Last night we ended up going over to Downtown Disney for dinner – while wandering around The World of Disney afterwards, this colorful display caught our eyes. Granted, a bit abstract for me to actually buy one, but I still thought that they photographed nice…
I’ve been using WiiFit for right around two months now and I’ve got to say, so far it’s really played an instrumental part in motivating me to focus and try to workout more often … in fact, as of recent I’m currently up to about 13 days in a row! And go figure, according to the numbers it looks like it might actually be finally starting to pay off…
The Tracking
The biggest element for me is definitely how WiiFit adds that whole competitive video game element to working out, not so much in pushing myself to work harder because that’s not really what WiiFit is all about, but more so in striving for consistency from working out every single day. As odd as it sounds, I actually feel obligated to workout at this point simply so that I can put that little stamp on the calendar after each Body Test … something that I actually used to simulate years ago just marking off days on a calendar. But WiiFit also does a good job of tracking and graphing results like weigh-ins, time spent, and calories burned, too, so that’s cool.
The Yoga
Believe it or not, this is actually my favorite thing to do in WiiFit – I don’t really feel like I’m strong enough to do the strength exercises yet, but for a while now I’ve wanted to add stretching to my workout routines … I just never actually knew what to do! At one point I even tried looking up stuff online and printed some instructions out, but do you have any idea how hard it is to follow along and maintain the proper posture at the same time?! Right now I’ve got about 8 different poses that I try to go through every night, and it does seem to loosen me up a little more than just pretending to know how to stretch before working out!
The Games
Now as for the “fun side” of WiiFit, I will admit that some of the games are sort of hit-or-miss – I’m not very good at the hula-hoop one, and let’s face it, the one where you dress up like a penguin is just ridiculous, but others like the Marble Madness-ish one and even the soccer one are fun now that I’ve got the hang of it. Sara even recently got me to try the obstacle course, which I’ve yet to actually finish, but it’s still amusing despite watching myself get hit with a giant metal ball over and over! All together, they seem to be enough to keep me busy for another 10-15 minutes so that I can break the 30-minute mark each day, so that’s a plus.
And granted, I should probably add that I do have a couple of less than positive things to say about WiiFit as well – it’s certainly not perfect, but I suppose we’ll get into those another day. Still, at this point pretty much anything that motivates me to stick it out another day is a winner in my book … we’ll see if I’m still doing WiiFit this summer or if I’ll have moved on to something else by then…
It was both a little exciting and a little sad to come across this video of last week’s launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, as seen by a passenger jet leaving out of Orlando’s airport. On one hand, that’s an incredible view, in my book right up there with the photo caught last year by a Disney photographer of the same ship flying over Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom. On the other hand, though, this was officially 1 of 3 final shuttle flights ever.
Now admittedly I haven’t done a whole lot of research into my curiosities, so for all I know the answers to these might already be out there, but it makes me wonder what’s going to happen to Kennedy Space Center over in Cape Canaveral. Is it just going to become a museum, or do they still have other stuff for all of those space folks to do once the shuttle program ends? I mean, drive through the town and it becomes very clear that they’re very proud of the space program’s presence … what’s next??? I saw something in the paper a while ago about them actually recycling parts of the launch platform, but then again, not knowing much about their operations it could just be that there’s not much use for it because it’s so customized to the existing shuttles that anything new would require all new equipment anyways.
I do think that it’s pretty lame that our government is ending the program and relying more on private enterprises to “take the next step.” I suppose that only time will tell just exactly what that actually means, but I can definitely see how NASA is an easy target for budget cuts when state and local governments can’t even make priorities for teachers and education. They see space exploration as “an unnecessary expense” when we have plenty of problems right here on earth, but sometimes it’s that whole reaching for the stars mentality that gives people something to shoot for in the first place and provides the inspiration to overcome their own localized challenges.
It seems like despite our congressmen making more than ever these days, all they want to do is push government roles back onto the people, and I sincerely hope that doesn’t lead to the exmbarassing end to our space program in general because after seeing my very first shuttle launch back on the 4th of July in 2006, I sure would like to see a few more without bumping elbows to see the last two this year!
