Poor Use of Physical Education

You never know what conversation will come up when you are with family. For some reason we mentioned the Presidential Fitness Awards from elementary school, possibly from watching my nephew shoving his feet into his mouth.

For those of you who didn’t have a school participating in this program let me give you a run down. Every spring and fall everyone in school was tested in a variety of activities that supposedly demonstrated your fitness in particular areas. There were tests for pull-ups, sit-ups (curl ups now), spiriting, flexibility, and the mile run. If you did all of them at or above the supposed fit level you got a certificate saying so. There was also  National Fitness Awards which were a little bit easier to get.

No one in my family ever got one. My eldest brother was the most athletic of us all and he could never get past the flexibility test for even the National Award. The test was called the v-sit reach and involved sitting on the floor with you feet against a template about a foot and a half apart (probably two feet for an adult) and you had to reach past you feet. National needed only one or two inches but no one in my family could get past their feet.

These tests were the most hated part of the year for just about everyone. Even the kids that could do it didn’t particularly enjoy it. Sure, they got everyone congratulating them on a good job but there were al lot of more fun things that we could be spending time doing.

What really strikes me now as I attempt to better my physical fitness is how poorly they tried to prepare us for the test. It wasn’t like they tested you in the fall and tried to better your scores over the year so that you did better during the spring test. Particularly as you got older you just did the test occasionally and that was that, I mean we continued doing it as we got into middle and high school, only noticeable because one and a while you would be forced to run a mile out of the blue, the only warning coming in winter when they would tell you to remember your sweatshirt the next day.

How hard would it have been to encourage us to actually attempt to exercise in between times? They did send us workout sheet occasionally so we would work out at home, but they never connected it to a reward, never attempted to make it a friendly competition. Maybe it was people scared to upset the children, but I think that they might have gotten me to play along if they had pointed out that I could get a better fitness score.

Maybe this is why we are such an obese nation, instead of trying to make us physically fit they had us play basketball endlessly.

-X

Perfect Health

Everyone wants perfect health, right? I've been "trying" to lose weight  for over a year now with little success. I think I'm doing better in California, but I don't actually have a scale here. Every day I'm stretching. I started during the trip and I can attest that it helped prevent cramps while driving. The muscles in my right leg still hurt for a couple days after but I was driving a lot that week.

You know, I'm trying to write something, so that this blog doesn't get tossed to the wayside, but I don't seem to have anything to say.

I'm happy right now. I can't actually remember being more happy in a long time. The only downer I have is that I don't have the money to do and see some of the attractions here. Of course just being here and seeing what there is too see is enough to tide me over for the time being. The only thing I'm really lacking is someone to talk to.

Hopefully that will change soon.
-X
Regal Entertainment Group Gift Card

Food tastes good

I'm trying to eat better. I haven't been succeeding that much on the weight loss side of things so I was just trying to learn to eat right.

Some things are surprising me. For example, most fruits don't taste nearly as strong as I've been lead to believe. I've so used to candies that are fruit flavored that I had a idea of what some fruits tasted like. Sure candy isn't the best place to learn favors from, but there is that or actually eating the fruit and if I had tried to eat fruit I would have felt under pressure to like it not matter what it was.

As a kid I didn't feel like was allowed much of a choice in what I ate. I am technically a picky eater, but that was because if I tried to eat something my mother made it was a direct insult to her if I didn't like it. And I am sure that I will never like casserole or meatloaf, or anything drenched in tomato sauce, or really any other sauce for that matter.

But getting back to the fruit. It opens up a great number of things for me to eat now that I, well, don't give a crap about what other people thing about my eating habits. 

New difficulty has arisen though. My mother likes to cook dinner. Now if it was just me, I could have control over what I ate. I could have something small if I had a large lunch, or just fill in with snacks, such as some popcorn and fruit, or maybe a sandwich. Instead I have to eat whatever my mother decides to make which is always very complex. We can't just have meat, it has to be prepared a certain way, we can't have leg of lamb, crappy tiny lamb chops are fancier. Now, whenever we have chicken she has to chop out the back to that it lies flat on the pan. The other day she complained about top round of beef, saying that they were too "chewy". 

