Fitness Friday | 32x32 Challenge

Just a quick post to tell everyone that I'm giving myself a new fitness challenge leading up to my ::cough:: 32nd ::cough:: birthday. I blatantly stole this idea from a friend from college who rode a minimum of 31 miles per day on his bike for 31 days leading up to his 31st birthday. (So Chris if you happen to read this, thanks for the inspiration!) I'm not really much of a cyclist (I'm more of a leisurely beach cruiser), so instead I'm challenging myself to do a minimum of 32 minutes of physical activity every day for the 32 days leading up to my 32nd birthday. It will be a big upgrade from my usual 100 steps/day from the computer to the fridge to the toilet and back.

I'm doing this because I not only need to get in shape for our upcoming wedding, as I've blogged about before, but also I went skiing last week with my dad and it sort of kick-started that good feeling caused by physical activity...and I want to keep it going. Also, because rest days are necessary for muscle recovery (especially for me, knowing how my body loves to shut down on me) every 4th or 5th day I'm going to do 32 minutes of intense stretching and non-weightloss style yoga, just to give myself somewhat of a break.

So, today is day 1. As with any physical fitness challenge, day 1 is always the hardest for me. It starts with a great boost of motivation and excitement, followed by a huge downward crash caused by the physical exhaustion and pain of overdoing it on day 1. Which is what I'm experiencing now. For day 1 I did a workout DVD that I have done a few times before and I always forget how much it kicks my butt. Jillian Michaels: Yoga Meltdown. She kills me, but her abs motivate me to keep going. If you don't understand how a yoga DVD can make me pop ibuprofen like it's going out of style, I dare you to do it. This isn't your mom's namaste hippie shit. This is balancing using your whole body weight... with movement.

This video also happens to fit perfectly with the time minimum I'm shooting for in my 32x32 challenge. I did 34 minutes of intense exercise and according to my heart monitor I burned 225 calories. I'm still at the phase where I have to pause the video at least once to catch my breath for fear of passing out, but I make it through the whole thing and I will say it gets a little easier the more often you do it.

I probably won't post every workout on here, but I'm going to try to post about my workout everyday on Instagram, so you can follow along with me there (@JamieDorman324) if you wish to cheer me on! Hopefully being in somewhat better physical condition will take the edge off my rapidly advancing age on my next birthday haha...

[ j. ]

Monday Musings | Punxsutawney Phil

Just a quick wonderment for this morning...

Today is Groundhog Day, which, aside from being completely irrelevant to Southern California, always seems to confuse me. It's such an odd tradition in the first place, and I, admittedly, have never looked into the history of this ceremonial removal-of-a-rodent-from-a-hole-to-predict-the-weather. But blind acceptance of the tradition in mind, I still can't get past the logic with the shadow/winter correlation.

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today, which means there will be six more weeks of winter. If he didn't see his shadow, it would mean spring is near. Really think about that. He saw his shadow today, meaning the sun was shining bright, casting a shadow. So, that means six more weeks of winter? If he didn't see his shadow, implying heavy cloud cover, we are to celebrate the start of spring? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Dreary, cloudy weather conditions, to me, imply winter is in full force, and a bright sunny day signifies springtime.

This has bothered me since I was a kid. Frankly, I think those Punxsutawney guys have it ass-backwards. Again, it doesn't matter one lick to me, here in Huntington Beach, because we only have two seasons all year: summer and sorta-summer.

But what we really should be doing today is celebrating the gem, cult-classic movie starring Bill Murray, checking the Weather Channel for our forecasts and not relying on small ground animals for any scientific information.

Read about today's Groundhog day event here.
Read about the movie Groundhog Day here.

[  j. ]