The Stats
Covering the first 8 weeks – both January & February…
January February Year-to-Date Weight Lost 3.1 lbs 7 lbs 10.1 lbs # Workout Days 9 13 22 Average Workout Time 29 min 43 min 36 min Total Workout Time 265 min 561 min 826 min Average Workout Calories 189 296 243 Total Workout Calories 1,699 3,851 5,550 Max Workout Days in a Row 2 9 9 Best Workout Time 59 min 65 min 65 min Best Workout Calories 504 602 602
What I’ve Been Doing
How I’m Feelin’
At this point, cautiously optimistic – I’m certainly happy about having lost 10 pounds and I’m trying to let the momentum of exercising so many days in a row keep me going, but in the back of my mind I also know that the 10-15 pound mark has traditionally been where I’ve plateau’d out just about every time in the last 7 years. Trying not to set expectations as far as how quickly the pounds will come off, but I think I’ll be more confident when I hit that 15-20 pound range and actually push past, well, the past.
Next Steps…
Big focus on working out regularly and spending more time doing it – hopefully 7 days a week for 30-60 minutes, if I can keep it up. Also continuing to eat better – less eating out, more fruits & veggies, less processed foods. I’d like to try to “normalize” my sleep schedule as well, but that’s a tough one because of my current writing projects. At least trying to be more conscious about it, though…
I was thinking yesterday after the post where I pondered the disappearance of February in general that, despite how I may feel about my current productivity in relation to success at the moment, in the grander scheme of things I suppose I actually do have quite a bit going on right now…
I guess there’s actually a whole lot of trying going on here – sometimes it’s just tough to see the forest from the trees, especially when the individual victories for a lot of those tasks aren’t ones that will be known for months. Pressing onward!
So recently I’ve been doing a lot better as far as consistently exercising – I’ll save the full stats for my results post next week, but over the last week I’ve managed to exercise every single day so far from Sunday – Friday! That alone feels like a decent accomplishment, if anything as a good foundation for what I ultimately need to work towards (i.e. a full month of those weeks!), but Thursday night I had an interesting conversation with my wife…
As one might expect, this has been a very sore week! Particularly after Wednesday night because I was crazy and decided to do the “Island Lap” jogging run on WiiFit before I was probably ready for it, I woke up the next day hurting pretty bad. Specifically my calves, undoubtedly because I didn’t wear shoes (am I supposed to put on shoes just for that exercise?!), so I asked my wife, “I had been planning on doing a longer run on the elliptical soon, but I’m really sore – should I wait a few days to let my body recover or just suck it up and keep going?”
Her answer … “Suck it up – that’s the only way you’re going to get used to it.”
And it kind of surprised me because I had always heard that you’re supposed to alternate exercises and let your body rest and recover, but maybe that’s just a lot higher above my level and relating more to conditioning or something? My own goal right now is specifically weight loss, and thus I’m trying to workout as much as possible to maximize the burning of calories. As much as I would’ve liked to hold back and only do every other day, I seem to have better momentum doing it every day and it’s a better reminder not to eat bad foods if I consider how much more I’d have to workout later that day to counteract it!
Anyways, so the underlying point behind this particular post is simply this – I hope I’m able to actually walk tomorrow!
Wednesday I had my ugly (but productive…) WiiFit run.
Thursday I went walking with the wife, which wasn’t so bad, but still particularly focused on the calves again.
Friday I did my usual yoga and games on WiiFit and then put in another 25 minutes on the elliptical.
And today I swore I’d focus on the elliptical and do a longer session – probably 45-60 minutes…
It’s a tough balance between not wanting to burn out and put myself completely out of commission, while also pushing myself to new limits so that I can burn more calories! The ordeal won’t go down until later on tonight because I’m trying to stick to the same time each day, but if you don’t hear from me at all next week, know that I’m probably just too sore to actually crawl my way to the keyboard.
Oh, that’s right…
I Got Sick
I mean, really sick … apparently bronchitis, to be specific. Needless to say, it was not fun and it also put me in a real bind creatively, not only because I had a bunch of stuff that I was trying to finish up, but I also fell behind in my regular weekly schedule as well.
Playing Catch-Up
I’ve got a fairly aggressive business plan laid out for writing this year, so losing about two weeks really didn’t help. Also, despite however motivated you are, it’s really tough to do 4-weeks worth of work in 2 when you’re also recovering from having spent the previous in bed and barely functional. In fact, I’m still not quite there yet, but I am finally getting close again…
I Finally Got My iPhone!
…and it’s everything that I could’ve hoped it would be and more.
Valentine’s Day
Thankfully I was feeling better enough at this point for us to actually go out and do something for Valentine’s Day because we both really needed it and we haven’t really spent nearly as much time over at Disney as we would like as of recent. Ended up having a great time and sort of recommitted ourselves to lounging around WDW a little more frequently in the future.
