Author: Carl Page 30 of 153

30 Days of Fitness – Clean Eatz and Lower Fix

On November 3, 2019

Today was Lower Fix.

Lunges. Squats. Different Lunges. Leg Lifts. More Lunges. Did I mention Squats? Oh, and some more Lunges. My legs were toast about a third of the way into the 30 minute program. I got through it, but only just barely and not in any of the forms shown on video.

I had forgotten just how intense Lower Fix is compared to Upper Fix. That felt hard but it was doable. I was able to make it through every exercise except push-ups (because I can’t do any real ones). But Lower Fix had me gasping for air and straining against the 6 pound weights in each hand as I lunged and squatted my way through the 60 second intervals.

The all-too-short 60 second rests is enough time for me to catch my breath, watch the instructor demonstrate the next move and slowly get into position for it before it’s time to work again. I made it through this workout before. But I’m more out of shape now. Starting back with Yoga was a good move to get the body loose and ready to work but it doesn’t prepare me for the weight work against gravity that 21 Day Fix throws at me.

Self-portrait of upper body and face. — Exhausted but happy after workout.

My wife and I worked out early in the afternoon because we knew it would be hard and didn’t want to wait until after dinner. Even with the best of intentions, it always turned into 10pm when we don’t workout in the afternoon. After cursing my existence for saying it was time to work out, we got through it and spent the next half hour collapsed on the couch and recovering.

Then we made a quick meal and headed out for some shopping and figured out what to do about food for the week. We’ve gone through a lot of stages in our food journeys and are currently trying out Clean Eatz Kitchen. It’s a prepared meal service delivered in bulk. They have restaurant locations as well but as the closest ones are a state away in either direction, I have no experience with those.

We tried an initial batch of 10 meals. We picked five that sounded good and got two of each so we could each try them and decide if it was worth pursuing.

We were both skeptical at first, frozen food is not usually what I think about when I think about flavor and healthy eating, but Clean Eatz Kitchen delivers. The first meal I had was a chicken and broccoli dish over rice and the broccoli was crunchy after microwaving it. After eating the first five meals, we decided to order a month’s worth.

Chicken, rice, broccoli and vegetable roll frozen meal — Chicken Bowl from Clean Eatz

Overall, the food has all been paired well and the portions are filling. They’re about double the size of a Lean Cuisine and weigh in about 300-400 calories per meal. The meats have been delicious, if lacking some seasoning. I would recommend adding pepper as some meals need it and some are already a bit too salty. A little extra Teriyaki sauce or extra spice really adds to the meals.

With dinner already taken care of (tonight was Clean Eatz Fajitas!) we focused on lunches for the week. We like to make lunches for the week on Sundays because it takes the guess work out of the week and helps us make better choices when the laze choice instead of McDonalds or Taco Bell is reaching into the refrigerator and grabbing a meal.

Last week was sandwiches and bags of grapes, this week we repeated bags of grapes, added apples to it and instead of sandwiches, we went upscale with two different dishes.

The first is Chicken Tamale Casserole from Buns In My Oven. It’s a cornbread-based chicken tamale casserole and is one of my favorite meals we’ve ever found online and made. The second rates just as highly. Chicken Broccoli Braid with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls is an absolute stellar meal. If you could take a broccoli cheddar soup and wrap it in a warm bready hug, that would be this meal. The only problem with this is trying to resist eating the entire braid in one meal.

Tomorrow is Reunite with your Breath.

30 Days of Fitness – Day 2

By Carl

On November 2, 2019

In Introspection

Today was filled with walking around with Antietam National Battlefield hunting digital monsters. There was a Pokemon Go event today to hunt down various monsters in the wild and in raid battles. Since the battlefield is covered in statues and monuments, it’s an ideal location to go hunting.

Statue of a young soldier holding a flag. — One of the many statues at Antietam Battlefield.

I have to wonder what those who gave their lives in the Civil War would have thought about bands of nerds roaming the countryside with telephones, looking for fake monsters and trying to capture them in fake balls. After we explained what a phone was… And a Pokemon… And a car… And…

After the full day walking and driving around the battlefield, it was time to head home to workout and make sure we didn’t fail on the second day.

Today was Grounding into Gratitude.

After arms day yesterday, I wasn’t looking forward to Downward Dog or using my arms. And today was a perfect antidote for that. Grounding into Gratitude is a perfect recovery day workout. Not that it’s what we needed today. But the stretching in the program felt so good. Opening the hips and loosening the shoulders. There wasn’t a lot of strength moves and barely a single Downward Dog for the 34 minute program.

Tomorrow is Lower Fix with Beachbody. I’m ready for some sore legs.

30 Days of Fitness

By Carl

On November 1, 2019

In Introspection

Fitness is my nemesis. For years I’ve struggled to focus on different parts of my life, usually at the expense of other major parts. The eternal struggle between Fitness and Finance takes all of my willpower to manage. This month is all about Fitness. Exercise and food tracking are on the menu.

For now, Finances are in a good place. We’re paying down debt. We can afford the upcoming medical procedures. Our new solar installation is starting to earn its keep and knock wood the house is cooperating. With the help of our financial planner and TillerHQ, our finances are in order and I can keep tabs on them.

That has been a long, and ongoing process. But it’s finally in a place where we feel we can turn some of our focus (and let’s be honest, worry) to better places. This month, my wife and I are going to workout every single day. 30 days. 30 workouts. 30 times we are are going to get up, put on comfortable clothes, close the blinds and turn our living room into a yoga studio and fitness center.

