Category Archives: Exercise/ Fitness

More Of The Same

12 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by in Catholic Life, Exercise/ Fitness

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

More back pain.

More insomnia.

More wishing I could get to sleep.

I had a good swim today. Tonight I was going to go to a book discussion at Church on the history of The Mass, but when I got home from swimming, the desire and energy to go just wasn’t there. So I said I wasn’t going. Our parish is about 12 miles from the house. There are five parishes closer to us, but I like St Benedict because our priest offers a reverent version of a Novus Ordo Mass, no guitars or silliness. Sometimes at the 11 O’clock Sunday Mass, we will chant the Credo in Latin. Truly beautiful. And we will sing the proper Marian Anthem. Right now it is the Salve Regina. Sadly, there are Catholics who are ignorant of the Latin hymns, service music or Marian anthems and antiphons.

I digress. At least now I’m somewhat sleepy. Maybe the naproxen will work a little better.

It was, all in all, a good day.

Cast Iron Pleasure

16 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by in cooking, Exercise/ Fitness, food

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

I received a cast iron pan for Father’s Day from MrsCorC?. Cast. Iron. I took the tags off, got out the lard, worked it into the cooking surface, popped it into the oven at 350° F (177° C) for an hour. It came out seasoned, good to go.

Today I made a frittata. It has been my third preparation of a frittata since I discovered a recipe for this simple, tasty, and well nigh idiot-proof dish. The prior efforts came out well, but the cast iron pan made a marked difference. The ingredients just cooked better.

Tonight, I fried a plantain and made salmon cakes. Everything was sublimely crispy. I am in the trial and error stage of plantain cooking. I think I am supposed to do more with the plantain than peel, slice and fry, but it tastes pretty good this way. The salmon cakes cooked very evenly. This was a solitary pleasures supper. MrsCorC? is not a fish cakes person, viewing them as “low rent”. At $7 a can for red sockeye salmon, I consider them a luxury. She was at work, so my “bachelor” meal encountered no reproach.

This evening meal followed my evening workout. I swam another 2500 meters. The longer swim is already giving a boost to my weight loss efforts. Yes, Fans, I gained back some of the weight I lost. Now it is going away.

Things come and go.

“The thing that has been, it is that which shall be. And that which is done,is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.– Ecclesiastes 1:9.

Sunday Afternoon And Evening, Monday Morning

04 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by in Exercise/ Fitness, Relationships, Sport

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Yesterday, I shared with MrsCorC? my episode of sleep interruption early Sunday morning. She had no idea how her movie watching affected me and resolved to improve. Now twenty four hours later, I again couldn’t get to sleep. I was in pain from my day. My back was simply not cooperating. So I have another morning of insomnia and sleep deprivation. Oh well. But the whole atmosphere is different. I did communicate. She is not to blame. She is again my partner, not my adversary..

Yesterday, I did not make it to Mass. I did watch the Mass on EWTN. It’s not quite the same, but sitting for an hour would have been too much for me.

I did a four mile walk yesterday, completing it in 58 min:33sec. It was my first walk of the year, since I have been swimming for exercise of late. It feels good to walk; it’s different from how I feel after I swim. The muscles worked are different. I experience the sweat from exertion, so I feel like I’ve done something. But in both forms of exercise, I feel the exertion and the endorphin high.

I watched NCAA Women’s Softball for most of yesterday. It has become my favorite spectator sport. I like the enthusiasm of the players and their athleticism.

So that was my yesterday and early morning. I’m feeling sleepy. The Silver Meteor #98 Northbound just passed through Ashland as reported on Virtual Railfan LLC. I will wait for #86 to stop in Ashland, then go back to bed.

Turning the mind off, so I’m not meal-planning, scheduling my day, having erotic reveries (dirty sex fantasies) or otherwise allowing my thoughts to flow full force is a challenge. It’s OK to just chill.

Deluge Continued. Aftermath.

18 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Amtrak, Bloggers, Exercise/ Fitness

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

The pelting rain woke us up around Three AM. It seemed relentless and intense. Nature is like that at times. I had trouble going back to sleep. I finally went back to bed about Four Thirty.

Now I am up again, drinking coffee, enjoying the delightful endorphin high brought on by yesterday’s swim.

We have localized flooding and generally nasty travel conditions, bad enough to close the schools. Hard to believe the school year is almost over. Hard to believe the outdoor pools open next weekend. The hot weather has made a couple days pretty uncomfortable already.