A New, Not-So-Secret Project
One of the results of our Valentine’s Day over at Epcot, and I knew this was going to happen despite my best intentions, is that I kinda sorta did some shuffling in my project schedule for this spring so that I could start work on rebuilding the Disney World website that I’ve been trying to launch literally for years. I don’t want to say too much and jinx it, but I do think that I’ve got a much better direction for it than I did before and hopefully I’ll be able to share more in the next month or so…
Workin’ Out, Pushin’ Hard, Losin’ Weight
Obviously being sick took a considerable toll on my weight loss efforts as well, which was kind of a bummer because I was really just starting to establish a routine in the first place, but in the last two weeks I’ve done a lot better at picking things back up and consistently exercising just about every night. After 8 weeks total, I’m floating right around 10 pounds lost so far, which I’ll elaborate on more in another post, but so far I feel like that’s something to be somewhat proud of…
THIS VERY WEEKEND – Uber Productivity Commences!!!
Well, this last week was sort of big, too, in that I was able to get everything caught up with The Humor Column as of yesterday, but I’ve still got a ways to go and I’m really hoping that I can knock all of that out in the next couple of days this weekend. The list is moderately big and I don’t really expect to finish it all, even though that would be really awesome, but if I can still even manage 80% or so, I think I can live with that as we get ready to move into March and welcome all of the new goals and deadlines that it has to offer!
So Sara and I ended up spending this Valentine’s Day together over at Epcot – her only requirement was for dinner at someplace we hadn’t tried before and Les Chefs de France came up as a worthwhile option, considering the spirit of the holiday and all! Although we left a little late and technically missed our lunch reservation, surprisingly they got us right in for dinner and the food was actually pretty good. They do have a bit of a rat problem that they need to work on, as you can see below, but otherwise I’d definitely go back!
The rest of the evening after dinner was pretty lax – we sat through the movie in the France Pavilion, which neither of us had actually ever seen before, we spent a little while wandering around looking for hidden mickeys via the new app that Sara downloaded, then grabbed some dessert, made it back to World Showcase just as IllumiNations was starting, and that was it. It was a nice, simple Valentine’s Day … but emphasis on the nice… š
Even beyond all of this!
I love how it’s not overly complicated.
I also recently got a new Blackberry Bold for work and frankly, I absolutely hate the thing. It’s like they just kept cramming in more and more features without any consideration at all for useability – there’s three or four different ways to display the main menu, it took me looking it up on another phone to figure out how to unlock the keypad lock, and I actually feel like I’m more limited by all of the features just because I’m overwhelmed.
I love the apps that I’ve been playing with so far.
I found a cool app from the guys who do TouringPlans.com that shows estimated wait times for attractions around Disney World, I’ve been playing the hell out of Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, and even the WordPress integration app looks like it has a lot of potential for posting the occasional blog post remotely and managing comments. Everything just seems really visually attractive and also flows well, which is good because aesthetics are important to me.
I love how easily and quickly I can check my e-mail / Facebook / Twitter.
Before it would literally take me five or ten minutes to launch the Mobile Web app, then visit each website and hope that I didn’t get some stupid error, then login to view any updates on these sites, whereas now I can check any of them in 30 seconds or less and it’s hardly an interruption to whatever else I’m doing at all.
I’m sure I’ll have even more to gush about later, but so far I just really like this device – it seems to have been designed extremely well, the speeds seem reasonable both on 3G and wi-fi, and I feel like this is the experience that having a “smartphone” should be. It shouldn’t be confusing or daunting, it shouldn’t be ridiculously bad at handling data or phone calls – it should just work.
So where was I now? You know, before the whole bronchitis-thing?!
Talk about a sucky couple of weeks ā I pretty much spent the first week of February laying in bed, and although this week Iāve finally been improving enough to actually get up and move around and stuff, I certainly havenāt felt well enough to try in get back into my āusual routineā just yet.
Oh yeah, thatās right ā I was still in the process of creating a routine when I got sick a couple of weeks ago! Oopsā¦
Anyways, I donāt necessarily think that Iāve fallen too far off the horse ā I mostly drank water and Gatorade while I was sick, so still no soda, and according to the scale I may have actually lost a few pounds ā¦ because apparently only eating 1,200 calories and sleeping 12 hours a day will do that to ya! Not sure if itāll come back though, but I think really the only thing that Iāve actually slipped off track on then would be exercise because, well, blech.
So here are my new goals for the next week: