Tag: Somerville

Workout Wednesday

Workout Wednesday – September 2013

Geoff W

2013 08-21 - No More Baby Smooth HandsWhen this publishes I will have worked out and/or walked for 47 days in a row! No clue why other than I don’t want to break the streak now that I’ve got one. I could also say part of it is this monthly recap which keeps me honest, but it could also be that I’ve started to actually see results.

Not only are my hands no longer baby smooth (my friend Caroline freaks out about that, but I just treat my hands properly or something), but I actually get blisters and they have callused from all the lifting and pull ups and other exercises. I don’t know how many inches I’ve lost overall, but my clothes are definitely starting to get too big (including my belts). I did measure inches at one point, but they were the same to I didn’t worry about it. However, the awesome news is that I’m hovering at about the 20-25lbs (9-11kg, 1.4-1.8st) lost mark since January. Which is very exciting, I have a personal goal for my high school reunion in October and it’s totally within reach.

Click here to continue reading, but I do have to warn you there is a picture of my feet…yeah.

Workout Wednesday

Workout Wednesday – August 2013

Geoff W

So obviously, this is not a Wednesday post, but oh well it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want! The main reason I started with the Workout Wednesday was because I liked the alliteration, but really the point of these was to do a one month check-in on my CrossFit as I move forward in my healthy journey or what not. It just happened that most of them fell on, or near, a Wednesday. This time it is closer to a Friday/Monday so I went with Friday.

This month has been sort of bust when it comes to CrossFit. (Holy shit it’s actually been five months.) Since my last post on July 10th, I’ve only been 5 times which is roughly once a week, but I have been making up for it by walking a lot. But this morning at CrossFit the coach asked if I was leaning out a bit while I was doing overhead squats. Me being me, was like ‘uh what am I doing wrong’ (this was right after he’d said I do great overhead squats with parallel body and below parallel squats), and he was like ‘no, leaning out – thinning out’. And my response was ‘OHHHHHHHH, sure I guess. I mean I have to see myself everyday’. And he just said that he could tell it in my face. So YAY for a Friday pick me up!

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Workout Wednesday

Workout Wednesday – July 2013

Geoff W

This is a VERY short update mostly pictures. Life’s getting complicated and well I don’t want to talk about it so you get pretty pictures and not a lot to read. I’ve described what the photos are in each photo. I’m not entering my fifth month of CrossFit and I’m still enjoying it and the challenges that it brings. Over the last week and a half I’ve almost walked a marathon distance (as in I went out specifically to walk, so not counting just walking to and from places). I’m going to try to stick with that sort of walking every week to support what I’m doing at CrossFit. In addition I finally splurged and bought the Map My Fitness App (it was on sale for $0.99) so hopefully that’ll keep me going. I’m not sure there was much benefit to it as they still have an ‘MVP feature’ you have to pay for a subscription for and I’m not doing that.

Went on this walk or a similar one in length and course four days last week. I’m going to try and create a 3 mile walk so I can do that one in the morning before work on my non-CF days.
My faithful New Balance minimus. I didn’t think I would like them, but I’ve finally gotten used to them and they’ve carried me through the 23+ miles I’ve walked over the past week and a half (+ CF one day so far).
I thought this was a bad day, but the days got worse! I’ve always been sweaty, but I’m redefining what it means to be a sweaty mess two-to-three days a week.
Don’t be too impressed it’s only 125lbs. We were doing the Clean and Jerk and I had a few moments to quick snap a picture.

On top of the exercising I’ve been relatively good about eating healthier and have stuck with salads for at least one meal a day four days a week! Which if you know me know that’s something shocking. I still don’t think they’re the best things ever, but I’m getting used to them and I’ve spaced out my other food throughout the day so I’m not hungry all the time anymore.

Cherry halves, I pitted and halved myself for salads.
The resulting salad: cherries, marinated steak, mixed greens and feta. Delicious.

Hopefully I’ll start to see different types of improvement with all this green stuff I’m eating 🙂 (Although, honestly, it’s not about the weight or inches lost. For me it’s about getting healthier and reaching my own personal goals.)

2013 Challenges, Books

Book 201: Homo Domesticus – David Valdes Greenwood

Geoff W

Once again, I have to say something about other Goodreads reviews that’s not very nice. Multiple people have compared this book to Dan Savage’s The Kid and although yes, they are comparable, they are not the same thing. Savage’s book focuses on the adoption process and this book focuses on wait for it, “a Same Sex Marriage” (see what I did there, I stole it directly from the subtitle). In addition there are people whinging about the plainness of this marriage. Aren’t all marriages boring to anyone not in it? I mean seriously people did you expect the craziness Valdes Greenwood alludes to when talking about the Dear Parent note of cosmopolitan and sex parties?

I’ve read this book once previously and when I found it in a box of old books when I was moving my mom this past winter I knew I wanted to re-read it again before I passed it on and I am glad I did. In addition it just further supports that my statement still stands: this is a better book than Savage’s The Kid.

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Updates

February 2013 Recap

Geoff W

2013 02-24 Snowy NightThis month flew by! I can’t believe how fast the month went and that it’s already March! The coolest thing this month was experiencing my very first BLIZZARD! If you want to see an awesome post with the dogs I live with click here. We’ve gotten a lot of snow off and on this month, but still not as much as the winter of 2010/11. To the right is a lovely picture I took Sunday night (Feb 24). Most of the snow is now gone after two solid days of rain.

On a random note I’ve made a couple of changes to my blog. I’ve added a few different ways of looking at the books I’ve read in the past. It’s no longer just by year, but you can now see by author and by series. I hope they are helpful to you, the readers, but mostly they’re there for me (assuming I remember to keep them updated).

In addition I realized when an author contacted me yesterday that I’ve had some pretty cool things happen since I started this blog so I created a sort of YAY ME! page which you can see here. I’ve called it ‘They Like Me, They Really Like Me!’ from that infamous Sally Field’s Oscar acceptance speech. I’m sure there are things missing, like my first ARC, and I hope there are more to come, but I thought it was kind of neat looking back. It’s amazing how social media has leveled the playing field between authors and readers.

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