Really? We can't get the "good" cuts because their too expensive, but the "bad" cuts that we have been buying for the last fifteen years are suddenly too "chewy"? Luckily we've been getting around that with sirloin roasts. They are amazing. Cheap, and they taste really good. He had a sirloin steak the other day - it could have converted a vegan.

So that's my story for this week. Not that I did very well today... too many cheese sticks...

-X

That's kind of depressing

I am exercising right now. I believe in breaks in between sets. Long breaks, or at least long enough to let my muscle stop bitching. Anyway I set up my computer to tell me what I needed to do today and started with my sit ups and it was stupid hard. I knew I was behind, but this was too hard. So I check the date for my last time - Friday - that means I completely skipped a workout without a thought. Which means today is going to really hurt.

I don't know what it is about two days that makes it the perfect amount of time to wait for your muscles to get better, or why waiting any time over that makes you want to kill yourself. It just does.

What's really bugging me is that I thought I was still on track because I was still sore from the last round, which was a repeat because I had difficultly on the previous round. I really meant to stretch yesterday but now it is too late. This program seems to have a severe difficulty curve. My body us having trouble adjusting to the change in demands. I still shake with the first sit ups, they steady after I warm up, but everyone is extremely difficult. Wasn't it suppose to get easier as you went on?

Last night, I was looking up how to massage myself. I was hoping for suggestions like directional motions, or tips for certain muscles, but all I could find were several very obvious "how to" articles. They literally said things like, "oil hands and rub body". That is not useful. Clearly it's a conspiracy from the masseur union.

Well, I lived through it. Pray for my muscles.
-X

Writing and Exercises

I haven't been posting in week or so because I've suddenly been back logged. It's really weird how it happens, but it seems like time just escapes from your grasp.

I suddenly realized that the first deadline for applications was coming up on Monday and I needed to get the recommendation letters for it and once I had confirmation of them I needed to send in the application itself. That was fun.

As I mentioned before I started to do the two hundred sit ups again and I'm keeping up by giving myself two days of rest instead of one for the first week. Tonight more exercising. I also started playing with free weights. I used one of my physical therapy exercises as an excuse to buy a 5 lb free weight and I started using it to rebuild my arm muscles. I do the same exercises with my left arm as a sort of constant, and my right arm is just really bad and I hope to have improvement when I do it today.

I hope that it is because of that that I haven't reached my goal of 200 lb by the end of February. I started to make some progress, then fell back. I was overeating again too. I do consider maintaining weight a positive note during this. How bad would I be if I wasn't paying attention? Anyway, I have notice a shift in my fat, the muscle aches are lessening, and my pants are fitting better.

Lastly my writing has been going great. I'm still behind, but I have a plan to catch up and have been having great story ideas. Reading Percy Jackson and the Dresden Files most likely helped.

Just a short update because I haven't been around.
-X

Exercise always hurts

I finally lay back down and did some sit-ups again. This was the first time since, September, I think. I wasn't posting about that much here so I don't know when it was.

Bring you all up to speed: I was trying to take the One Hundred Push Ups Challenge, along with the Two Hundred Sit ups, and Two Hundred Squats because if you can do that, you mus be healthy. I actually did fairly well for awhile. I was doing more push ups than ever and I started off with a shocking number of squats (almost too many for the first third of the challenge). I was having trouble staying on schedule since I don't tell any one what I'm trying to do but I was making progress. Slower than I was suppose to, but progress. I got to the two week mark at which point you're suppose to see how many you can do in a row without stopping to chose the difficultly level for the next two weeks. I had already been having new problems with my wrist which finally failed and couldn't hold my weight. So I stopped all three challenges for some reason.

Anyway, today I decided to start the sit ups again since I have been prepping my abs with isometric exercises and I don't think it's helping anymore. Now as far as I can tell, I didn't even post about my first time on here so here that goes.

