking like I used to do in New York, But, before California, I had added a little weight after the kid was born, that I never took off. So, I’m thick in the middle. I’m a thick in the middle, middle aged guy.

    And I want to do something about it.

    Part of it is that I have been eating my feelings. Especially eating my feelings late at night when I watch MST3k on Pluto TV. (That’s my happy place.) I used to walk everywhere in pre-pandemic New York, like close to 9,000 steps a day without trying. I just looked at my phone’s pedometer, and looks like I walk about 4,000 steps a day. So, not doing too well there, even for the low hanging fruit. To be successful, I know that I have to change my lazy grazing life style, along with doing some exercise, and just moving more.

    But the issue is just getting started. Getting off my ass and beginning seems like a million miles away. I know all the benefits that will come if I just start working out a little, and I can even go the super vein route and say that I want to look good when I go to the beach this Summer. (Since I will be vaccinated by the start of May, I think I should go on vacation.) And not to mention that I should do things to stay alive for as long as possible, family and kid in all…

    But…

    But… The pandemic sure has made me physically lazy.

    No.

    Actually, the pandemic gave me to opportunity to be lazy, and I took full advantage of it.

  • Walking

    So… I have been doing the video work out stuff, and I pretty much hate it. I’m doing it, but I hate it. And again, it’s the fake level of excitement of the people in the videos that really bother me. Now, I freely admit that the system works, so it’s just the thing I have to deal with. I hate working out, but I want to lose weight and live for a while.

    I have been following the routine for two weeks. I have also adjusted my diet, and focused on getting 8 hours of sleep, and no more late-night snacking. And the results…

    Nothing…

    I have neither gained or lost weight.

    Last time I did this, back when I was living in New York, I saw results in two weeks. I could clearly tell that positive changes were having an effect. So, why is there no change this time around?

    I thought about this for over the past few days, specifically what are the changes from the last time, to this time?

    And then it hit me.

    I checked the pedometer on my phone…

    In California, I average 500 steps a day.

    In New York, I averaged 8,000 steps a day.

    I have lost the linchpin of my ability to get into shape; having to walk everywhere.

    Looks like I will have to get back to running…

  • Stay Alive

    I had made a promise this weekend that I would start working out again come Monday morning, which by the way, is the worst morning to start working out. It’s a fact… or at least should be.

    Most people say that and make this promise and have written about getting started and all the motivation crap.

    For me, I lost my running shoes in the move. They were in New York, and I remember packing them up, or I think I do. When all of our stuff made it to California; no running shoes, and I also lost a pair of gray slip on Van’s that I loved.

    So, I had no running shoes, and honestly, not a big deal, right? Yeah, I don’t have a job, and I can’t justify spending money on shoes, when that should go to rent, and I also don’t want to add to our debt.

    That left me one option, that I’m not very proud of… a workout DVD. It’s more like a program as the thing has like 20 different DVDs for working on parts of your body. Look, I will admit that the shit works, provided that you stick to it, as the wife and I used it in the past. So, I’m not knocking the program.

    What makes me uncomfortable about the whole thing is the super positive attitude from the people in the workouts. I interpret their reactions as inauthentic, and that has everything to do with me and not them. I also understand that they are paid actors to be super-hyped about “gains” and crap.

    Exercising for me is just a necessary evil of getting older. I want to stay on the planet as long as possible (wife, kid, family, friends, things like that) so I have to get up and work out.

    I sort of wish there was a workout video that was like “Hey man, we get it. You just want to be healthy or look good with your shirt off. Whatever it is, we get it. So, let’s get this over with so we can move on to other things.”

    I don’t know how motivating that would be.