Rings: On the Life and Family of a Southern Fighter

Yesterday aften, as I killed time with a fellow English tutor, the subject off our professors' literary accomplishments arose. And I learned something very, very interesting. Seems Randy Bates, my Nonfiction Workshop professor, wrote a book about a time when he joined a gym to learn to box, and there he befriended a famous boxer. This is nonfiction and now I can't wait to get my hands on it, you can imagine my eyes widening as I realized that he has already done something quite simiar to what I am doing here: gym + writing = book.

Meanwhile, the new routine seems good enough. I do feel stronger now with each excercise. I just need a killer core/ab routine.

New plan of action

Alright, so I needed a change. I realized a while back that with my seven excercises I tend to burn out by the last two or three. So I switched up the order, but still burned out. So now I have decided to split them up.

Monday and Wednesday will be military press, bench and curl days, and hopefully I can figure out a nice ab routine. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be decline, lat pull, pecs and dips. The workouts will be more often but shorter and more effecient, I think. Then, when we move, when I'm ready I'll move to a six-day plan, throwing in Friday and Saturday, because the gym will be right there.

Today I started that routine. It felt good, felt strong. My adreneline was high afterwards for a bit but I feel I'm crashing now. Oh, well.

Doh!

This past week was rough. I did work out on Tuesday last, in the evening. And I realized that night, as I tossed and I turned in bed, that working out in the afternoon/evening equals bad sleep. Funny, right? You'd think it tires me out and I sleep like a baby. But I've found my adrenaline shoots up, really up, and it takes awhile for it to fall back down. So, working out in the morning gives me a big boost for the work day but evening sessions give me a big boost for a sleepless night. Same thing when I play a soccer game in the aften (Danish for "afternoon"). Me no sleep good.

And then I didn't get back to the gym all week. This and that got in the way. One "this" is that we're looking to move into another apartment, one which has a gym. Boom, I think, no more excuse I just couldn't get out to the gym! Another "that" is I started my Spring semester at school. And Bek started her school, so our schedules are all hoo haw.

And in my haste I forgot my tennis shoes, so I had to work out in my green ankle socks and brown deck shoes.

missed out

Classes started yesterday, and though I can't blame the classes, well, I missed a work out. I even had all my stuff ready, my clothes and stuff. But the timing didn't work, which is a bummer, because I am trying to make these workouts as important as anything else on my schedule. So, i will try to go today, a Tuesday, and just shift this week to a Tues-Thurs-Sat schedule. I will keep u informed.

Ah, and I DID drink 120g of whey yesterday (I've had a little trouble getting 120g on my off-days).

Eat, son!

I am not paying any attention to my diet right now, not yet. I think my intake is healthy enough, though. I don't eat fast food or frozen dinners or drink sodas or much beer. I eat my veggies, too. Bek and I cook dinners at home and make enough for lunch the next day. Wow! I know. Awesome.

I'm just mentioning all this for the record. So, here's what I ate today, which is pretty typical. A protein smoothie, two satsumas, a chocolate soymilk protein drink, a pbj and chicken souvlaki for dindin. And we decided later that ice cream was a must, with hot fudge on top.

I plan on tailoring the diet and the workouts later. First, dem bones need some meat.

Give that kid some food!

Dizamn! That looks bad over there. Somebody feed that boy! So, I put this blog together last night - I back-dated the entries I'd written elsewhere and threw that incredible slideshow together.

The idea is that I'll be more likely to keep track of my progress with this blog. I'll reflect on my feelings and tell some stories. To start, I worked out last Wednesday for the first time since our "Christmas Tour" of family and friends. So, I had about two weeks off the weights, which worked out fine for me since my left shoulder started to bother me. I figured it was the bench, just a hunch, what with the strain that bar puts on my shoulders when I take it off (and not to mention that's how Will hurt himself a while back). This last time I at the gym I switched to dumbells, so now I'm completely off bars and machines. I only uses bells and the dip apparatus.

Oh, and I stopped the jumping rope a few weeks back and switched to the row machine (so I guess that technically counts as one machine I use). I switched becuase I sucked at jumping rope. Also, I started drinking 120g of whey protein everyday, not just on the days I work out, as I did before. And I started making smoothies in the morning with bananas and strawberries, so that makes it a whole meal, sort of (I remember the recipes for great smoothies from my days at the Smoothie King).

I knew there was something else...I started crunches and supermans in the morning while I'm making chocolate chip pancakes. I knew the "core" was important, and as the weights increased, I could tell. And I'm trying to fit in running into the workout routine.