I hadn't done any exercise in ages not counting the week before when I started the push ups. So I was not expecting to do very well on the start up test. Difficulty two, I wasn't doing "sit ups", I was going to be doing "curl ups", because sit ups can mess up your back. So I start to do these things after looking all over the internet trying to figure how a curl up is done. Basically, you start doing a sit up, but stop just as you get your back off the ground (35 degrees). In other words, you need to do the hard part, if the up starts getting easy you went too far. Now, me being use to doing full sit ups has trouble with this. It doesn't seem that hard, so I start doing a bunch trying to make sure that I was doing it right. Problem - I've now done a bunch right, a bunch too far, and a bunch not far enough, but they all add up. I fall back and every single muscle in my torso - my abdominal muscles all the way to my groin (you forgot they go down that far didn't you?), my pectoral muscles - all froze up. I've had some terrible charley horses in my legs before, I've accidentally allowed all of the blood to drain from my right arm, but this hurt worst. When it happens to a leg you straighten it out to the resting position, the resting position for your chest and abs it standing up and I couldn't use my abs to stand up. Oh, and your lungs move your chest when you breath. I did get up, using a secret technique taught in acting classes.

As you can guess, I survived. Today I did twenty-six sit ups before I decided I was done. I actually was able to pull my laptop over before my body decided, once again, that I over did it. Not anywhere as bad as last time, but they are still clenching a bit with me lying down right now, a good four hours later. I think it's more focused on my obliques this time, which would make sense with the isometric exercises. I was able to a practice round. The challenge trains you by having you do a set, then waiting a minute or so, then doing another set. I actually did enough that it wants me to do fifteen sit ups, rest then do another 10-15 five more times, and I thought it was crazy but I was able to do it.

So I'm at it again! And this time I have it on my calender.
-X

How time flies and how ice melts

I've not really been doing anything the last week or so. Snow is deary, even when melting. At least I can leave my house if I have the urge, which has been more often then not recently. I actually was woken up by the cigarette smoke that billowed into my bedroom. I had to go out to restock my turkey supplies and when I returned it was like a punch in the face.

It didn't help that I also have a headache do to the current cold front, not eating until 1:00 pm, secondhand smoke and drinking less caffeine. I'm only guessing on the caffeine thing because I've been nauseous too. In other words today has not been a great day on the health side. Except for the not eating too much, I actually did okay on that, but exercise was out of the question. Body is willing, head is not.

I did last week bake some white bread. One recipe makes two loaves and I ate one almost all by myself. At the same time I started a sourdough bread, For those of you not in the know, sourdough gets to sit on your kitchen counter for a week while it spoils gets sour. Last time I did it I waited the minimum time and it barely had any taste to it. It's actually really hard to find a sourdough that tastes right. I had one last summer that was gotten from a New York bakery which was actually too sour, at least how we were using it as a dinner bread. It may have worked as sandwich bread since the sour would have been evened out by the meat and condiments.

I have caught up a little bit on my writing. I added a couple new characters and I feel like they will all meet up at some point, I'm just not sure how. Part of the inspirational for one of the new characters was seeing the movie Wolfman, not that I really liked the movie enough to even write an entire post about it, but I had the idea to have a werewolf character. That added into me actually buying the Pathfinder RPG rulebook and seeing that they have proper werewolves in it. By proper I mean that the people turn into wolves, not giant wolfs, not half-man wolves, not anthropomorphic wolves, just normal - if on the larger end of the possible size - wolves. So the character doesn't turn into a monster every full moon, he turns into a wild animal. More interesting, but doesn't make for a good movie.

I'm pausing in my writing today as I try to figure out how I'm going to treat the character. Currently everyone in the town knows he's a werewolf, so I'm toying with the idea that they are pretending to be his friend so that they can kill him on the full moon. I'll say that werewolf hide makes for excellent armor and that the bones cure disease or something. I'm just remembering that I bought an encyclopedia on mythology that I really should pull out right now, if I can remember where I put it. Sometimes writing out your ideas can be very helpful.

Well I meant to hit post about two hours ago.
-X

Novel writing sucks

So one would think that being stuck in a house for a week with multiple feet of snow would make you want to write many blog entries, draw many pictures, and write many words. Yeah, no.

Being stuck inside makes me want to do just about anything else. I've said before that I don't like working on things when people can look over my shoulder so I'm not comfortable writing or drawing in the main areas of the house. Also most of the communal areas are only set up slightly better than my bedroom.

Only table is the kitchen table and my father has been working from his home office this week for obvious reasons. This is bad for two reasons, one, I feel like some one is watching what I'm doing all the time, even if it isn't active watching he has a general idea of when I woke up (about eight hours after I fell asleep). Two, all of his smoke stays in the house and because it's "cold" he doesn't open the window. On Monday night I had to open my window for a few minutes so that I could breathe. I don't consider this very cold, I think of it as refreshing.

Once again I reiterate, I need to move out of here. My doctor agrees. Anyway, back to my point.

I was doing pretty good on my little writing project. My due date is the end of March so that I can start the next day on Script Frenzy and I was only about a day behind. Emphasis on "was". I haven't been able to write. As I wrote the last couple of chapters I was getting to the end of what I really had planned out in my mind and having four supposedly major characters was becoming burdensome. The dialog I wrote for some of the characters was interchangeable and the conversation with the NPC (non-player character for those not in the know) was dull. Not to mention the NPC was really more likely to kill them and take their stuff instead of talking. I'm having too many cases of real world/fantasy world overlap, something I prefer to the way Narnia was done wherein the kids just accept the stupid nonsense that is going on. Mostly though I don't know what to do with three out of four characters. The last one is by himself and has all kinds of things to do, the others got to town and literally heard an old man say that the missing one is the chosen one. It's kind of like what a lot of NaNoers say about their stories going off in directions they never expected. My story informed me that I have three extra characters who need to return to the real world and forget about their cousin. Now even though this is not a NaNo project I'm still using their rules for story aspects I don't like - I can't delete the words. Perhaps as the story progresses I'll realized that I can use those extras, but until then that section of the novel will just sit and make me slightly closer to my goal.

Now to write several hundred words.
-X

Blogs blogs and more blogs!

I've become a bit addicted to blogs. Political blogs, design blogs, humor blogs. I just have to share some of these as most of them I learned of by reading other blogs.

HUMOR
The Bloggess - I only discovered this one a couple of days ago, but it literally makes me laugh out loud and it really isn't that often that I can say that about a website. In person it happens all the time.

The Dilbert Scott Adams Blog - rarely has anything to do with Dilbert, but it was named that because Scott Adams' claim to fame is drawing Dilbert, which is why they changed the name when they moved it. Anyway Scott sometimes has humorous stories and terribly flawed plans for a utopian society. Just remember that if he pissed you off you fell into his trap.

POLITICS
Warning! I'm a moderate conservative! These blogs are probably going to lean that direction.
Legal Insurrection - do you know how hard it is to find someone you agree with on most political issues? That's why I like reading Prof. Jacobson's blog. And of course that ego boost of being on the same side of a discussion with a Cornell law professor.
Hill Buzz - Four gay guys in Chicago who proclaim they are "hot for Hillary" (even when it stopped being cool) and dislike Obama (before it was cool). They now proudly look at candidates for office not based on the letter next to their names but by their actions as elected officials and as human beings.


DESIGN
Young House Love - a young couple (soon to be plus one), their chihuahua and their house. Starting as blogging a kitchen renovation they grew a large following and are sort of untrained experts in home improvements. Is that an oxymoron? I happen to be an interior design buff without a house to interior design so I have to get my fix vicariously
Volpin Props - This guys makes props from video games and such. Not those crappy ones though, really awesome ones. It's just cool, though he doesn't update often.

HEALTH
Calorie-Count Blog - the only thing I really try to read every week are the Success Stories, but the other articles are good sources of information. Just avoid the comments - a lot of "fat" sounding people.

Hope you enjoy
-X

Damn those dirty rules

So today I had my first physical therapy appointment. I received instructions on exercises and was actually given rules for the wrist brace. Specifically I have to wear it all the time. I assume they don't mean while sleeping (ain't happening), eating (don't want to clean it), or anytime that is inconvenient to me (just about any time).

I knew I wasn't wearing it as much as I should but it is really annoying to be unable to use your wrist and if you can't use your wrist you use your arm instead which is why my shoulder now hurts. We will see how this continues. It will be interesting to see if I can draw with my hand in a brace. It might actually help me - you are supposed to use more of an arm motion then a wrist motion, anyway we just learn bad habits as kids thinking that drawing is the same as writing.

I guess I should also mention that I'm coming up to both my one hundredth post and my one year anniversary of blogging. I considered trying to match the two events up, but I highly doubt that I can go for a month and a half and only post eight times.

So, are you going to get me a present?
-X

Take that Day seven thousand seven hundred eighty four!

Another day gone and done with. And what a fun and exciting day. I actually went to the doctor for my wrist and was diagnosed with tendonitis. So I'm typing with a brace on, and my wrist hurt's even more because she moved to diagnose and she shot it full of cortisone.

I got to watch Scott Brown win the Massachusetts election.

I discovered a third internship type job to apply for and tomorrow I'm going to request several recommendation letter for them and hopefully write essays for them which I wisely chose not to do tonight (it's really hurting to type this).

I really wish I could write more, but I have a doctor's appointment early tomorrow and I should sleep if I actually want to wake up for it.
-X

The search for fiber

I have discovered that I do not eat enough fiber.

Okay, that was like the pot calling the kettle 'black'. I knew that I was not getting enough as I don't really eat fruit and rarely eat vegetables. I never thought of myself as being constipated, but well, apparently I have been.

Anyway, I decided to find some fiber-y foods that don't suck. My first plan was pyllium husk, which is a pill of fiber - that's really how I roll, but I guess it is only at health nut stores or possibly in powder that you add to water (which definitely ain't how I roll), and well I couldn't find it and didn't get it.

So then I was wandering around the pseudo-Super Walmart (it's being reconfigured and they don't have meat or produce yet) looking for things that I had heard were high in fiber. Most of the things I glanced at were fairly bad, 1g in most thing and in many even less.

Finally I get back home and check on CalorieCount.com and find that fruits will be my best bet. Of course I can't eat anything because I trying to lose weight and I know have to figure out how to add in a lot of fruit into my diet. Maybe the fiber will help clean me out.

On the healthy type movement note, I half raked the yard today. My father wants me to mow this week and I don't want to be pausing every five minutes to empty a bag of leaves. I really hate the number of leaves this house gets.

Now, to exercise or write?
-X

Positive outlook

So, now that that is out of the way.

Now that it has been said I can move on and go on to bigger better things. Today I'm declaring GOALS. Hopefully they will last longer than my other goals.

GOAL - Get to 215 lb by Halloween (just in time to regain it :P)
GOAL - Sell more on eBay, make a profit for the month of October
GOAL - Set up my online Portfolio
GOAL - Write one entire chapter of my story

Starting tomorrow I will not make anymore sweets (I have some in the oven right now). Tonight I'll add things to eBay and I'll try to design myself a logo.

I can do this! Yeah!
-X

About Me

Today is my twenty second birthday and I am currently on vacation at the beach. In honor of my birthday I am breaking some of my original statements about being anonymous.

My name is Alexander. In real life I go by Alex, but I can't stand to see "Alex" in print. I always sign my full name and it was just a coincidence that I started using "Xander" online. I'm quite use to it now and like it a lot better.

I am a white male, I'm about fifty pounds overweight, actively dieting, and 5'11". I'm a "picky" eater, but what I do like, I like the most expensive, gourmet brand possible. For the most part I live on turkey sandwiches (yes, there is an expensive gourmet brand of deli turkey).

I am a moderate conservative. I completely disagree with the Democrats agenda, and I won't associate with the "Grand Old Party", they are not "Grand" nor are they the "Old Party".

I have a slight New York accent, even though I only visited a couple times. I went to school in southwestern Virginia and became disgusted with the accent I was starting to get so I actively changed my accent. It really comes out when I argue with people.

I live on sarcasm. I don't mean at least half of the things I say literately. I also try to take thing to the next level of odd to see if it can become funnier. This has gotten me in trouble occasionally, I don't mind that much as I consider them to be idiots if they can't take a joke.

My favorite humor is schadenfreude. I actively laugh at others misery, but I've always hated when it happens to me.

I love metaphors, but once again people don't get them. Maybe if it was a movie they could rewatch they could but they never try in real life.

All of my grandparents are dead. Two died when I was very young, the others more recently. I truly wish I could have known the ones who died when I was little, I hear many great stories about them and even more so, how my remaining grandparents changed after their spouses passed away. My friends, whom I did not have many, would tell me that they were glad that their grandparents were not in as bad shape as mine were. I couldn't be upset when they died. It was a relief for me and for the entire family waiting for the time to come.

I do not know what happens after death, but I do not believe it could be worse than anything we endure during life and I refuse to fear it.

I dislike my body.

As I said before, I'm about fifty pounds overweight. I hate looking at myself in the mirror. As long as I don't I forget what I really look like. In my mind I'm some type of perfect weight where my clothes fit perfectly and I don't have to be self conscience. I haven't been that thin since I was twelve.

I will be a clothes horse once I loose my weight. I love clothes. I wish men were allow and/or expected to dress up more often, hell, I already look great when I dress up. That said, I will really be happy when I can wear horizontal stripes, which is possibly a year away for me right now.

Twenty-two years and counting
-X

A Good Day

Today I woke up at a reasonable time. I did not eat too much. I exercised. I left the house once. I baked cookies. I watched a decent movie (City of Ember) I had never seen before. I wrote about characters I created three years ago, expanded their personalities and histories and may, just may actually write a story involving them.

Bad news, my eBay listings that I put with free shipping all cost more in shipping than I earned in the first place, but now I am more comfortable in the process. Now I just need to start raiding my boxes for shit to sell.

Still no signs of employment, but for some reason my hopes are very high right now.
-X

Me and my beloved wrist

Image via Wikipedia

My wrist hurts again.

I really wish that I had health insurance and could go to a doctor to have it checked out, but no job, no doctor. This doesn't mean I want the current healthcare bill to pass, it won't go into effect for years and if I still don't have a job by then, well, I'll have bigger problems.

Since I'm talking about myself, I suppose I should mention that I haven't really lost any weight recently, but I starting to take it seriously again, so I hope to make progress over the next couple of weeks. Heading to the beach in a couple of weeks so I doubt dieting will be the main topic of interest then.

I'm surprisingly tired tonight, might possibly be sick. Weee!
-X

Pain and agony

Today, I haven't been very hungry. I couldn't finish my late brunch sandwich and I ate very little at dinner. Had a doughnut for dessert and realizing that I really hadn't eaten enough (for a 21 year old 221 lb man) I threw together a peanut butter sandwich.

Then I had to go to the bathroom. Badly.

I was thinking back to last week when I was in Michigan that I had a similar problem, but no reason why. I barely ate anything in Michigan, mostly because I did not have an opportunity. I thought maybe it was crappy food from the 24-hour dinner we kept eating at. Then I remembered those warning they put about dieting, particularly for vegetarians.

The warning are based off of the concept that people who do vegetarianism correctly feel a lot healthier, note that those who do it wrong feel like they want to die. Anyway, apparently if a vegetarian starts losing weight from when they were eating meat it makes them feel like they are eating meat again, which involves bathroom troubles as well as other various ills, such as headaches and nausea.

They also used similar reasoning on an episode of House M.D. where a young man got sick off of an over abundance of chemicals that had been stored in his body fat (vitamins A, D, E, and K can be stored in Fat, among other things) as the young man loss weight.

So I thought, was I not feeling good a couple months ago when I was last in the 220 pounds range? Oh right, that was when I bought and ate a tub of cookie dough a week before it was recalled out of an e-coli scare. I didn't care at the time because I cooked the dough and it was very much gone by then. I wondered if my upset stomach had anything to do with it but it was already mostly passed my by then.

What similar adventures will I discover as I attempt to lose weight I've had since I was fifteen?

-X

Related articles

• 100 things your kids will never know about, old man (inquisitr.com)
• Update on Recalled Nestlé Toll House Cookie Dough (fda.gov)

Losing Weight

I'm a bit over weight. I plan to lose weight. I've been planning to lose weight for three years. Now, I must admit that I haven't tried that hard over the years. This is the first time I've actively tried to eat less. I'm still working on the exercise thing, but the weather is getting nicer and I plan to start walking to class again.

My weight over the last couple of years has varied by about ten pounds, 210-220. What fascinates me that I can see the difference of weight in my face. I don't know if anyone else can, it does seem like the type of thing you only notice while shaving, but it makes me wonder what I would look like if I could successfully loose the other 30 pounds I'm trying for.

So hoping to learn that, I'm am single-handedly working on a large bowl of butter covered popcorn, which I believe is a better choice than having a real meal at this point. I really would like to loose another ten pounds before graduation, just because I believe it is possible, and it will make me feel warm and fuzzy.

There is no theme to my posts.

-X