August 4, 2008: Time Out!

I took a time out today from the gym. My shoulder was really hurting me this morning when I woke up, and my quads are feeling tired. So I decided to skip a day. So if I hit the gym 7 out of 8 days, it is pretty good track record. In fact, I even took a time out from softball today. I decided that I just needed a day of rest and hopefully tomorrow I will be back up and ready to go.

I watched The Good Shepherd on HBO this afternoon. It is a long movie, and sad too. I won't get into it in case you want to see it, but I got fixated on the whole family aspect of the film. I felt that it earned 3.5 out of 5 stars.



Tomorrow Evan's bed will be delivered, again. This time we will keep it. In fact, I think I will sign for it to be out of the box and then still have the delivery men take it upstairs and assemble it.

August 2, 2008: 6, and Counting!

Today makes 6 straight days! I am serious about this, I am going to lose this weight. I will continue to push myself, but I will do it. I have to remember to be patient. It took me many years to gain all this weight, so I can't expect to lose it over night. It will probably take years to shed it too. But that is a good thing, by that time, I will have crossed from the need/want to exercise and eating right stage to the habit of exercising and eating right. And once it becomes a habit, I will have changed my lifestyle, and hopefully it will stay that way. When I woke up this morning I thought I may have jinxed myself in yesterday's post. That is, I said how my work out routine put me on the edge of sore, yet this morning my muscles were feeling a little fatigued. Fortunately, once I got out of bed and ate breakfast, I felt much better. Apparently, it is not a good idea to exercise so intensely that late and go to sleep because I woke up famished! I felt that I NEEDED to eat first thing (and I did - a bagel and cream cheese).

Evan had his second soccer practice today. He enjoys soccer, he gets to run around and kick a ball some. It is good for him to get out and exercise too. I am not sure his team this year will have as much success as last year's team (undefeated) but regardless, I am sure he will have fun. His first game will be against Chris' team. It should be fun.

Today I received my information for the start of school: parking tag and agenda for the first week. I am looking forward to the year starting, yet, c'mon, let's be serious, who really wants to go back to work? All new textbooks this year will pose a bit of a challenge, but if the deal proposed to me goes through, I will not have more than one average class per semester. Now that is a pretty good deal! Sure, it will mean more work in prep, but will mean less struggle with each student. I am looking forward to that. I have already set up a separate blog and netvibes page specifically for the AP Economics class. Hopefully the students will notice it and participate some before the semester begins, it would be nice to get an advance idea of how these students will be thinking, kind of a "heads up" on what each student is capable of. But I still have to wait and see until someone actually reads and posts comments.

Tomorrow we are planning on seeing the latest installment of The Mummy, it is called Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. It is not getting great reviews, but I am sure the effects will be cool. We'll see.

August 1, 2008: 5 in a Row!

Five for Five this week... Monday - Friday, I hit the gym every day this week and I am teetering on the edge of sore, but making it. The workout the trainer gave me seems to be just right. It pushes me to be as the edge of my anaerobic threshold this way I do not burn all sugar and create a lactic acid build up in my muscles (it is the lactic acid that makes the muscle feel sore). The big question is do I try and go tomorrow or do I take a day off? My present goal, in addition to building lean muscle mass to more efficiently burn calories, especially from the stored fat, is to strengthen the muscles around my right shoulder. I continue to suffer from a football injury. Not that I played football, no, but when I coached, I really messed up the shoulder. As wide receivers coach, I had to throw between 100 and 200 passes each day. My arm was not up to the task. I am sure that if a doctor did an MRI on the shoulder I would see some ligament damage. It really only hurts when I play softball. This week from the out field I was having a difficult time throwing the ball to the infield, so I have to get the muscles there stronger. I am not going to let the pain stop me. As we get older we just have to exercise smarter.