The Descent to Mortality

I've been coming to grips with my own mortality ... no, I'm not dying ... other than the natural process ... just realizing that I'm mortal.  It's been happening for a while ... aches and pains in the morning that I didn't have the night before, getting up to pee in the middle of the night, alternating from glasses-on to glasses-off to see things at different distances ... you know -- stuff old people complain about.

My final descent into mortality took place yesterday .  I've been pretty computer savvy for a number of years ... worked in the IT field for about 12 years, did some consulting, and have been the on-call tech support for friends, family, and the fire department.  But I've noticed recently that technology keeps getting a little further ahead of me each day.  People ask me questions about their computers and I have shrug my shoulders and go, "Hmm ... I don't know."  Anyway, we've been looking for a new computer for the tech booth at church.  I've searched website after website trying to find the right one.  Finally, yesterday, I did what I swore I'd never do ... I walked into Best Buy and bought one off the shelf.  I even asked for help.  I felt humbled when I walked out of that store ... a little more like your average human being. 

As I said, that was my final descent ... a couple of other things that have pulled me down to earth ...
3. Video games -- I grew up with Atari and Intellivision ... I really thought I'd be one of those cool dads who would keep up and could whoop their kids in video games.  Alas, the descent started.
2. Wrestling, sparring, etc with my boys -- let's face it, they're faster, more limber, and in better shape than I am.  I can't keep up.  I'm not super-human ... dangit!  The descent accelerated.
1.  The aforementioned trip to Best Buy -- SMACK! Descent complete.

For those of you old enough to recognize you're not "all that" anymore ... what were the three points on your descent to mortality?

On the bright side, there's still some life left in me and I plan on doing my best to suck the marrow out of it.  So here's my progress this week ...

Decent week of working out.  If I can workout at least four hours a week I think I'll be alright.

This is the best part ...

3.5 pounds, baby!  I know I can't do that every week, but it's sweet when it happens.  3 more to meet my goal of being under 200 before my triathlon in June ... 22 more to hit my goal for this year.

I'll leave you with some words from wise King Solomon ...
"It is a gift from God to be able to eat and drink and experience the good that comes from every kind of hard work." ~ Ecclesiastes 3:13

Blessings!

A mere mortal

The "D" word

A man once said, “Discipline is remembering what you want.”  I kind of agree with him, though I think I would change it to "Discipline is working for what you want."  I'm very capable of remembering without doing.  It's discipline that makes me get my butt up off the couch to do.

It's been a while since I've really demonstrated much discipline in my life outside of family, job, and church.  Those are kind of like automatics for me ... like breathing or blinking ... you just do them because it's part of your life.  But developing discipline in other areas is a whole nuther deal.  You see, I'm not a disciplined cyclist ... I'm a convenient cyclist.  I'm not a disciplined triathlete ... I'm a convenient triathlete.  

So I've been working on being more disciplined and here's what I've found ... I don't like it.  I like the results, but I don't like having to set boundaries or work too hard to achieve my goals.  I want it to come easy.  I want to lose weight without having to watch what or how much I eat.  I want to be faster without doing the drills that help make me faster.  I want to be well read and current without having to read.  There ... that's the ugly truth about me.

I think this whole discipline issue bleeds over to other areas of our lives ... both the lack of it and the cultivation of it.  So recently I have become more disciplined with my exercise, more disciplined with watching what I eat, and more disciplined with my spending.  That's not to say that I've mastered it, just working on it.  I'm hoping that those things will rub off to other areas like reading, time management, and putting stuff where it goes.  I'm working on the theory that discipline begets discipline.


What about you?  In what three areas do you need to develop more discipline?

I was more disciplined about working out this week ...

dailymile's use of awesome is probably closer to accurate this week.  I had to get up and do when I would rather stay down and don't, but it was worth it.  Eight workouts and over 4400 calories burned.  I need more weeks like that.


It paid off on the scales as well ...

