Nuketown

Geek Fitness

Geek Fitness: The April Initiative

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Thu, 04/01/2010 - 5:30am

Back in March I decided to make a concerted effort to get back on the geek fitness band wagon after trying (and mostly failing) in February. My goal was to shift to a morning work out and to get my weight down to 210 lbs.

It went much better than in February. I got to the gym 4 out of 5 work days each week, and most of those were in the morning. In the second half of the month I found my new routine under assault by the college ritual known as "spring break", which caused the gym to open two hours later each morning.

Rather than give up, I decided to take advantage of the college's quieter schedule and go into work early, then work out, then go back to work. I also mixed things up with a few lunch time workouts. The lunch workouts are a big deal; in the past, when I missed my regular workout time I'd shrug and try again the next day. This month I juggled my schedule instead.

I fought off a short-but-nasty little cold at the end of the month, and I'm happy to say it didn't derail my exercise regime -- I think I only missed one day of it.

The Ides of Geek Fitness

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 8:53pm

It's mid-March, which makes it a good time for an update on my March fitness initiative. So far it's going considerably better than February - I've been to the gym almost every week day, and have made a nice dent in my Alias Season 2 and Firefly viewing schedule. On the weight front, I'm at 213 lbs, which is down from 215, but still within my personal margin of error (though it is nice to be back at 213; I had been bouncing the other direction, to 217, on far too regular a basis).

Foodwise I've been drinking less soda, but I had far, far too much pizza last weekend chased down by a goodly amount of Mountain Dew but I haven't been overdoing it on a daily basis, so it all balanced out in the end.

Or at least, that's the theory.

My plan for the or the rest of the much is more of the same: working out at the gym for 30-40 minutes each day, walking to work as much as I can, keeping the soda in check, and avoiding those second helpings at dinner. I don't know if it's enough to get me to my goal of 210 lbs by the end of the month, but its a good routine nonetheless.

The March Initiative

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 8:31pm

Spring's in the air, or it would be if only there weren't still a half-foot of snow sitting in my backyard. Baseballs are flying in Florida and somewhere in Easton, Pa. there undoubtedly a few brave daffodil shoots fighting their way to the surface.

The last two months have been hard on my geek fitness efforts; I got of to decent starts in January and February, only to have family colds, home improvement projects, and snow storms sidetrack my plans.

With March upon us, it's time to try and get back into a routine. My immediate goal is to pick up where I left off in February, and continue my morning workouts. These are exceedingly hard for me -- I'm just not a morning person -- but it's the one surefire way I have of making sure my exercise for the day gets done. As I've demonstrated time and again, it's all too easy to let exercise slide when a meeting runs late, I get caught up in a project, or a family emergency breaks out.

We shall redouble our efforts...

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Mon, 01/11/2010 - 9:48am

It's January. I'm tired, sore, and feeling like I need to pack 36 hours worth of work into every 24 hour day. Yeah, it's time to go back to the gym.

This may seem counter-intuitive -- why go to the gm when every cell in your body is screaming you don't have time? -- but in my experience, that's when it's most essential. The reason why is simple: perspective. Exercising for 30-60 minutes causes you to downshift and all but forces you to think about something else.

Moreover, exercise helps loosen you up (at least once you get past the initial soreness of "the return") and burns calories, all of which helps you sleep better. Which helps alleviate stress. Which makes it feel like you have 28 hours worth of work to do in 24.

Hey, I never said it would solve all your problems.

For my part, I'm going to be returning to my standard exercise routine of gym-pool-gym, which mixes things up nicely and gives me a chance to finish my master plan of re-watching Alias Seasons 1 and 2.

Now where did I leave my sneakers?

212.80 lbs: Going Digital

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 9:00pm

So it's been two weeks at the gym, and about two weeks of cutting back my soda intake to about a can a day. It's also been two weeks of getting used to the new digital scale at the gym (thus the decimals in the headline). Previously, the gym had had one of the old fashioned adjustable weights-based scales, which the arcane (and archaic) part of my brain always enjoyed.

Now we're digital, which means no flubbing the weights to say "well, it could be 211, if you look at this angle and if I just nudge it a bit this way. Now it's just the simple, unavoidable truth of a digital readout.

Fortunately, the number went down. Of course, it also briefly went up, so while it would be nice to say I'm making some progress going from 216 to 212, in truth it's all within my normal weight fluctuations. Now if we have another two weeks, and it keeps going down, well, then I'll officially call it a trend.

The big thing is really just this: in the last two weeks I was at the gym more days than I wasn't at the gym, and I made it to the pool twice. Given that there were stretches this summer where I went a month without exercising, I think I'm safe in calling this progress.

216 lbs: Back to the Gym

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Thu, 09/03/2009 - 4:29pm

It's been about a year since I blogged anything about my attempts at geek fitness. Not because I haven't been doing anything ... but because I haven't been doing it consistently. I've been going to the gym periodically, but but nothing like the regular 4-5 days a week I was doing it a year ago.

The results show. Last year at this time I was 208 lbs, right now I'm weighing in at 216. I can blame a summer of hard work (mostly the computer kind unfortunately) for a lot of this; in fact, I'd be willing to bet I put on 4 lbs. in July and August alone.  So with the summer crush over, and the start-of-semester one abating, I'm doing my best to get back to the gym.

It's been slow going -- I've been averaging about three sessions a week, four if I'm lucky, but I figure it's better to go some days than no days. I also want to get back to swimming two days a week. It's my favorite form of exercise, and since I do it in the middle of the day I don't have to worry about work crushing that time out of existence when some crisis unfolds at 4:55 p.m.

My immediate goal is to get back to something resembling consistency, and then focus on losing those eight extra pounds (and a few more beyond that). 

OOF 8/25: 60 min elliptical/walking

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 8:20pm

Despite today being the first day of the semester, I was able to get out of work about 15 minutes early, beat the student rush to the gym, and snag an elliptical machine for a solid 30 minute work out.

On my screen: Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. I felt compelled to watch it for some reason; it might have had something to do with Playing For Keeps' big day.

After dinner, Luke and I went for a walk around the neighborhood (well, I walked, he road his Big Wheel). Not a hard work out by any means, but exercise all the same.

OOF 8/17: Picnic in the Park

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 12:38pm

I'm doing the bachelor dad thing while Sue's away at a PowWow this weekend, so I figured it'd be a good thing if we started off our day with some exercise. I packed some zucchini bread and milk for the kids, loaded up the wagon our baseball mitts and Lucas, then walked to the Cosmic Cup for morning coffee while Jordan road her bike. Coffee in hand, we walked back home, deposited the bike in the side alley, then walked down to Nevin Park for breakfast under the trees.

After that the kids and I ran around on the playground equipment and swung on the swings, taking occasional breaks to play catch. All in all, a good start to the day, the only downside to which was the whining from Jordan about how tired she was on the walk back home.

It wasn't a hard work out, as things go, but it got my heart pumping climbing the hill back from the park, and tired out the kids so I think we can declare mission was accomplished.

OOF 8/14: 30 minutes @ Gym/Elliptical

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 11:31pm

I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, watching Ghostbusters.

OOF 8/12: 30 minutes @ Gym/Elliptical

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 7:24pm

With the pool closed today, I went to the gym instead and worked out on the elliptical machine for 30 minutes. In my ears: Gut Check Cast #15. On my screen: Ghostbusters.