I’ve read a blog I follow(Hello Olivia), enjoyed a comment from Jade on yesterday’s post, looked at some headlines, reset the clocks after a power outage. I’m waiting for AMTRAK #84 NB to stop in Ashland. It is running late.

These little simple moments of langor and quiet are why I retired. Madison Ave types would have one think we retire to take canal cruises in Europe or go bungee-jumping in New Zealand. No. We retire to call the time our own.

Swimming. Dinner. Deluge.

18 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Exercise/ Fitness

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Our Y closes its indoor pools during thunderstorms. Evidently lightning can travel through glass and strike even an indoor pool. I don’t argue. I get out of the water when they tell me.

I have been trying to reestablish a discipline around daily swimming. Yesterday I had completed 1100 meters, about 2/3 of my planned workout when the whistle blew and the lifeguard said the pool was closing. So I got out, satisfied that I got to swim between the spells of stormy weather we were having, and are still experiencing

Today, my plan was to go earlier in the afternoon before the stormy conditions build. I planned to go my current usual distance of 1750 meters, then some more to account for the distance I missed yesterday. And I did. 2500 meters. 2500 meters has been a standard distance for a swim for me. And today I met that goal. So there is no reason why I can’t revert back to 2500 meters as my standard workout distance, with a few 3300 meter workouts interspersed. 2500 meters is over a mile and a half, 3300 meters is over two miles. It’s all good.

Tonight we went out for a $6 medium pizza special at one of our favorite restaurants. The daily deluge occurred during dinner so we stayed a little longer, hoping the downpour would alleviate somewhat. While waiting we enjoyed a nice chocolate filled dessert crêpe. We finished the crêpe; it was still raining. So we got wet walking to the car. I figure I get wet on a daily basis anyway, so what’s the big deal? It was kind of fun.

Normal routine is part of the structure I need in my life to handle the daily deluge of craziness I experience from back pain, politics, chronic loneliness. The swim is important because it counterbalances my tendency to eat my way to better mental and emotional well-being That eating strategy doesn’t work, by the way.

From Archbishop Sheen.

11 Sunday Feb 2018

Posted by in Catholic Life, Exercise/ Fitness, Love and stuff, Sexual Identity

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

https://book-and-rifle-papist.tumblr.com/post/170743049874/celibacy-is-not-the-renouncing-of-a-person-outside

This is one of those challenges that puts my narcissism into focus. I have been living as half a person, waiting for my dormant sexuality to awaken and flower again, except that never seemed to happen, unless I wanted to destroy my marriage.

So I would live a vicarious sex life through various sex blogs, or watching pornography. I wondered if I would ever regain the intimacy that sexual pleasure with my wife would afford.

It never entered my mind that there was perhaps a “still more excellent way.”

Sex is pretty damned exploitative and self-serving, the way we pursue sexual satisfaction in this culture. Tear out the procreative motive and the exploitation is even worse.

I never thought I would be writing this. Please don’t think I am preaching at you. This is my choice, decision and perspective. I was simply trying to find happiness down a path I was not meant to walk.

Hitting The Reset Button

26 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in cooking, Exercise/ Fitness, Fashion & Grooming

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, ,

Figuratively, of course. I came to the realization that that is precisely what I am doing. Call it belated New Year’s Resolve to Do Things Right For A Change, By Golly!

It’s just that goals and purpose in my life got muddled. The new glasses and the haircut shook me out of my complacency. Add to those look-changers shaving my beard off. That action brought the only near-instantaneous Buyer’s Remorse. Then again the beard grows back pretty quickly.

I just started thinking about all that I do reflexively. For example,  I will do something with the computer without fully clearing out old stuff. It’s like the computer needs a cyber-enema.

So today I got some techs to go over the machine to clear out unnecessary programs and updating drivers , all with the intention of optimizing performance. Any of this activity merely reaffirms that I have not the foggiest of ideas of what I have been doing, am doing now, or will do in the future. Anybody else like this?

That completed, and with face and skull in transition, I decided to began my figurative clean out.

1) What’s Important and Must Be Kept: Sobriety, Faith, and Fitness.

A clear head, free of alcohol and drugs fosters honesty for me.

My Faith opens the door to Love. Not sentimental “niceness”, but not harsh judgmentalism either fall within my concept of Love. Lots of acceptance of people as they are comes with my idea of Love. I must point out when my friends are on the road to self-destruction, but understand that I can’t make them who they aren’t. That either makes sense or is just so much psychobabble.

