Archive for December, 2007

How Good to Feel Good

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

Well, ok, I’m still not better. Even as I sit here my throat is still a bit sore, and I’m still a bit stuffy. But for a brief glimpse this morning, as I woke up when my alarm went off, I actually felt ok. I woke up and I though “WOW! I can breath! And it’s gonna be such a great day!”. I think over the next couple of days as I continue to get better, I’m going to use this opportunity to break out of the go-back-to-sleep-when-the-alarm-goes-off thing I’ve been in lately, and maybe I can actually get into a habit of getting up as I should. Its not like I set my alarm at night and say - well I think I’ll set it for 6:30 because I want to wake up a lot between 6:30 and 7:30, then I’ll get up and hurry so that I can make it where I need to go…. We will see how it goes!

The Value of Encouragement

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

After running last night, and the effects that it caused (coughing for hours…) I decided today that I wasn’t going to go running. I decided that I would do some pushups or situps for my exercising today. Besides, my lungs and legs need a chance to get back in shape. Well time went by, and as it got later, I had less and less desire to do anything. I only had about 3 1/2 hours of sleep last night, so I really wanted to just go to bed. I was just laying down and my wife said to me “Come on, lets go do 20 pushups and 20 situps right now!” I was like - NO! I’m going to bed… She kept persisting though, and was able to get me to do my 20 situps, and 19 pushups (and I had to do them in two sets 10 then 9…) however I do feel like I actually exercised. Sometimes its good to have a friend to help keep you motivated when you begin to lose sight of your goal! Thanks Babe!

I am out of shape!

Monday, December 10th, 2007

Well… It’s official… I am in the WORST shape of my life… I just turned 25, and I can’t even run a mile… The worst part about this, and probably the hardest part of me getting back into shape is that in High School I ran cross country (sometimes 14 miles for practice in about 2 hours) and I swam. Both of which are really good for you but when you do them in your prime it’s hard to get back to. Usually, when I would finally get the urge up to go running, I would run like 3 or 4 miles and then be dead the next day, which would not make me want to go again. This time, and it is probably affected by the cold weather and my cold, I felt like I was going to die before I could make the half mile loop twice, and I took a shorter route home, coming down 8th instead of going all the way to 7th… I feel lousy because I can’t stop coughing, but I HAVE to keep up with this…

Exercise Calendar

Saturday, December 8th, 2007

Ok. I’ve been saying for weeks now that I’m going to start exercising. I just haven’t been able to get myself to do it… It has actually been really easy to put it off with school, work, and then getting sick. We have a trip in a week and a half, and I kept telling myself that it would just be too much to try to exercise over the holiday when I wasn’t here. I’d start in the new year when we got back…
This morning however I was reading a post on Get Fit Slowly where J.D. was talking about how he was going to start exercising today and stop putting it off until January. I posted a comment on his page because I realized that now is just as good a time as any to start.
Now I’m not saying that I’m fat. I’m just getting there. Nearly a year and a half ago I got married. At that time I weighed somewhere between 155 and 160. Now I weigh 175… I wouldn’t have a problem weighing 175 if I felt like I was in shape, but I have a little bit of a belly, my pants are getting too tight, and I get very out of breath when I climb 3 flights of stairs to get to one of my classes. I DON’T LIKE FEELING LIKE THIS!
So, I am going to make a difference in my exercise habits. That shouldn’t be too hard as I don’t really have any now. Over the summer I read a post on Lifehacker about how you need to keep track of when you meet your goals when you are trying to start a new habit in life. So I setup an exercise calendar where I can check off each day that I exercise. You can view the calendar here.
Sundays will be my planned day off, and I’ll still check that one off so that my chain can continue. Well I guess thus far I haven’t reported that I did actually go run tonight. It was only a short 5 min. run, but it was in the snow, and I have a cold. Besides, one of the problems I have faced in the past is that I over do it the one or two times I exercise, and I lose intereset because I can’t walk the next day. I’ll start small this time though, so I ran around a large block. From here to 7th, 7th to 7th, and back here. Google estimates the distance to about 0.6 miles. I’ll say I ran about a half mile - just for easiness sake. The snow was slippery on the ground, so I did have to step carefully, however it still took me 5 min. to make that loop… I decided to keep that up. I will run the loop twice on Monday (as long as I’m not still suffering from this cold - although I will run at least once around it.) This way I can slowly increase my distance, and keep track of my times. I’m going to keep this information in a spreadsheet, and I’ll update on here every once in a while. I’ll get comments up here sometime, but if anyone has anything they would like to add to this message, feel free to send me a message and I’ll add it in - You can do so through the contact page - either send me an email, or just fill out the page. Hey, maybe you’ll get me to add in the functionality :) Have a great night!

Launchy - Zune 2 Skin

Friday, December 7th, 2007

Have you ever had trouble finding a program in your start menu? Well I have lots… OpenOffice.org Writer has always been the worst - It’s just never where I think it will be. Previously I have seen a whole lot of people who claimed that Launchy was a program they just couldn’t live without, and that it helps you to find and open programs more quickly. The other night I finally decided that it was time to download it and give it a try.

I AM A FAN!

It is so much help! I liked it so much I looked at skins that I could apply (found here. I couldn’t find one I really liked. I’m running the Zune Desktop theme (found here. if you want some screen shots just google “XP zune theme” on google images) There is a Zune theme for Launchy, however I wasn’t impressed. I liked the default theme, so I changed it so that it matches the Zune Desktop theme.
Here are some screenshots:

Anyway, the file can be downloaded here.

Give Launchy a try and if you like my theme let me know!

Edit: They have come out with a new version of Launchy that doesn’t work with the skin…