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I'm Back. Plus an Update on the Exercise

A lot of things have been going on lately and I’ve gotten out of the habit of posting. Hopefully that will be changing soon. Jessica and Eric are now 5 and 2. Erica just had her second birthday a few weeks ago and Jessica is in pre-kindergarden and is learning how to read. It’s amazing how much time having a family takes.

I’ve received quite a bit of encouragement on the exercising and diet. I’m eating healthier and still exercising. I’ve lost 25 pounds and 5 inches off my waist. My cardio endurance is up 30% and I’ve reduced my body fat by 5.5%. I’m not quite ready to run a triathlon. Apparently, I had let my health go farther than I realized. But we’re making lots of progress and I’m staying with it.

Jennifer (my wife) and I have converted the garage into an exercise room. We’ve put down a 3/4” mat, and I’ve put in a Life Fitness elliptical, a Vasa swimming trainer and a bike trainer so i can train for and do an entire triathlon without leaving my house. We also put a tv with cable and dvd, so that we can watch exercise videos or movies while exercising.

I’ve learned a lot. If I exercise my butt off and eat perfectly, the weight will jump off. But that’s difficult to keep up on a consistent basis. It seems like exercise is the key. If I exercise a moderate amount and eat moderately healthy, then the weight will come off. Without the exercise, I have to eat perfectly to lose weight, and I mean perfectly.

So progress is being made and we’re sticking with it. Jennifer is going to the same trainer as I am and she’s also doing a cardio-boxing class that she likes. We’ve also put up an angle (mushroom) heavy bag for her. It appears that she likes hitting things. Keep reading if you want to see the equipment we got.

This is the elliptical that we got. I got it from a company in Wilmington that delivered it to the house. It’s a $4,000 commercial elliptical, that was used from Duke Fitness Center. We got it for $1,295. Not a bad price. If you get the Life Fitness 9500 HR, make certain you get the newer model with the two cupholders on the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the swimming trainer. It looks a bit goofy, but is used by a number of college swim teams and also the U.S. National swim team.

It’s basically a ‘treadmill’ for swimming. You lay on the board and then there’s a flywheel and you mimic a swimming motion. There’s a computer and you can time yourself for distance. You can also track your power and stroke length. It’s pretty neat and allows me to practice swimming without leaving the house and spending time away from the family.

I can get my swimming training done in less time than the travel time and changing time to get to the pool. Plus, I can do it while watching tv. Neat stuff. There are some triathletes that do 85–90% of their swimming training on the Vasa.

 

This is basically putting the bike up on blocks. I also put a front block to even out the bike. On the advice of friends, I actually got the special pedals and bike shoes that clip in.

Again, with a computer to track my pace, I can ride my bike without leaving the house (and watching tv).

I’ve used iTunes to catch up on shows that I was interested in, but hadn’t watched, or watched only sporadically. House, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Dexter, Mad Men, 30 Rock, Picket Fences, Battlestar Galactica…

So the cardio and iTunes has allowed me to catch up on tv watching.

We also have a number of general exercise equipment. Bands, situp bench, bosu ball, physio ball and other stuff. Plus, youth punching bags for the girls. After Kung Fu Panda, they like hitting and kicking stuff too. So we pretty much have a full fledged gym at home and are ready to rock and roll.

It’s been six months now and the enthusiasm and dedication has grown and waned as life and work has happened around it. But we’re been sticking with it. The consistency over a period of time has made a huge difference. I’m leaning out, getting more muscular and just feeling better.

A combination of deep tissue massage with trigger point therapy, chiropractic adjustments (my trainer is a chiropractor, so I get an adjustment with every session) and exercise has made a huge difference in my back. It had pretty much locked up before and I had very minimal mobility in it. But the three things over a period of time has helped my back tremendously.

So other than practicing law, that’s what I’ve been up to. The training has been going well, the eating has been going well and life is happy.

Full post as published by South Carolina Trial Law Blog on February 03, 2009 (boomark / email).