Treadmills and Books
I'm sort of on the verge of coming down with something, so I've been pretty draggy. Today, I actually thought I had slept all day because it looked like twilight when I woke up. Fortunately, though, it was just really rainy and overcast right now and it was only two.
I've really got to work on getting a better wake up time, specifically a more regular one. This has actually been a long term goal of mine for ages, but I think I need to work on taking it more seriously this year. After all, a year from now, I'll have a full time job that will involve getting up five days a week, which means that I can't get up on Monday mornings at 6AM (after a couple of hours of sleep), go until midnight Monday evening, and then sleep late Tuesday to wake up for it. So this is something I'm really going to focus on improving this year.
I'm also working on improving exercise. In the past, I think that I've tended to get very all or nothing, especially when dealing with trainers who have the attitude that not only should working out be a priority (it should), but that it should be my only priority and that it's not acceptable to want to slack off a bit. At one point, I was okay with that and no problem at all either getting up for 6AM workouts or else carving out plenty of time to do this or that. Priorities change, though.
Still, I think I can reset my mind. But while I do realize that the ideal workout should include flexibility, strength, and cardio and that I should be working out six days a week for at least an hour... well, that's the goal but reality falls short. Right now, my goal is to hit the gym three times a week and walk on the treadmill for 35 minutes (5 warm up, 25 in my target zone, and 5 cooldown). I'm out of shape enough that it's actually a bit challenging (which really bothers me), but I'll get it back. After that, I'll work on expanding.
Also, at least initially, I'm still thinking hard on adding Pilates and yoga, rather than lifting weights. I'd like to work in weights later, of course. Plus, I'm pretty lucky in that a lot of the activities I'm interested in doing for fun are also very, well, active.
Thus ends my long ramble about exercise.
Today, I finished reading Moloka'i. Moloka'i was the name of the Hawaiian leper colony. (Apparently, as with many other diseases and other groups of indigenous people, native Hawaiians were very susceptible to leprosy or Hansen's disease, so their government passed some pretty draconian laws to protect the general population.) I suppose that you could describe it as being about a girl who was diagnosed with the disease at 6, taken from her family to a hospital, and was sent to Moloka'i at 7, but I don't think that's strictly accurate. I think you could say that it's the story of the life of a woman who happened to be diagnosed with the disease as a child and spent a good portion of her life there. Also, since the book takes place between 1891 and 1970, it also includes a lot of significant events in American history. I think it was interesting to see what "major" events really affected them and what were given either a passing mention or weren't even noticed.
In short, I loved it. I'm planning to read some of Alan Brennert's other books, too.
One thing I plan to do is to keep up with the books I read more in my LJ. Books are a pretty big part of my life and I feel that my journal doesn't really reflect that properly. Of course, it really doesn't reflect that anything besides law school is an important part of my life, at least, not judging by the tags.
But I'm so not opening that can of worms tonight. I have four more days of relative freedom (I have to get my reading assignments done), so why waste it wringing my hands about law school?
I've really got to work on getting a better wake up time, specifically a more regular one. This has actually been a long term goal of mine for ages, but I think I need to work on taking it more seriously this year. After all, a year from now, I'll have a full time job that will involve getting up five days a week, which means that I can't get up on Monday mornings at 6AM (after a couple of hours of sleep), go until midnight Monday evening, and then sleep late Tuesday to wake up for it. So this is something I'm really going to focus on improving this year.
I'm also working on improving exercise. In the past, I think that I've tended to get very all or nothing, especially when dealing with trainers who have the attitude that not only should working out be a priority (it should), but that it should be my only priority and that it's not acceptable to want to slack off a bit. At one point, I was okay with that and no problem at all either getting up for 6AM workouts or else carving out plenty of time to do this or that. Priorities change, though.
Still, I think I can reset my mind. But while I do realize that the ideal workout should include flexibility, strength, and cardio and that I should be working out six days a week for at least an hour... well, that's the goal but reality falls short. Right now, my goal is to hit the gym three times a week and walk on the treadmill for 35 minutes (5 warm up, 25 in my target zone, and 5 cooldown). I'm out of shape enough that it's actually a bit challenging (which really bothers me), but I'll get it back. After that, I'll work on expanding.
Also, at least initially, I'm still thinking hard on adding Pilates and yoga, rather than lifting weights. I'd like to work in weights later, of course. Plus, I'm pretty lucky in that a lot of the activities I'm interested in doing for fun are also very, well, active.
Thus ends my long ramble about exercise.
Today, I finished reading Moloka'i. Moloka'i was the name of the Hawaiian leper colony. (Apparently, as with many other diseases and other groups of indigenous people, native Hawaiians were very susceptible to leprosy or Hansen's disease, so their government passed some pretty draconian laws to protect the general population.) I suppose that you could describe it as being about a girl who was diagnosed with the disease at 6, taken from her family to a hospital, and was sent to Moloka'i at 7, but I don't think that's strictly accurate. I think you could say that it's the story of the life of a woman who happened to be diagnosed with the disease as a child and spent a good portion of her life there. Also, since the book takes place between 1891 and 1970, it also includes a lot of significant events in American history. I think it was interesting to see what "major" events really affected them and what were given either a passing mention or weren't even noticed.
In short, I loved it. I'm planning to read some of Alan Brennert's other books, too.
One thing I plan to do is to keep up with the books I read more in my LJ. Books are a pretty big part of my life and I feel that my journal doesn't really reflect that properly. Of course, it really doesn't reflect that anything besides law school is an important part of my life, at least, not judging by the tags.
But I'm so not opening that can of worms tonight. I have four more days of relative freedom (I have to get my reading assignments done), so why waste it wringing my hands about law school?