Another day at the gym..
Despite being really sore, I dragged myself to the gym today and did a good lower body workout. I also tried to do a few sets for upper body to get some of the soreness out. I have been taking warm showers for the last three days to see if the soreness improves (it has a little bit). I guess I could use some ointment on my creaky 32 year old joints, but then I wouldn't be too much fun to be around with the smell..
I'm really motivated to work out this semester..my 10 year college reunion is coming up in June, and I don't want to be a fat ass this time around (last time around I had an excuse, my wife was pregnant and I had sympathy weight gain). Now, I'm not as fat as I make it sound. It's just that I used to be an athlete in high school and college, so I was used to being in really good shape (I used to have around 7% bodyfat in college). I realize I may not be able to get back to that kind of fitness level, but I would at least like to not get any more out of shape. If I can just do that I would be happy.
My plan is pretty simple: cut out carbs a bit (I can't give them up completely..or I get bad headaches and get really cranky), increase protein intake (basically balance out each meal with equal portions of protein and carbos), cut out soft drinks and their empty calories, drink more water, and get more sleep. I've failed miserably on the last one, having gone to bed at 1am last nite. I think TV is the main problem there. I tend to get hooked by the previews and end up watching tv until 11pm or so and by then I have a hard time going to sleep. Or else there's a good game on ESPN and I get all into it.
As far as exercise goes, I will work out with weights three times a week and maybe go for a long walk, or a slow jog, twice a week. I am also planning to use my wife's yoga tape to improve my flexibility. If I can keep my hamstrings from getting too tight, I will make my back pain go away and hopefully allow me to jog. I used to powerlift in college, and that led to overdevelopment of my quads in relation to my hamstrings. I now suffer from tight hamstrings, which puts pressure on my back and causes back spasms..Whenever I've gone to chiropractors in the past, they have helped me stretch my hamstrings through active stretching and it has always made the back pain go away.
I was really annoyed at the gym today. There are always a couple of people who go to the gym to socialize, not to workout. There was this girl on one of the machines who was working out with her buddy. She just kept yapping away about how she's a dancer, how she's had modeling opportunities in the past, etc. I looked at her and I was like, what the f...shut your mouth and get to work. Meanwhile there are people waiting for the machine. Not to be mean, but she was not even close to being model material...
Today it's pretty nice out, so I walked all the way from the gym (about a half mile) and even managed to go by Burger King without giving in to my weakness for BK. Talk about a great location for a fast food joint...right by the gym where all the football players work out. I did stop in briefly last nite to get some nuggets for my daughter and man it was loud in there. The building has a high ceiling, and it really does seem like it's mostly team members in there, talking really loud and messing around with each other. I think it will be best to just get the food to go from now on.
I've been busy practicing some Photoshop skills just in case I get a job in Instructional Design here at USF. A friend from class told me about a possible opening in his dept., but it turns out they won't be filling the job when the person retires, so I'll have to move on to something else. At least I now know someone on the inside who can tell me about any future openings before they're posted (because by then it's too late). I'll also be applying for an RA position this week. That would definitely help, because our rent would be pretty much free and I would get a discount on my meal plan. And the work is pretty easy.
I also started playing around with Image Magick on my linux partition. It looks like a really powerful program and should be useful for batch processing of pictures (such as creating thumbnail galleries and the such). I only got started on the documentation on their web site and will try to read up more on it tonite. The other program for image editing on linux I found was flPhoto. It looks pretty basic, but it's good to have if your job doesn't require all the power of the Gimp or Photoshop (like if all you need is to rotate a few pictures or rename a whole bunch in a directory and you don't feel like using command line tools). Speaking of the GiMP...I tried to download their developer's version, but it wouldn't install on my system..I guess I am missing GLib, or maybe I have the wrong version, I'll have to look into it some more. I am hoping that they have improved the interface a bit in the new version. I think it's a powerful program and a good replacement for Photoshop, but the interface is a bit clunky. I would like to have everything in one window..I'm used to Photoshop, which is what we used in most of my classes.
I'm really motivated to work out this semester..my 10 year college reunion is coming up in June, and I don't want to be a fat ass this time around (last time around I had an excuse, my wife was pregnant and I had sympathy weight gain). Now, I'm not as fat as I make it sound. It's just that I used to be an athlete in high school and college, so I was used to being in really good shape (I used to have around 7% bodyfat in college). I realize I may not be able to get back to that kind of fitness level, but I would at least like to not get any more out of shape. If I can just do that I would be happy.
My plan is pretty simple: cut out carbs a bit (I can't give them up completely..or I get bad headaches and get really cranky), increase protein intake (basically balance out each meal with equal portions of protein and carbos), cut out soft drinks and their empty calories, drink more water, and get more sleep. I've failed miserably on the last one, having gone to bed at 1am last nite. I think TV is the main problem there. I tend to get hooked by the previews and end up watching tv until 11pm or so and by then I have a hard time going to sleep. Or else there's a good game on ESPN and I get all into it.
As far as exercise goes, I will work out with weights three times a week and maybe go for a long walk, or a slow jog, twice a week. I am also planning to use my wife's yoga tape to improve my flexibility. If I can keep my hamstrings from getting too tight, I will make my back pain go away and hopefully allow me to jog. I used to powerlift in college, and that led to overdevelopment of my quads in relation to my hamstrings. I now suffer from tight hamstrings, which puts pressure on my back and causes back spasms..Whenever I've gone to chiropractors in the past, they have helped me stretch my hamstrings through active stretching and it has always made the back pain go away.
I was really annoyed at the gym today. There are always a couple of people who go to the gym to socialize, not to workout. There was this girl on one of the machines who was working out with her buddy. She just kept yapping away about how she's a dancer, how she's had modeling opportunities in the past, etc. I looked at her and I was like, what the f...shut your mouth and get to work. Meanwhile there are people waiting for the machine. Not to be mean, but she was not even close to being model material...
Today it's pretty nice out, so I walked all the way from the gym (about a half mile) and even managed to go by Burger King without giving in to my weakness for BK. Talk about a great location for a fast food joint...right by the gym where all the football players work out. I did stop in briefly last nite to get some nuggets for my daughter and man it was loud in there. The building has a high ceiling, and it really does seem like it's mostly team members in there, talking really loud and messing around with each other. I think it will be best to just get the food to go from now on.
I've been busy practicing some Photoshop skills just in case I get a job in Instructional Design here at USF. A friend from class told me about a possible opening in his dept., but it turns out they won't be filling the job when the person retires, so I'll have to move on to something else. At least I now know someone on the inside who can tell me about any future openings before they're posted (because by then it's too late). I'll also be applying for an RA position this week. That would definitely help, because our rent would be pretty much free and I would get a discount on my meal plan. And the work is pretty easy.
I also started playing around with Image Magick on my linux partition. It looks like a really powerful program and should be useful for batch processing of pictures (such as creating thumbnail galleries and the such). I only got started on the documentation on their web site and will try to read up more on it tonite. The other program for image editing on linux I found was flPhoto. It looks pretty basic, but it's good to have if your job doesn't require all the power of the Gimp or Photoshop (like if all you need is to rotate a few pictures or rename a whole bunch in a directory and you don't feel like using command line tools). Speaking of the GiMP...I tried to download their developer's version, but it wouldn't install on my system..I guess I am missing GLib, or maybe I have the wrong version, I'll have to look into it some more. I am hoping that they have improved the interface a bit in the new version. I think it's a powerful program and a good replacement for Photoshop, but the interface is a bit clunky. I would like to have everything in one window..I'm used to Photoshop, which is what we used in most of my classes.