We decided to mix it up this month with a mix of 21 Day Fix and Yoga with Adriene. We used to subscribe to Beachbody and did the shakes and the On Demand video service and the whole thing. But it was very expensive so we’ve long given up the shakes and have DVD copies of the programs we wanted to repeat. Yoga with Adriene is free on YouTube. She puts out a monthly calendar with new programs, and we’re using her November calendar. She has a membership program as well but in balancing out finances, I’ll turn to a free Yoga program. She has a huge catalog on YouTube as well. So if you are looking to start a Yoga practice or are curious what it’s all about, she has a playlist for all skill levels.

I’m writing about this to keep myself accountable. For the next 30 days, I’m going to work out. And I’m going to write about it. At least a little bit about what I did and how I did each day.

Today was Upper Fix.

Upper Fix is all about Arms. I feel good tonight and even though I can’t do a push-up to save my life, the weight work felt good and my arms felt stronger when I finished. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow, that’s always when the soreness hits. But this didn’t feel too bad.

Tomorrow we will be Grounding Into Gratitude.

Why I setup an email address to read newsletters

By Carl

On November 1, 2019

In Observations

I setup a dedicated, private email address for newsletters and now they’re a joy to read instead of anxiety-causing clutter. This may not seem like a big deal to you. But it has changed how I read newsletters and reduced my stress in seeing new ones piling up in my Inbox. I enjoy the Newsletter Renaissance and when I see an interesting one, I sign up for it. The problem started as many of them arrive on the same day (like podcasts on a Wednesday, but that’s another story). So I would get overwhelmed by the number of emails in I wanted to take the time to read but would never find that time because they added to a pile of anxiety instead.

The first solution I tried was Stoop. I thought it was a perfect solution. An app for newsletters. I could send them to that email address for Stoop and read them in the app at my leisure. It worked well for awhile, but the problem was I didn’t want another app to remember to open. So again, newsletters I wanted to read would sit unread for months. Also, the app wasn’t a great experience for newsletters I want to open links from in other tabs to read after I finish the newsletter. I want a computer screen for that, not a phone.

The second reason I stopped using it was more than one person writing about (I don’t remember who) how they were starting to remove stoop.email addresses from their lists because part of the point of a newsletter was the intimacy with the audience, being invited into their Inbox. And Stoop was taking those emails and instead of providing the authors with real people, it gave them a pile of junk addresses essentially. It’s hard to get intimate with a piece of code.

So for those two reasons, I deleted stoop and then it hit me.

I want to get these newsletters delivered in email because email is flexible and can be anywhere I want to be. I also want the authors of the letters to know I’m a real person behind the address and when I wanted to reply to them, I could, from a real address. I guess that would have been a problem with Stoop, but I don’t reply very often so I never encountered that problem.

I setup a reading@ address. It’s perfect because it reminds me what it’s for. It gives me a place that’s not my primary mailbox to dive into at length and know I will find long, quality messages there. It’s been a perfect solution for me. I can open it on the phone, or on a computer and dive into as many or as few letters as I want at a time.

I can enjoy them in a quiet, peaceful space without other messages around them screaming for attention. Moving these newsletters out of my screaming, needy Inbox and into their own home, means I can read them with the slowness and patience of a good book rather than a screaming Twitter feed.

I’m starting to think about what other things I can change the context to enjoy more.

Autumn Excursions

By Carl

On October 27, 2019

In Observations

Today started with an adventure. An train ride through the countryside of rural Maryland. It started a few weeks back when we went looking for fall foliage train rides and located a few in Maryland. We decided to try the Walkersville Southern Railroad for our first ride. It was closer to home, cheaper and didn’t require getting up as early.

And it was indeed a train ride. Through the wilds of townhome developments and backyards. We passed over a pretty creek and held up traffic across a few roads. It was a short hour-long ride up and back a single track. (Did you know trains could go forward then reverse back the same they came?) It was a short train with two open-air cars (and hard wooden benches), two indoor cars (with padded seats and windows that opened) and a caboose decorated to be used as a birthday party setting with limited (padded) seats and two small chairs up a ladder at the top of the car.

It was unusually full, I had assumed on a beautiful 70 degree day in October people used that as an excuse to take their kids on a train. But the ticket taker commented this was as full as one of their Christmas rides and it wasn’t usually this packed (there wasn’t an empty seat on the train).

Creek with fall tree reflections. — Creek the train passed over.

I wish it had taken us past some actual fall foliage rather than through town, passed developments (that perhaps were trees once.) But it was a pleasant ride and not so expensive I regretted the trip.

After the ride, we walked through their small museum, and daydreamed about setting up our own elaborate country scene with model trains running through it.

Afterwards, we had some shopping to do which led to our next adventure of the day we didn’t plan.

Long aisle of books. — One of the few aisles that didn’t have books lined up along each shelf on the floor.

We stumbled upon Wonder Books and Video in Frederick, Maryland. And it was far better than I could have hoped. The book shelves stretched forever with cluttered, but well-maintained stacks of every sort of books, new and old, one could hope for. There was also a huge selection of DVDs and Vinyl. There were also cassette tapes and 8-tracks. I could have easily spent all day in the store and far more money than I did.

Books organized by color, available for purchase. — Need colorful books to complete your shelves? Wonder has them.

From the FREE OLD BOOK SMELL sign on the door, to the friendly, helpful staff inside, may be the perfect bookstore. We have already made plans to return with a list as I have the problem of never remembering what books I’m looking to buy when I’m in a place to buy them. Beforehand, they flood my brain. Afterwards, they haunt me like apparitions of a lost opportunity. But in the moment, my brain empties, achieving a perfect meditation.