Posts Tagged ‘Fitness’
Fitness: Getting Back on Track
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in Fitness Blog on January 13th, 2010
I’m going to publicly confess that I didn’t do all that great with my overall fitness toward the end of 2009 (and I mean more than just the usual holiday caloric free for all!). While Jan and I ran the half marathon in San Antonio, I focused on training for that to the exclusion of everything else. That was partly because of time – going out and running five miles and more at a stretch at an 11:30 pace can take a while! – but also because it was easier.
So, enough of “easy.” As of last week, I started P90X again, and upped the ante a bit by substituting Shaun T’s Insanity cardio workouts and running (when it’s not so darn cold!) for the P90X cardio workouts. I also decided to replace the Y0ga X workout with ChaLEAN Extreme Dynamic Yoga, which is an awesome Yoga workout. For me, the Yoga X workout is just too darn long, and while I love Tony Horton, I like Chalene Johnson’s rendition of kick-ass Yoga better (sorry, Tony!).
I’ve been exercising consistently – so far. I need to do better on the nutrition front, however: I’m cheating too much (especially at work!), and eating too many carbs and not enough protein. So I still need to get on top of that. But recognizing where your weaknesses are is half the battle.
For those who’d like to join me working out, I’m in WOWY most days around 4 p.m. EST. So let’s hook up for a virtual workout – just look for KWarrior.
In the meantime, if you want to learn a bit more about why this sci-fi/fantasy author thinks that it’s important to take precious time away from writing to work out, head on over to the other site my wife and I have at www.FitClubToday.com, which is dedicated to helping folks just like you reach your fitness goals (or get you to think about how being fit can totally change your life!).
And welcome to 2010 – get out there and make the most of it!
P90 and ChaLEAN Extreme: Change Your Life
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in Fitness Blog on February 16th, 2009
People have lots of different reasons for making changes in their lives. Sometimes we make changes just because we want to, other times we make changes because we’re forced to. And sometimes we need to make changes, but because change is often difficult, we don’t.
In my case, I needed to change the way I was treating my body. While I wasn’t terribly overweight (although I wasn’t exactly a lean, mean machine), my world view changed with the blood test taken as part of a routine physical last year: my cholesterol was over 300 (shouldn’t be over 200), with a triglyceride level that was just over 1200 (which shouldn’t be over 150!). That’s bad. Very bad.
I had always had marginal cholesterol, but that took the cake. I think it scared my doctor more than me. I had tried some medications before, but they didn’t seem to work very well. But that was because I couldn’t be bothered with changing other aspects of my life.
So, I was a heart attack waiting to happen. Not good. It was time to do something about this. Read the rest of this entry »
