Month: February 2023

Today was, if nothing else, busy.  Morning workout was a Circuit/Core Work day, with a 25 minute Circuit workout with a Circuit completed Every Minute on the Minute in that 25 minutes.  My arms were totally done by the end because of how many push-ups I had done.  I couldn’t quite finish a circuit in a minute because of the push-ups, but I just kept going as fast as I could to get as many rounds as I could in the 25 minutes.  5 rounds later, I had completed 77 push-ups total.  That’s really good when compared to the knee push-ups I was doing a couple of attempts ago!  After that was a bunch of core work, mostly planking in different positions and some Seated Russian Twists.  Felt pretty good altogether by the end, tired physically but feeling successful too.

Had to attend to some appointments and errands, and brought the rest of my challenge books and effects with me as there was going to be some wait time.  Got most of it done with it all spread out the way it was, so only had to do my Gratitude Journal when I got home, and this blog post of course.  Felt good to not have to finish it up after dinner for once!

Also had to get an hour-long Ruck in, with a 15 pound pack on!  This, honestly, is one of my least favorite tasks right now, because the pack does just get heavy after a while, and I’d prefer to talk unencumbered, but I can’t have it all my way, that’s for sure!  I got it done and ventured out onto the nature trails a little bit at my favorite park, which was nice for the change of scenery.  Was a bit breezy today, but otherwise still nice to get outside.

While there, I needed to make my social call today and called one of the older friends I have.  I’ve known him for close to 20 years now and he’s one of the few people I enjoy still being in contact with.  There are a number of people from my distant past that I don’t think would be the best influence or healthy for me, so I’m not interested in reconnecting with them, but that’s not the case with this particular friend.  He’s always been kind and caring, asks good questions because he cares, takes an active interest in what you are doing, etc.  He’s always had a great sense of humor as well, which is great.  It felt good talking to him again, to know that I have a good friend like him around, even if he lives across the country.

Altogether, as you can see, it was just a Good Feeling Day!

OK, so the title is exactly what today was, a roller coaster of a day.  There was good, there was a little bad, and there was a whole lot going on today.  Morning workout went well enough, being shoulders day.  Had the gym completely to myself for my entire workout, which was kind of nice and peaceful in its own way.

Got to the park and got my walk and exercises done later in the day without issue, but was a little crunched for time on the rest of my tasks compared to some days due to a few errands I had to run, shipping a package and dropping off a return, etc.  Still, overall, not bad.

Called a friend and he started talking about how he heard gunshots near his office and was outside checking things out…??  What??  No, man, you go back inside and stay safe!  LOL  He told me they weren’t that close and they are close to a rough area where you hear things like that every so often, but made my heart skip a beat for a second!

Once I got home from all that, had a nice lunch and then found out that one of the work projects we had needed to be redone a completely different way than how we did it yesterday, and already shipped it.  That’s a little frustrating and piled on the work a little, but that is something I can finish up over the weekend and get it out quickly enough.

Then I stuck my foot in my mouth with the beautiful Kat today and totally responded all aggressive to something that I didn’t need to, which made for a tense couple of moments…but I think we finally sorted it all out.

Then had some great reading moments in my book 12 Week Year, where I’m learning about how Greatness is achieved long before you are recognized for anything.  Once an athlete gets a gold medal, he has already been great for a while, just now he has received a reward for it.  Greatness happens the day you start making the necessary decisions to achieve your dreams and goals.  The day you decide your going to make it happen to matter what.  That is the day you achieve greatness!  Loved that!

Here’s to finding my way soon, to achieve Greatness soon!  The Deliberate Discomfort Challenge should be a big part of that, and I know our Experiencing God bible study is already keeping us in the right direction too, so hopefully we see some solid improvement when they are both all said and done, you know?

Anyways, lots of other great little moments in there, and plenty of other rough little patches in there as well, so it was just one of those kind of days…thus it being dubbed The Roller Coaster.

Had a pretty great day today!  Morning workout was legs, which wears me out at the time, but then they feel pretty good all day so long as I keep them moving.  If I get to just sitting for hours they can stiffen up a little, but honestly they haven’t been bad lately with that either.  I know I’ve been hydrating well for the last week and a half, as I’ve been tracking it in my Fitbit app, and am almost always reaching my goal of 64 ounces, frequently getting in the 90 to 100 ounces range per day. That probably is a good thing, as I’ve heard good hydration can help prevent muscle cramping, but I also don’t know how true that really is??

My afternoon workout was another Sprints day which I do at the gym on a recumbent bike (I’ve mentioned this before) and because of it got compliments from the gym owner for just rocking it on the bike.  He told me that if I keep that up, I’m guaranteed to get somewhere with my goals!  That was very kind of him, and was nice to hear, so it brightened my day a little.  Kat also told me how proud she was for sticking to my guns with this program and kicking butt with it (even if it does kick mine back every so often).  That also made my day extra wonderful.

Because my Sprints day was at the gym, I was able to just hang out at the park and get  a couple of my other tasks completed, talk to my beautiful wife for an hour and a half about all sorts of great, deep, wonderful subjects.  It was one of the more in depth and meaningful conversations we’ve had in a while where she wasn’t frustrated at my inability to listen.  That really felt good, and when I made that realization later in the day, like really sunk in, put a very large smile on my face because I know she feels listened to this time.  I’ve had a very bad habit of interrupting her with my own ideas, which has had her very frustrated with me at times.  Thankfully that’s not today, which feels really good.