Two pounds down!  MyFitnessPal.com has really helped out.  It has caused me to be more accountable about what and how much I eat.  Plus it has motivated me to workout more ... nothing like a one-hour bike ride to "buy" a thousand more calories of food.  Granted, it has only been one week but I like the added discipline it has given me concerning my diet.


I'll leave you with this from a guy named Paul ...
"Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come."


I'm just trying to stay healthy as long as possible so I can help others see the benefits in this life and in the life to come.  


Be disciplined,


bb

"But muscle weighs more than fat"

I'll jump straight to it this week ...

5 workouts ... 3823 calories burned ... great week ... maybe even approaching awesome, right?

Check out the scales ...

That's right ... I gained a pound!

Wait ... before you say, "That's okay, muscle weighs more than fat", just know that I will hunt you down and find some way to hurt you.  A pound is a pound whether it's fat, muscle, rocks, or feathers.  Granted, muscle is leaner than fat, but I'm trying to lose pounds here.  Less pounds means faster times ... or at least that's my theory (I think I might actually be right on this one).

Theories concerning my inability to lose weight abound ... all the way from eating too much to not eating enough.  So I've decided to start tracking my calories, fat, and carbs in relation to my exercise.  I have friends and family with that cool Lose It! app on their iPhones/iPods but I don't have one those (though I am weakening).  I've tried writing it down in a notebook and then using all of my fingers and toes to do my gazintas (thank you Jethro Bodine) but I tire of that after about two meals.  But last night I found MyFitnessPal.com. 

MyFitnessPal allows me to enter all of my exercise and food, how much I want to lose and by what date, and then it calculates how many calories I have "to spend" that day ... I went over yesterday ... way over.  I'm more on track today.  But now I've found another website that I will probably spend too much time on ... figgerin' and cipherin' and all that stuff.  I already spend enough time on BeginnerTriathlete.com and dailymile.com logging my workouts.  "Then drop one," you say, but they both have features I like that the other one doesn't have.  If that's all I have to worry about in life then life ain't too bad.  And let's not even get started about how much time I may or may not spend on Facebook ...

So what about you?  What three websites do you spend the most time on?  What did we do before the internet? 

Eight weeks until my first triathlon of the season ... let's see if I can lose 8 pounds off my frame and 8 minutes off of my time.

Just lose it!

Mr. Chunky

Band dad

I've been a dance dad, a football dad, a tumbling dad, a cycling dad ... now I'm adding band dad to my list.  Not marching band, but garage band with guitars, amps, etc.  We're headed to Chickasha, America tonight for Dylan's band, Agora, to play a show at the Oddfellows Music Hall.  It's a quaint little hole-in-the-wall venue with a split stage that holds about 50 people.  Nice, clean place for a young band to get a start.  They've played there once before but didn't have their drummer.  This will be the first time with the full band ... I'm looking forward to it.

They've had trouble coming up with a name.  They started out as Meet the Blinding ... not bad, but people had trouble remembering it.  Then they switched to Sheridan only to find out about a week later that there's already an up-and-coming band by that name.  For now they've settled on Agora ... a Greek word for "open place of assembly."

I was trying to get them to go with Johnny Olympic and the Thundercats or Mr. Lincolnflash but they didn't heed my advice.  Personally I think they're going to regret it ... those are great band names destined for big things.  One time I came up with The Blacktop Jelly Beans, but that didn't go anywhere either.  Maybe I should start my own band, but the only thing I can play is the cowbell.

What about you?  Ever come up with some crazy band names that never left the garage or the recesses of your mind?  Ever come up with three crazy band names?  Can you make up three right now?

Another weak week of working out.  !!! Excuse alert !!!  Easter week is always busy for me ... probably one of my top three busiest weeks of the year.  So I only managed to workout once and it was a fairly easy swim.

I still think Dailymile.com doesn't understand the meaning of the word awesome. 

I didn't gain any ground on the weight loss, but I didn't lose any ground either.

This week is already off to a better start in the workout department so hopefully next week's scale report will be better.

Until then ... rock on!

Mr. Lincolnflash