As someone who travels and then stands in front of people for a living, this whole Corona Virus thing has presented a bit of an obstacle. I had the busiest two and a half month run ever get postponed, cancelled, or taken online. Amazingly, I have been pretty darn okay with it.
Yeah, I miss the income (a lot), but had good enough early months to easily keep the ship upright. So, in addition to fulfilling some of my obligations in Adobe Connect and ZOOM, I’ve been working on some other projects. The biggest one (in more ways than one) is me.
If we were being completely true, Transformation Day might have been about twenty days ago.
Or it might have been Tuesday. Anyway, Since the outset of the pandemic, I have eliminated red meat and chicken from the home menu. In the last ten days I have gotten much tougher on the cheese and sugar stuff. A week and a half ago, I decided that between now and my birthday (Nov 6), I will undergo a complete physical/health transformation.
This decision has been stalled for some time. But a meeting of various forces interconnected in the universe brought it to the forefront yesterday. I blame three people: My wife Linda, Rich Roll, and Scott Jurek, Andy Puddicombe. My wife has been 99% plant based for way over two years (occasionally having the cheese cheat). Her hounding and semi-preaching may have paid off. Roll and Jurek just happened to show up yesterday at the right time (and maybe I blame Lindsey Hein’s Friday podcast with Jurek too). Andy Puddicombe, creator of the HeadspaceApp, is my meditation guru and if you know nothing of his history; a very interesting man.
So, back to Tuesday. Tuesday evening, after a long week of weird back pain, the real pain hit. And it hit hard. It took me all of five minutes to remember 28 years ago…… kidney stone. It was a ROUGH night. The next day was greeted with LOTS of water and a mild WebMD recommended pain reliever. The pain was a hair stubborn for a few days, but in the end subsided through daily drowning. I guess THAT was the thing that really put me over the edge. My dehydrated, junked out, sugared up body needed an intervention.
So without lingering around the negatives, here’s what happening:
1. I will, of course, continue Running, Jogging, Walking. After the last few weeks, I’m easily at 45-50 miles a week and will hover on either side of that fuzzy line for awhile. A bright thing that has been a result of the last five weeks of mileage has been a nice drop in my resting heart rate. I track my resting heart rate when I am training. It is a moderately easy way to gauge recovery. In my young, fit, skinnier days, I’d sit around 42 ish most of the time. Lately, a well rested night was a 52 or 53. It has slowly been coming down to where my first sub 50 reading was a week ago, and a few days ago we hit 47.
2. Weight. It’s GOT to come off and so far is. Three weeks ago, I was at a robust 240.6. Usually in my twilight years, I’ve ranged between 220-35. The highest I have ever been was 245 SO…… too close for comfort. Last week 235.8, today 227.6. The goal, if I were being honest, is 169 by my 69th birthday (seems like an easy matching). That picture up top is from 2000. I was roughly 175 then. It hangs on the fridge
3. Weights (plural). Yeah strength training and some hip flexor work (found a great routine on youtube by NAU coach Mike Smith).
4. Water. Half my body weight in ounces. Easy, making the habit happen just have to learn when as constantly having to pee can hinder a nice run.
5. Plant Based Diet. I’m not committing to anything really other than staying away from meat, dairy, sugar (processed), soda, and general bad things. I don’t plan on giving it a label as to not upset any carnivorous friends and relatives. But I have to say, I have become a bit of a plant based recipe inventor. The five day juicing is coming as well, maybe this next week.
6. Supplements. While plants can reverse all kinds of ailments, I’m giving my knee extra help with Glucosamine. The rest of me is adding B12, C, Zinc, and D something that I don’t remember right now.
7. Meditation and What?????. I’ve dabbled in the Headspace app for over a year, but have really found myself getting into a nice groove the last week. I’m finding some nice tips for better focus and it’s been really helping in my world of ZOOM classes. And WHAT? Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube. FINALLY found a nice beginning yoga routine that should really help physically AND mentally. My goal is to do the Crow pose by my birthday.
All in all, I may do all of this and be hit by a bus on Nov 7. No problem. I’ll be a gorgeous corpse……