As a bonus, I got all of my tasks completed by 8:45 pm tonight, so looks like I might be able to get a little extra sleep tonight, unlike the last 3 nights in a row of getting to bed after 11:00 pm.  That is a HUGE victory for me as I am starting to wear out a little with only 5 or so hours of sleep each night, so here’s hoping I get a little extra energy for tomorrow from the extra sleep!  Will be nice to get to bed Sooner Rather Than Later!

Day 9 is in the bag!  Got workouts done fairly well with morning workout completed in an hour and 15 minutes this morning, and a full hour walk.  Had a little less time today in between appointments having to ship a package.  Also had to get our little guy in for an additional appointment today, but I’m still getting it done!

Kat and I have been having a great time with our new Bible Study and the group we are in to do it with, as they are all such believers like we are, and we’ve all been connecting well through it.

The Mindfulness session this week is a single 10 minute session to listen to, which keeps it relatively easy for me, and I was able to watch my Master Class video while walking today which was great!  I tried to do it yesterday, but forgot to bring my Bluetooth headphones and just can’t bring myself to leave audio on full blast at a public location like that, it’s just disrespectful to the others in the park and the wildlife.

All in all it was a busy, but easy day!  Another day down!

So today is the first day in Week 2 of the Deliberate Discomfort program.  I get to start a new book after finishing the Deliberate Discomfort book last week.  For this week I’ve chosen 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington.  The first 3 chapters have been easy reading which I like in it’s own way, and have only touched the surface of what the rest of the book is to bring, but in general it is about maximizing your own potential and being able to get 12 months’ worth of tasks and stuff completed in 12 weeks.  Sounds like something I’d truly like to accomplish!

Today’s workout was mostly just a repeat of last Monday’s workout, outside of the extra push-ups I’m doing as my Bodyweight Exercise of Choice.  My first victory was the ability to just get on the floor and knock out 18 push-ups straight (8 for being day 8, and the first 10 for my warm up).  I remember when I first found this program I was only able to do 2 regular push-ups and then had to resort to knee push-ups because of how little strength I had in my arms and abs, so this is a massive improvement already for me.  At the beginning of this attempt at the challenge, even doing 8-10 in a row was a real challenge, so 18 straight felt good!

I also found, thanks to my wife, a Keeping Track check list page for my Tul notebook, which has been amazing to be able to just jot down all of my daily tasks for the challenge and any other accomplishments I want to do every day, and have a full weeks of check boxes to just check off and make sure I didn’t miss anything.  These pages have been invaluable!

The afternoon/evening had a few things that made us change plans, but I have to admit that I’m writing this much earlier in the evening (because I’m done with all of my tasks) than I have for the rest of the full 8 days!  That is a plus, and another Victory!

I’m thanking the Lord for my victories, and I’ll pray you have victories of your own soon as well.

Today was, truly, a very busy, very crazy day in some ways, but we owned it!

First of all Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings are church, which means that we only have about 4-5 hours left in the middle of the day to get stuff done.  Morning workout was able to happen before church began, which was great!

When we got home, we stopped for lunch, then I was off again for my cardio workout.  By the time all that was done, it was getting everyone ready to leave for church again as the Bigs had a Youth Rally to go do at church, which put us all at least half an hour sooner than expected.  After being there for our Bible study and then spending time waiting for the kids we found out great miracles were happening in the Youth Rally!

In addition to that, even with the shortage of time, I have been able to get all of my tasks completed, which although smaller than the miracles in the Youth Rally is a miracle on its own!

I’m so thankful for finding friendships in this new town and area, having a great Bible study group that we are totally connecting with and getting to know.  I’m thankful for getting all my tasks done, including both workouts and all the journal requirements, etc.  It’a ALL done!!!  Yay!

Also, the third miracle of the day…I’m finally back into it all emotionally!  Had a lot of reflection time at the gym today, and got some of it figured out.  Tomorrow should be easier to get motivated and get going, let’s see how I do, shall we?

On the overall, couldn’t have done it today without both God’s help, and my wife’s amazing support and love!  How amazing is that!  Thank you, Lord, for all the Miracles!

So, here I was thinking that my mood would improve from yesterday, and even though the day went well and I was still getting everything done, I still just wasn’t into it.  I still sort of working solely on autopilot today.

The morning workout  was another Circuit Training day with a series of planks and Seated Russian Twists for core work.  It wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t excited either…I think that was the problem, just wasn’t excited about anything.

Afternoon cardio was a 60 minute ruck with a 10 pound pack.  For this I went to my usual park, but chose to use the nature trails instead of the paved walking/running path.  This slowed me down some, so my distance was still 2.6 miles in 60 minutes, however it did provide a sense of variety which was nice.  Different paths, different scenery, and you’d be surprised how heavy 10 pounds feels after wearing for an hour!

Some of my time at the park got interrupted by a last minute errand, so I had to squeeze in some of my tasks later in the day that usual, but still got through it.  I’m getting  resourceful these days, making sure I watch my Master Class video while waiting for the children, etc.  Truly multi-tasking, which is not usually in my nature…so that part of me is a little surprising to find, but I like it!

I’m not getting quite as much work completed as I’d like, but I’m still at least getting some done…so there’s that.  I’ve also been able to make sure I don’t fall further behind, or fall behind to begin with on all of my bible studies, which feels good too!

Still, even though I’m feeling much better about it at the end of the day, like I can see how it was actually a really good day, I’m still trying to figure out the blah nature I felt this morning through mid-day.  Is it just tired?  Is it something else?  I don’t know, but I do know…The Struggle Is Real!  LOL

Have a great day friends!