Got in to work around 6, haven’t eaten lunch. That means it’s been 9 straight hours of work, and it’s nice out. That also means it’s time for a break and to collect on that 800 - 1000 calories I am owed today*. So I am walking to get a sandwich. I’ll also probably pay the idiot tax while I’m out.

*: I had a small banana and 6 bread & butter pickle chips. I estimate that to be around 100 calories.

This is me, drawing a line in the sand. Starting today I begin my quest to drop about 45 pounds. Last I looked (a few days ago) I was about 230 lbs. I should be around 185, and that is my goal.

How will I acheive such a lofty ideal, you ask? Well it won’t be the first time that I shrunk myself a bit. So I plan to follow a similar tract.

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I walk! And it is good for listening, relaxing and exercising. But I find I always have to push the limit on my range. Today I am going to walk to the Barnes & Noble in Willow Grove, which looks to be just over 2 miles one way. I’ll try and find a book for around $16 (this will make it virtually free, with coupons, discounts and store credit). I’ll get some food somewhere along the way, and walk back.

Earlier this week it took me 22 minutes to walk to the mall, So I expect about 1 hour 15 minutes walking time.

If you are like me you’re 6 foot 2 and your name is Kevin.

Also you spend most of your day staring at a monitor of some type. I have some advice, I don’t know how well they will work for you, and I don’t know if there is anything to back up my reasoning behind these actions, but they seem to work for me.

1. If you can afford it get some kind of non-CRT monitor, like the ones on laptops or those nice LCD (or whatever technology it is) displays. They are more crisp. My work provides one for me.
2. Turn down the brightness. Turn it down all the way until it reaches a point just below where it is comfortable, then turn it back up 1 or 2 clicks. You still want it to be comfortable, but why stare into a 1000 watt light bulb if you can stare into a 30 watt bulb instead.
3. Turn down the contrast too. This one I remember hearing that it is easier on the eyes if the contrast is not very high.
4. Go outside a few times a day and look at stuff far away, and under natural light. Especially if you are locked in a room with fluorescent bulbs.
5. Blink. If you notice that when you are staring at a screen you don’t blink, you probably should figure out a way to make yourself do that.

I have found that my eyes are less strained feeling the more I pay attention to this kind of stuff. Maybe you will too.

I have been on a real walking kick since I have been working from home. In the past 10 days or so I have walked at least 2 to 3 miles daily and some days I have walked over 5 to 6 miles. And over the past 2 months there haven’t been more than maybe 7 total days that I didn’t walk at all.

The last 7 days have been particularly intense with longer trips and more hills. I have noticed some muscle soreness, which is good and is something I am used to, however I have also noticed some pain that I don’t think should be there. My right foot hurts around the arch, and yesterday I noticed another pain in my right calf that was unusual, my initial thought was I must be compensating from the pain in my foot and altering my gait, therefore causing a different pain to happen.

Anyway what it comes down to is I think my shoes may have had it, (New Balance 475) that I got for Christmas last year. But they aren’t terribly worn so I hate to throw them away and get new ones. So here are my questions:

1. anyone have experience, recomendations of the various sole inserts, particularly for walking quite a bit?
2. anyone have a favorite brand of comfortable shoes that stand up to quite a bit of walking?
3. Any other suggestions for foot/shoe care?

Cookies taste good. Soda tastes good, and has a sweet caffeine kick. Big greasy hamburgers, fries, and a sweet snack not only have a lot of energy lurking within they are plentiful, convenient and relatively inexpensive. In time and money it costs little to stop at a Wendy’s and grab a meal. And you save even more time, because you don’t feel bad eating it and doing several other things at the same time, because you don’t really want to taste it anyway, you just want your hunger headache to go away. But it is only relatively inexpensive, because a consistent diet of this junk and a few months later you are feeling run down, overweight and you are probably not really saving time just trading it, you can have a few extra minutes now but what are you borrowing against? I fear the collateral being put up is healthy retirement years. Precious graduations and birthdays and giving your daughter away at her wedding and playing with your grandchildren years.

Woah, if thats true, and it probably is, it really sucks. What a cruel joke. I only ran there because it was quick and I was hungry and I have so much to do and not enough time, and BAM you’re overweight and tired all the time, so you can’t motivate yourself to do much when you are awake so you have even less time.

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Maybe an air conditioner is in order. It’s not even summer yet, and the house is very warm at the end of the day, It was still in the high 80s in there around 9PM.

The biggest drawback to a a window unit is the layout of my house. I have a window in the rear of the house, that would blow into the dining room and subsequently the living area, however that side of the house is southerly facing, and there is virtually no way for me to shade that window. Plus that unit would then be responsible for cooling about 500 square feet. My bedroom however is much smaller, and the window which would hold a unit is well shaded by a large tree. However, this would then confine Michelle to the bedroom on the hottest of days. Her solution, of course, is to get two ac window units. Which I may end up doing, however, I don’t have to like it. I guess I will also have to research the portable units, but between venting and emptying the water which collects, these look like a real pain.

LA Fitness opened a new club in Fort Washington which turns out to be 1.7 mi. from my house. Which seems to take about 3 minutes to travel to and from at 5 AM and 6:15 AM respectively.

This makes me happy.

I believe it opened yesterday, it is nice, it’s one that has the upper level for the aerobic stuff, which is cool to be able to look out over the club while you are running, however it is a bad design because of the fact that hot air ends up where the people are in the most need of cool air. Plus now-a-days the heater tends to be on, and that is where the ducts are blowing on you. But it’s only a mild discomfort, much better than running in the torrential rain that was going on this morning.

Anyway I was the only one working out there from about 5:01 AM - until about 5:25 when another guy showed up. That was great. I left about 6:15 and am now quite excited to be able to get back into my old 5AM routine.

227.0 lbs. Hit the gym again, just ran again was running late. 20+5 minutes 2.65 mi.

somehow I injured my right rib in the past 3 days. I don’t remember getting hit at all at karate, maybe I strained a muscle somehow? But it is quite sensitive to touch.

… back to work.

this morning 227.5, woohoo!

Time to celebrate with a half-gallon of ice cream and a day off from the gym. Alright well I won’t eat the ice-cream but I have skipped the gym. Mostly because karate ran late, then I couldn’t get to sleep until around 11:45, (mainly because I was researching how to pre-compile JSP files for my work.) And I learned in the past that going to the gym really tired too often impacts my general ability to function. So I slept in, until 6 AM. But the day is not a total loss, I have karate again tonight. I just have to try really hard to get to sleep as soon as possible after class so I can make the gym tomorrow.

So far so good, but I am currently pretty hungry.