Fitness is taking caring of my body. Exercise means swimming for me. Long restorative swims work my muscles.

Fitness means eating right and eating well. To that end I bought Ghirardelli 100% Cacao Baking Chocolate, and Nielsen-Massey Vanilla. Luckily I know plenty of Chocolate Sluts. There will be some serious chocolate goodies prepared here.

OK, one of the Techie Types will be calling soon about something.

Here is a pic of Beardless Me. I’m beginning to scare myself

Has Anybody Here Seen My Old Friend… Motivation?

19 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Exercise/ Fitness, Existential Despair, Foreign Films, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

That is today’s tune.  I am at an ebb.  Given that alcohol and drugs are a suicide run for me and sexual infidelity is not my style either, my two principal diversions are exercise and eating. Add the beginnings of a cold to the mix. So exercise is a complete turn-off. That leaves eating. Or maybe, I will blog.

Yeah, I’ll blog. And drink coffee.  The coffee tastes good. The chair is comfy. I will go back to Rainer Werner Fassbender’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, starring some great German actors, like Günter Lamprecht, Hannah Schygulla, Gottfried John, and Barbara Sukowa. This was a miniseries on German Television (Deutsche Fernsehen. sounds classier, doesn’t it?) but it was released in theatres in the USA.  Fassbinder was a bad boy’s bad boy, i.e. a homosexual drug addict and rather indiscrete about his proclivities. He never got much of a following beyond the art house crowd, here in the America of Ronald Reagan and the 1980’s. 

The story follows the life of a petty thief, Franz Bieberkopf (Lamprecht), who served time for the murder of his lover. It begins with his release from prison for this crime.  There isn’t a lot of moralizing but there is some fantastic cinematic storytelling. 

I have to bear in mind that stories are meant to be experienced in the mind in some fashion. I need not have written a thesis on Fassbinder in order to enjoy this. And I don’t need to mythologize about his angst as a gay artist either.  He wanted me to enjoy this story, I’ll betcha.

So I will blog and watch. And not obsess too much about food. Maybe I will do some ironing and shoe shining, and sublimate my service bottom energy into something productive.

23:36. EST. 7. XII. 2017

08 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Catholic Life, Exercise/ Fitness

≈ Leave a comment

Here I am at the end of a day. After a five day respite, I went swimming again. I had no idea how much I missed it. I put on six pounds in six days. Don’t ask how. But the appetite  seems to ramp up when I am idle. Today I swam 2500 meters. During the swimming respite, I had 2 leaf raking sessions in those 5 days.  My  back was in agony for about twenty four hours post raking session. Aleve© helped some. Still I thought I had screwed up my back in another place different from the fusion site of two years ago.

Live and learn. Work out at least five days a week. I re-learned that old rule.

I went to the Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. It was a very reverent Mass in English. Father Tony M is a good priest.  I think he loves his vocation. I told him about my elder son’s autism. He seemed genuinely touched that I shared this news with him.

Now I am sitting recollecting my day, waiting for the chick movie on Lifetime Channel to end.  All in all, not a bad day.

The Thrill Of Victory

10 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by in cooking, Exercise/ Fitness, food, Health Issues, Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Back in May, I decided to get serious about losing weight and keeping it off. I weighed 215 lbs then. Rather than have Weight Watchers© merely draft the monthly fees out of my checking account, I thought doing what they suggested would be a smarter choice.

This afternoon I weighed in at 180 lbs., within 2lbs of my goal weight of 179, so I again have Lifetime status and I get to use the digital resources of Weight Watchers© for FREE!!!!!!

I am very happy and satisfied. I remember every lame excuse I had for not doing the Weight Watchers© Plan. I remember every lie I told myself about being OK with how I looked and what I weighed.

Weight Watchers© is a disciplined way of living, putting food and eating within a healthy context. Plus the inducement to exercise makes the Plan fun. I even get Fit Points© for housework. There is nothing to stop me from fantasizing around my cleaning chores. I am a secret “service sub”. If one keeps the blinds drawn, there is nothing to stop one from cleaning house ” nekkid,”

My planrs for the next few weeks in maintaining my weight loss involve finding new ways to prepare and cook new vegetables, like tomatillos, fennel bulb, and kohlrabi. 

The most important things I’ve learned about weight loss and weight maintenance are slowly is better, don’t make weight loss harder than it has to be, and expect “bumps” along the way. I did not quit.

Yay ME!